Toyota beat Ferrari to the fastest time in the second practice session for the Le Mans 24 Hours on Wednesday night.
Kamui Kobayashi set a best time of 3m26.096s just seconds after the chequered flag dropped at the Circuit de la Sarthe to put the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid on top by over two-tenths of a second.
The first night session at this year’s Le Mans got off to a chaotic start, with the first 30 minutes featuring limited green-flag running.
Most notably, Kobayashi’s team-mate Nyck de Vries went over the kerbs at the Dunlop chicane and suffered a spin, leaving debris on track and prompting race control to trigger a full-course yellow.
The #44 Proton Oreca stopped on track at around the same time, before a problem for the #22 United Autosports LMP2 led to more double yellow flags around the track.
Amid the early drama, Brendon Hartley set the first sub-3m30s lap of the session in the #8 Toyota, before reigning champion Robert Kubica took over the top spot in AF Corse’s #83 Ferrari 499P.
WTR driver Filipe Albuquerque snatched the lead soon after, but the #83 AF Corse returned to the front at the end of the opening hour after Kubica posted a time of 3m26.316s.
#83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Yifei Ye, Robert Kubica, Philip Hanson
Photo by: Rainier Ehrhardt
The FCY was deployed again with 30 minutes to go due to an incident at the second marshal post, before Dries Vanthoor caused another stoppage when he spun the #15 BMW M Hybrid V8 at the Esses.
The #7 Toyota remained in the garage for the majority of the session following de Vries’ off, but the Japanese manufacturer sent the car back on the track in the final part of FP2.
In the final five minutes, Kobayashi dispatched the #83 Ferrari from the top with a time of 3m26.329s, before finding another two tenths on his final flyer to pull away at the front.
The #83 Ferrari, which failed to progress into Hyperpole in the evening, had to settle for second place, while the #101 WTR Cadillac held on to third, despite suffering an engine shutdown when Albuquerque rolled into the pitlane at the end of his stint.
Victor Martins propelled the #36 Alpine A424 to fourth place, hours after the sister #35 car topped the opening qualifying session.
Fifth went to the #12 Cadillac, but the Jota-run car didn’t have a smooth day, with Louis Deletraz slowing down towards the end of the session with technical problems.
Paul-Loup Chatin guided the #19 Genesis GMR-001 to sixth in the final minutes, leaving the #8 Toyota driven by Sebastien Buemi seventh on the timesheets.
Harry Tincknell ended up eighth in the #007 Aston Martin Valkyrie, while the top 10 was completed by the two BMWs – Sheldon van der Linde in the #20 M Hybrid V8 leading the sister #15 machine of Vanthoor by just over three-tenths of a second.
The two factory Ferraris ended up 11th and 16th, with Nicklas Nielsen the fastest among the two in the #50 car.
Panis fastest in LMP2, BMW leads LMGT3
The #29 Forestier by Panis Oreca 07 led the way in the LMP2 class, courtesy of a 3m33.645s flyer from Louis Rousset.
The Frenchman’s time put him over a second clear of the chasing pack, led by the #4 CrowdStrike by APR Oreca driven by Laurin Heinrich.
AF Corse rounded out the top three, courtesy of a late flyer from Matthieu Vaxiviere.
In LMGT3, Darren Leung put the #32 WRT BMW M4 GT3 at the top of the timesheets in the first hour.
The Brit set a best time of 3m55.132s and ended the session over three tenths ahead of Rui Andrade in the #61 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3.
Richard Lietz propelled Manthey’s #92 Porsche 911 GT3 to third place, leaving the #10 McLaren 720S GT3 of Marvin Kirchhofer in fourth.
FP2
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