After the lunch break the teams and drivers set back out on track at a wet circuit at Le Mans for the afternoon test session. Porsche once again set the pace and confirmed that records will be beaten in this years 83rd running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Porsche once again topped the time sheets, this time with the #17 919 Hybrid. Times also tumbled, with the time at the top of the table – a 3:21.061 – beating last years pole time already at the end of test day. Porsche also claimed second spot with the #19 car 1.261 seconds off the the sister car’s time. Audi kept the pressure on their fellow German rivals just. The #7 Audi was just two tenths off of the second placed Porsche. Audi came in fourth fastest as well in the #8 car. Just over two seconds behind the fastest Porsche was the slowest of the Porsches, the #18 car. Toyota came in 7th and 8th again, but this time the #1 ahead of the #2. Twelve seconds off the fastest Porsche time, the #12 Rebellion Racing car was the fastest of the privately entered LMP1 cars. The fastest of the Nissan’s languished down in 27th position with the #22 car. The ByKolles car didn’t manage to set a time.
Their were seven different model of car in the top seven in LMP2. Murphy Prototypes set the fastest time of a 3:42.405 in their Oreca 03R powered by Nissan. TDS’s Thiriet effort was second fastest in the newer Oreca 05 nine tenths back. Jota managed the third fastest time two tenths back from second place in class in their Gibson.
At the top of the GTE classes was the #97 Aston Martin of Bell, Turner and Mucke. 1.1 seconds back from the V8 Vantage was the fastest of the Corvettes. Ferrari posted the third fastest time in class in the #71 car, again making it three different manufactures at the top of the class.
Although the top three in GTE-PRO were all different cars, the top three cars in GTE overall were not. Third fastest in GTE overall was the AM effort of the #98 Aston Martin driven by Mathias Lauda, Paul Dalla Lana and Pedro Lamy. Gulf Racing’s Porsche 911 was second in class a couple of seconds back. AF Corse claimed third in class under a tenth behind the Porsche 911.
They day ended with Porsche’s the top three fastest in the 17, 18 and 19 cars respectively. The cars will be out on track next on Wednesday the 9th of June for the first practice session ahead of the opening qualifying session later in the evening.
Images: Walter Schruff (WEC-Magazin)