24h Le Mans
The morning session of Test Day came to an end at 13:00. The 62 cars competing in the 90th 24 Hours of Le Mans (11-12 June 2022) have all been out to get their first taste of the track. The Toyota #7 came out on top but there were a few hiccups for some of the other cars.
At 9am, it was 17°C in Le Mans with a track temperature of 21°C. The Inter Europol Competition #34 Oreca 07-Gibson was the first car out of its garage, shortly followed by the 61 other cars entered for this year’s race. An important new feature for this year’s event is the 100% renewable fuel supplied by TotalEnergies, which all cars will be using. It is produced using French wine residues and enables a 65% reduction in CO2 emissions over its lifecycle.
Within the first half hour of the session, the Panis Racing #65 Oreca 07-Gibson lost a wheel while Julien Canal was driving it down the Mulsanne Straight. An incident that resulted in the only red flag of the morning. At 10:01, the Porsche GT Team #92 Porsche 911 RSR-19 driven by Michael Christensen came to a halt at Tertre Rouge Corner, plagued by driveshaft issues. Porsche GT Team had a difficult morning all round because at 11:18, the #91 steered by Gianmaria Bruni got caught in a spin and hit the tyre barrier at Mulsanne Corner. A few other cars ran off track during the session, including the AMR #98 and #777 Aston Martin Vantages but there were no serious incidents.
The cars in the Hypercar class (the top class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans) gradually showed what they are capable of. While the LMP2s set the fastest times in the first part of the session, at 10:48 the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid driven by Mike Conway recorded a lap time of 3:33.886. Then Brandon Hartley moved in front in the #8 with a time of 3:33.641. This shows that the Japanese constructor was using this first session to carry out various tests and adjustments before embarking on a series of timed laps. After multiple tweaks, the #7 Toyota ended the morning at the top of the timesheets with 3:31.626.
Meanwhile, the #8 Toyota completed the highest number of laps, going round the track a total 52 times.
#7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid – Toyota Gazoo Racing – 3:31.626
#708 Glickenhaus 007 LMH – Glickenhaus Racing – 3:31.735
#8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid – Toyota Gazoo Racing – 3:31.977
#709 Glickenhaus 007 LMH – Glickenhaus Racing – 3:32.622
#36 Alpine A480-Gibson – Alpine Elf Team – 3:32.793
LMGTE Pro #64 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R – Corvette Racing – 3:54.690
LMP2 #38 Oreca 07-Gibson – JOTA – 3:33.964
LMGTE Am #85 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo – Iron Dames – 3:55.678
The cars will be back on track from 14:00 to 18:00 for another four hours of track time. In the meantime, check out this gallery of pictures from the track and pit lane.
