Le Mans FP2 sees Buemi Fastest for Toyota; Proton Ford Mustang tops LMGT3

Below are the main headlines from FP2 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, round four of FIA WEC.

Hypercar

Sebastien Buemi heads the times in No.8 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 Hybrid Hypercar as Wednesday’s running ends with two hour second free practice session at Le Mans

Four-time winner Buemi laps in 3m27.474s as teams work through a variety of run programmes in preparation for this weekend’s race

0.524s behind Buemi is 0.5s ahead of second placed AF Corse Ferrari with Robert Kubica at the wheel

Porsche Penske place third to make it three manufacturers in the top three positions as Kevin Estre sets the best time of the No.6 car on a 3m28.065s

The best customer Porsche is the No.12 Hertz Team Jota Porsche 963 which places fourth as Norman Nato stops clocks on 3m28.352s

But teammate Callum Ilott suffers Red Flag triggering accident exiting the Forest Esses on final lap of the session

No.36 Alpine A424 grabs fifth position with late time set by Nicolas Lapierre as Les Bleues continue excellent form to cheer home crowd

The second faster car in qualifying practice earlier, the No.3 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R, grabs sixth as Renger van der Zande sets best time in American entry

No.35 Alpine A424 Hypercar driven by Ferdinand Habsburg stops on the Mulsanne and brings out yellow flags but the returning Habsburg is able to get going again and continue. Car ends session in seventh position

The top ten in Hypercar is completed by the No.51 Ferrari AF Corse, No.7 Toyota GR010 and No.5 Porsche Penske 963

Qualifying practice hero Dries Vanthoor crashes No.15 BMW Hypercar at Indianapolis after sideways moment under braking. Car suffers front-end damage but Vanthoor manages to get car back to the pits for repairs

LMGT3

Dennis Olsen continues encouraging start to Le Mans for the Proton Competition squad as he heads the LMGT3 category in the No.88 Ford Mustang

Norwegian ace peaks on a 3m58.689s to ensure the Proton team complete second session in a row at the top of the timing screens

Olsen’s lap is a slender 0.027s ahead of the No.777 D’Station Aston Martin which sees Marco Sorensen achieve a 3m58.716s best

Team WRT sit third with the No.31 BMW M4 LMGT3 as Augusto Farfus claims best lap for the Belgian team

Top six in LMGT3 is completed by the No.82 TF Sport Corvette (Daniel Juncadella), No.46 Team WRT BMW(Maxime Martin) and No.60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini (Franck Perera)

No.33 JMW Automotive Ferrari stops on traffic in second hour but goes through power cycle and is able to continue back to the pits

No.86 GR Racing Ferrari manages exploratory lap after repairs made during the day after earlier technical issues struck in FP1

LMP2

Malthe Jakobsen sets the pace once again in LMP2 in the No.37 Cool Racing Oreca-Gibson and stops the clocks at 3m35.386

The Dane’s time is a full 1.1s faster than the No.22 United Autosports as Oliver Jarvis sets best time for the two car United squad

Panis Racing continue strong pace after making the Hyperpole session earlier. Scott Huffaker claims a quickest lap of 3m36.600s in yellow and black Oreca-Gibson. Panis are also the best placed Pro/Am entry in FP2

Fellow French team Duqueine Racing place fourth with James Allen posting the best time of the two-hour session

Rounding out the top six in LMP2 is the AF Corse entry and the Inter Europol Competition cars with Ben Barnicoat and Clement Novalak setting the best laps respectively

AO by TF Sport ‘Spike’ car, driven by PJ Hyett, stops at side of track at Indianapolis after appearing to lose the right rear wheel bringing out a slow zone as a result


FIA WEC