The warm-up is a free practice session that takes place in the morning before the race. While it was abandoned in Formula One in 2003, it has been maintained at the 24 Hours of Le Mans where the cars undergo a pretty comprehensive overhaul between qualifying and the race. The 45-minute session is therefore used to check that the engine, brakes and other vital components are working as they should be. It is also the only opportunity to tweak the cars’ settings in the cooler temperatures that the cars will encounter on Sunday morning. At 9 a.m. it was just 17°C at the circuit, which is ten degrees lower than during the Wednesday and Thursday evening sessions.

The best lap time was set by Kazuki Nakajima (#9 Toyota) with 3:18.308, a pointer to the pace that the race leaders are likely to adopt this afternoon. Elsewhere, Graff Racing’s #39 Oreca ran into problems with its accelerator pedal sensor and Idec Sport Racing’s #17 Ligier hit a wall while Paul Lafargue was at the wheel. Both cars were able to make it back to the garages so hopefully there was no serious damage for either of them. Next stop — the starting grid for the 24 Hours of Le Mans at 15:00!

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Photo: Paul Lafargue (Ligier) hit the wall in the new portion of the circuit.