24h Le Mans
After yesterday's Fun Cup, and before Road to Le Mans Race 1 on Thursday 19 August, participants in the Porsche Sprint Cup Challenge and Endurance Racing Legends events took the track.
Legendary classics are making their big return to Le Mans! Thanks to the field in the Endurance Racing Legends event, the 24 Hours circuit is once again able to host iconic vintage cars despite having had to cancel the Le Mans Classic more than once due to the health crisis.
No less than 52 cars from the glory days of endurance racing in the 1990s and 2000s hit the track today for the only free practice, from 12:25 to 13:10. In the Proto B class, the session was dominated by the Dallara SP1 driven by James Cottingham who clocked a time of 3:47.021. The 2002 prototype hasn't aged a bit. Darren Turner and his 2007 Aston Martin DBR9 topped the timesheet in GT1B with a time of 3:53.004. Emmanuel Collard (24 participations in the 24 Hours) finished the session in first position in GT1A at the wheel of a 1997 Porsche 911 GT1. His time, an impressive 3:55.254, put him in fifth place overall. Other former drivers, such as Martin Short (second with a 2002 Dallara SP1) and Éric Hélary (11th with a 2000 Dodge Viper GTS-R 2000) also took part in today's free practice.
The start of the qualifying session at 18:00 was the kickoff to a stunning show. Darren Turner at the wheel of the #9 2007 Aston Martin DBR9 was first to come in under four minutes, a performance quickly echoed by Mike Newton in a 2004 Lola-MG EX257. Twelve minutes from the end, the 2001 Dallara SP1 of Florent Moulin widened the gap to five seconds from his immediate pursuer. Other competitors came close, but only Shaun Lynn proved capable of chasing down the French driver. Two contenders for victory, Emmanuel Collard and James Cottingham, did not participate in the session.
Qualifying Top 5:
Competitors will hit the track for the first race tomorrow at 10:30.
Qualifying for both Road to Le Mans races took place this morning. For Race 1, the start of which will be given this evening at 19:30, Laurents Hörr scored the LMP3 pole in 3:44.352 driving DKR Engineering's #3 Duqueine. After dominating yesterday's two free practices, Pzoberer Zürichsee by TFT's #2 Porsche qualified with a time of 3:54.392 thanks to Julien Andlauer.
For Race 2, the start of which will be given on Saturday at 10:15, qualifying ended with as LMP3 pole-sitter another Duqueine, the #21 fielded by Mühlner Motorsport, thanks to Moritz Krantz's time of 3:47.389. In GT3, Ferrari and the Iron Lynx team came out on top as a result of Rory Penttinen's time of 3:57.721 in the #8. The session was interrupted by a red flag three minutes from the end after an incident for DKR Engineering's #1 Duqueine in the Porsche Curves.
A first free practice was held on Thursday morning for the Porsche 911s. Girardot and Rainford led Lilou Wadoux. The final free practice is set for Friday at 09:00 ahead of qualifying at 12:00.
