audi.heures
Photo courtesy of David Lord/Dailysportscar.com

The 60 cars due to take the start of the 84th running of the third round of the FIA World Endurance Championship have now completed eight hours of practice on the 13.6km Circuit des 24 Heures track. 

Here are the highlights from the afternoon session: 

  • Audi Sport’s Lucas Di Grassi set the fastest time of the day just before the half way mark of the afternoon session. The No.8 R18 lapped the track in a time of 3:21.375. 
  • The gaps between the Porsches and No.7 Audi were very tight behind the WEC 6 Hours of Spa winner, with the two Toyota TS050 HYBRIDS – running with their Le Mans aero kits for the first time – in close contention. 
  • Rebellion Racing’s No.13 R-One AER continued to lead its team mate and ByKolles Racing, the latter giving Pierre Kaffer plenty of seat time as he makes his return to the WEC for the first time this season. 
  • It remains extremely close between all the LMP2 competitors, with Signatech Alpine, the No.26 G-Drive Racing and the second G-Drive entry (No.38) in close succession behind ELMS entrant Eurasia Motorsport. Manor and KCMG both put in strong performances – the first on its debut at Le Mans and the second on its return to the LMP2 category. 
  • After technical issues kept both the AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTEs (No.51 and 71 in LMGTE Pro) in the garage for long periods this morning, the two were running more smoothly in the afternoon session. Gimmi Bruni’s No.51 was the fastest of the WEC entrants, 5th in the category with only one second separating the top ten in class. 
  • Chevrolet Corvettes topped the time sheets in LMGTE Pro and Am, with WEC entrant Larbre Competition stopping the clocks at 3:57.999 to set the fastest time of the day in the Am class. The No.50 Corvette C7 ZO6 was circulating in the hands of Yutaka Yamagishi, Pierre Ragues and – for this test day, in place of the injured Paolo Ruberti – Nicky Catsburg and Jean-Philippe Belloc. 
  • There was one red flag period to extract the Krohn Racing entry from the gravel, and the session was concluded 28 minutes early after another LMP2 competitor impacted the barriers hard which required repairs taking longer than the time available.  
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