It’s finally here. The 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans is finally upon us, and with it come the return of Mercedes and of course Aston Martin. Both will be hoping for a great return, Mercedes for one without any cars going flying. But overall, it’s a race dear to my heart and this year I’m going to bring you all the action.

As the session began, the #51 Ferrari of Alessandro Pier Guidi would run into issues almost immediately in Hypercar, losing valuable time for its drivers to gain setup knowledge after a turbo issue. The crucial rule in play stipulates that in order to take part in the Night running a driver must have five laps under cover of darkness. These will be completed either tonight or Thursday’s FP3 session.

The early pace setters were the #83 AF Corse after a strong performance in qualifying just hours earlier, with the #50 Ferrari and Jota’s #12 Cadillac filling out the top three places in Hypercar. LMP2 was headed by #22 of United Autosports, with LMGT3 going the way of the Akkodis ASP Lexus pairing of Petru Umbarescu and Jack Hawksworth. Meanwhile in LMP2 Jamie Chadwick became the latest woman to compete at Le Mans, already with a European Le Mans Series win as part of a rapidly burgeoning sportscar racing career.

There was significant news that came in before the session, as the #6 Porsche Penske, certainly one of the race’s big contenders was moved to the back of the Hypercar field, having passed through yellow flags at full speed. Incredibly it promoted the #009 Aston Martin of Marco Sorensen into fifteenth, and thus Aston Martin will have a car in tomorrow’s Hyperpole session. Meanwhile the #37 Pure X Racing LMP2 had small moment through the Porsche Curves, with Alex Malykhin hopping over the grass at Karting.

In happier news for Mercedes, their #61 car had been running well. Already locked into LMGT3 Hyperpole, it rose up to fifth place during the first hour of FP2. As for another Le Mans debutant, the #193 Ziggo Sport-Tempesta Racing Ferrari there was a slight mix-up in the pits. No significant harm was done, but the there was a moment of rare tension amongst the mechanics.

In Hypercar, a few cars were noted for breaching pit lane speeds. Most notably the #83 Ferrari and #12 Cadillac. The #37 had a nose change, while more substantial changes were made to the #63 and #61 Mercedes which underwent significant re-assembly in the garage.

A red flag then came out for considerable debris over the stretch between Mulsanne and Indianapolis, caused by the increasingly troubled #6 Porsche’s front right tyre having a blowout on that part of the course, the car effectively done for the night. Also, the Aston Martin #007 developed clutch issues late on in the session as the #83 still led overall in the Hypercar category.

Of the other manufacturers, Peugeot lifted their spirits with the #93 making the top ten, BMW also had both their cars classified within the top eight and Aston Martin’s Marco Sorensen continued his amazing weekend by putting his #009 Aston Martin inside the top eleven runners.

LMP2 meanwhile saw good running from the hotly tipped Spike the Dragon of AO Racing, their #199 car setting the fastest time of either LMP2 or LMP2 Pro/Am with United Autosport’s #2 and the #3 of CLX – Pure Racing also setting quick times.

LMGT3 meanwhile was dominated by the Akkodis ASP Lexus duo still running one-two in that category, the order virtually unchanged throughout the FP2 session. Manthey and Kessel Racing were also up there with the #92 Porsche and #57 Ferrari running third and fourth in what proved a pretty uneventful session for the GT runners.

That’s a wrap on an admittedly rather impromptu FP2 report, but nonetheless the hype is now well and truly real! I’m beside myself with excitement, but with all of Thursday still to run the week-long event still has plenty of stories to unfold before the big one on Saturday at 4pm.

thumbnail credit – Lukas Raich, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons