Warm-up without significant problems

It was a simple warm-up for the 24-hour race of Le Mans, without big problems for some of the 60 teams.

Cetilar Villorba Corse #47 was out to test their rebuilt car. We had a brief talk with the driver Roberto Lacorte, who said that the right rear-suspension broke on the straight with 326 kph, hitting the armco without braking. It was with Giorgio Sernagiotto behind the wheel, luckily he was unscathed from the accident. But all the suspensions and bodywork on the car were replaced on Friday. The car drove 11 laps in today’s warm-up and set fourth fastest time of all the LMP2 teams. So it seemed to work fine again.

Porsche #94 was also out to drive again, after Sven Müller’s accident on Thursday. They got nine laps and was up to 7th position in the GTE Pro class.

Toyota Gazoo Racing was the two fastest cars, with laptimes around 3:18. It was a little unsettling that the third fastest car was DragonSpeed #10 with 3:23, ahead of SMP Racing #17 and Rebellion Racing #1. Let’s hope that the gap in the race won’t be five seconds per lap, or else Toyota Gazoo Racing would have overlapped everyone after only two hours!

Jackie Chan DC Racing #34 was the fastest in LMP2, which was the quickest time the car has driven this week. It was with Ricky Taylor behind the wheel. Signatech Alpine Matmut #36 and G-Drive Racing #26 were also at top three. Actually, the top four in LMP2 consisted of Ligier, Alpine (ORECA), ORECA, and Dallara. It doesn’t mean anything, since it was only a warm-up, but it would be nice if it was the real picture in the race.

Ford Chip Ganassi Team USA #69 was the fastest in GTE Pro, in front of all AF Corse Ferraris. The Porsche cars almost lined-up right after each other after them, while BMW was also up in the midfield and mixed up with the Corvettes. Aston Martin has gotten a bit more turbo pressure since qualifying. Marco Sørensen improved #95 car’s best laptime with a second, compared to the qualifying and it gave them 3 kph extra in the top speed.

I GTE Am, Keating Motorsports Ferrari #85 was the quickest, ahead of Gulf Racing UK Porsche #86 and Spirit of Race Ferrari #54. Ebimotors Porsche #80 with Christina Nielsen took it slow and steady and only drove four laps, which were all hers. In total she has driven 36 laps in the car during the week, and is the driver with most laps.

The race will start at 15.00 CET as always.