The Grand Prix of Endurance is back, the City of Le Mans preparing to become motorsport’s ultimate battleground for the 94th time. Having defeated the defacto Kings of Le Mans and banished Porsche to the USA, Ferrari seek a fourth consecutive crown for the first time since 1964. Yet with the field having closed the performance gap and arriving hungrier than ever, it will be no easy task for the Scuderia – but it never has. Who will emerge from the Porsche curves at 4.00pm on Sunday? It’s time for the oldest endurance test of them all to begin… 

Hypercar

Continuing a slow improvement from Wednesday, it was BMW who came out in force to take the top spot as they head into Hyperpole, aiming to take their first ever overall pole at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

A late charge from Dries Vanthoor saw the #15 entry top the timings after threatening to do so all week, with his 3.23.302 enough to secure the top spot as late push laps from others were hampered by traffic. It’s the first time BMW have taken top spot all week, and with the sister #20 car fourth they head into Hyperpole with the form book behind them.

Alpine continued to show their rapid pace, as Le Mans rookie Victor Martins went second quickest in the #35, splitting the two Bavarian works cars, while Cadillac’s best was the #12 that had led the majority of the times in the three hour session.

As with Wednesday, Genesis showed they have serious pace over one lap, with Mathieu Jaminet climbing to fifth in the #19, even setting the fastest first and second sectors at that point in the session and was on course to set the fastest lap of all before aborting late on. The Korean manufacturer have both their cars in the top ten, as the sister #19 entry beat both Peugeots and the Aston Martin and Toyota pairings, all of which failed to make the top half of the order.

Ferrari has struggled for pace since the start of the test day, the #51 being the best entry down in ninth, behind the #101 WTR Cadillac in eighth.

The Toyota and Aston Martin duos completed the top fourteen, with Peugeot and the #83 filling the bottom three spots as they had in qualifying yesterday evening.

LMP2

In LMP2, Ollie Gray was quickest for Forester Racing by Panis, the #29 at one point having over a second on the field, before Julien Andlauer set a time just 0.001 slower as the #30 Duqueine entry chaing lap time ahead of defending their provisional pole scored last night in Qualifying.

Inter Europol’s two cars also ran well, with the #343 of Rashad De Gerus up to fourth during the second hour and staying there, while the #14 TDS and #24 of Nielsen Racing also found themselves in the top seven.

After finding the gravel trap yet again in Free Practice, the #4 Crowdstrike Racing entry would finish the session sixth ahead of fellow Pro/Am challengers AF Corse, with the #183 0.07sec behind in eigth.

As with Wednesday, LMP2 brought the attrition, as Horst Felix Felbermayr found out at the Porsche Curves. Losing the rear under braking, the Austrian driver hit the barriers side on. picking up significant damage that brought out the longest slow zone of proceedings.

Meanwhile the #37 took over an hour and forty minutes to set a lap time, remaining in the pits for the majority of the session before releasing Ian Aguilera onto the track.

Valerio Rinicella had impressed in the #28 IDEC Sport entry upon his first running yesterday but found the gravel trap on his outlap, and then ran wide again on his subsequent pit-entry, the crew losing time to repair the damage sustained.

The biggest drama of the three hour session came late on, as the #222 Pro/Am car of United Autosports hit the barriers hard at the Ford chicanes with 29 minutes to go, bringing out the red flag as Daniel Schneider gave his mechanics something of a repair job. It would not return to the track as the team prepared for Hyperpole in just under 2 hours.

LMGT3

Unusually, LMGT3 saw two cars sharing the quickest time early on, with Alessio Rovera’s #21 and the Lexus of Clemens Schmid setting an identical 3.54.782, becoming the first two to break the 3.55 barrier.

That wouldn’t last for long as Schmid went out again, stealing a 0.6sec advantage en route to an eventual third in the timings sheets with the #21 slipping to ninth.

Up front it was the Aston Martin, as Eduardo Barichello soared the #23 up to top spot with a 3.53.728, two tenths to the good of Augusto Farfus in the #32 BMW M4 GT3 Evo.

Splitting the Lexus pair would be another Ferrari, the #54 Vista AF Corsa Ferrari 296 GT3 of Francesco Castelacci taking fourth come sessions’ end, while sixth was the best of the McLarens, Marvin Kirchofer putting his #10 720S GT3 in sixth.

The best placed Porsche was the #92, in eighth, ahead of Rovera’s aforementioned Ferrari, the top 10 being completed by the other #69 BMW of Dan Harper.

Corvette struggled, with a best placement of sixteenth for the works TF Sport #33 while both Proton Ford Mustang GT3s also suffered similar fates.

Hyperpole begins at 8.00pm local time.

image credit: T GOUREAU, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons