Cadillac front and center in opening Le Mans 24 Hours practice

The three Cadillac V-Series.Rs had a strong showing to kick off the 94th 24 Hours of Le Mans race meeting, taking the top two, and three of the top four places on the leaderboard in Free Practice 1 on Wednesday afternoon.

Earl Bamber led the way for Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA as the two-time Le Mans overall winner led the way in the No. 38 V-Series.R. After taking the top spot with a time of 3m24.773, Bamber improved once more, setting a 3m23.786s to go quickest. But it wasn’t all perfect for the No. 38 JOTA Cadillac: Jack Aitken was sent out at the end of the session on a new set of soft tires, but then returned to the pits very slowly, and the session ended with the car on high jacks, with the floor removed and JOTA mechanics working frantically to fix an issue before the start of qualifying at 6:45pm local time.

Jordan Taylor in the No. 101 WTR Cadillac led most of the session and finished with the second-quickest time (3m25.348s), while the No. 12 JOTA Cadillac of Will Stevens (3m26.033s) timed in fourth fastest. Between the two trailing Cadillacs was René Rast in the No. 20 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 (3m25.533s).

Rounding out the top five was Ferdinand Habsburg in the No. 35 Alpine Endurance Team A424 (3m26.078s), ahead of Brendon Hartley in the No. 8 Toyota Racing TR010 Hybrid, who set his best lap (3m26.491s) on soft tires compared to the cars ahead, who turned their quickest laps on medium tires.

The No. 50 Ferrari AF Corse 499P, the No. 009 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie, the No. 17 Genesis Magma Racing GMR-001, and the No. 007 Aston Martin all rounded out the top 10 positions. Completing the most laps of all cars was the No. 15 WRT BMW, which turned 45 laps, but was 14th-fastest.

Last year’s winning car, the No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari, finished only 17th fastest out of 18 cars and brought out a full course yellow when Ye Yifei went off and into the tire barrier at Mulsanne Corner. Ye locked the brakes on approach and skidded sideways off course; it was a tough session for the No. 83 crew after Robert Kubica incurred multiple five-minute stop-and-go penalties for track limits violations.

Frédéric Makowiecki also hit late trouble in the No. 36 Alpine when he went off in the Tertre Rouge chicane, hit the left side of his car against the wall, and broke the suspension.

In LMP2, Doriane Pin stole the headlines late in the session as she turned the quickest time in class aboard the No. 30 Duqueine Team ORECA 07-Gibson, setting a 3m35.248s.

Her compatriot Kévin Estre went second fastest in the No. 14 TDS Racing ORECA (3m35.958s), which was also the top-ranked car in the LMP2 Pro/Am subcategory.

Genesis-backed rookie Valerio Rinicella finished up with the third-best time in the No. 28 IDEC Sport ORECA, ahead of the No. 99 AO by TF ORECA of Dane Cameron in fourth, and the No. 22 United Autosports ORECA of Grégoire Saucy in fifth.

The No. 9 Proton Competition ORECA completed only nine laps after Harry King lost control at Tertre Rouge, spun, and crashed, breaking the rear upright through the bodywork of the car. It spent most of FP1 under repairs. Early on, Bronze drivers Theodor Jensen (No. 37 CLX Motorsport) and George Kurtz (No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR) lost control in the Esses and beached their respective cars in the gravel to trigger Slow Zone interventions. Both cars continued with the remainder of their practices unimpeded.

And in LMGT3, Akkodis ASP Team’s Jack Hawksworth held on to the top spot, after setting a 3m55.737s early on aboard the blue and yellow No. 78 Lexus RC F LMGT3.

Team WRT’s two BMW M4 LMGT3 EVOs finished second and third – Augusto Farfus in the No. 32 a tenth behind Hawksworth, followed closely by Dan Harper in the No. 69, only one-thousandth of a second behind Farfus thanks to a late flying lap.

The No. 62 Team Qatar by Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG LMGT3 was fourth fastest in the hands of Julian Hanses, followed by the No. 34 Racing Team Turkey by TF Chevrolet Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R of Charlie Eastwood.

The most laps, as was the case on the Test Day, were completed by the #15 BMW, whilst the least were done by the No. 9 Proton Competition ORECA LMP2, aboard which Harry King ran wide at the exit of the Esses early on and brushed the barriers. It initially looked as if he had gotten away with it; however, a sheared rear upright had punched up through the bodywork, causing enough damage to end the car’s session.

Qualifying for all three classes consists of two 30-minute sessions, one for LMP2 and LMGT3, and a separate session for Hypercar, in which the top 15 cars in each class will advance to the two-stage Hyperpole qualifying tomorrow evening.

RESULTS