24 Hours of Le Mans: Ferrari dominates Toyota in qualifying practice, Porsche leads free practice 2

It’s a successful comeback for Ferrari. After half a century of absence from the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Italian team placed its two single-seaters in the lead in qualifying this Wednesday evening. The n°50 single-seater (Fuoco – Molina – Nielsen) thus finished first in the classification of this session (3’25″213), ahead of the n°51 (Calado – Giovinazzi – Guidi). What cause scenes of great joy in the stand of Cavallino Rampantewhich should therefore play the leading roles in the Hyperpole on Thursday.

In front during free practice, Toyota had to settle for the next two places. #7 (Conway – Kobayashi – Lopez) is third, just ahead of #8 (Buemi – Hartley – Hirakawa). Then come the two Penske Porsches and the two Cadillacs, also qualified for the Hyperpole. The two Peugeot 9X8s failed to take their ticket, finishing 10th and 11th.

In recent editions, the 24 Hours of Le Mans has often turned into a duel at the top between the two cars of the Japanese brand. The competition has greatly increased this year with the arrival of Cadillac, Peugeot, Porsche and especially Ferrari.

Porsche dominates night practice

In the evening, Porsche set the best time in Free Practice 2. It was the n°6 of Laurens Vanthoor who finished ahead of everyone in 3’28″878. Behind, we find the AF Corse Ferrari n°51 and the other Porsche No. 5. Summary of the day: Toyota dominated EL1, Ferrari in qualifying, and Porsche in EL2.

The classification of the qualifying tests

1. Antonio Fuoco – Miguel Molina – Nicklas Nielsen (ITA-ESP-DEN/Ferrari 499P N.50/Hypercar)

2. Alessandro Pier Guidi – James Calado – Antonio Giovinazzi (ITA-GBR-ITA/Ferrari 499P N.51/Hypercar)

3. Mike Conway – Kamui Kobayashi – Jose Maria Lopez (GBR-JPN-ARG/Toyota GR010 – Hybrid N.7/Hypercar)

4. Sebastien Buemi – Ryo Hirakawa – Brendon Hartley (SUI-JPN-NZL/Toyota GR010 – Hybrid N.8/Hypercar)

5. Dane Cameron – Michael Christensen – Frédéric Makowiecki (USA-DEN-FRA/Porsche 963 N.5/Hypercar)

6. Felipe Nasr – Mathieu Jaminet – Nicholas Tandy (BRA-FRA-GBR/Porsche 963 N.75/Hypercar)

7. Sebastien Bourdais – Renger Van Der Zande – Scott Dixon (FRA-NED-NZL/Cadillac V-Series.R N.3/Hypercar)

8. Earl Bamber – Alex Lynn – Richard Westbrook (NZL-GBR-GBR/Cadillac V-Series.R N.2/Hypercar)

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16. David Heinemeier-Hansson – Oliver Rasmussen – Pietro Fittipaldi (DEN-DEN-BRA / Jota N.28 / 1st in LMP2)

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39. Lilou Wadoux – Alessio Rovera – Luis Perez Companc (FRA-ITA-ARG/Ferrari 488 GTE EVO N.83/1st in LMGTE AM)

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