The 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans have begun. The first practice session of the weekend at the highlight of the WEC season took place on Wednesday afternoon. Toyota won the three-hour training session. The #8 car driven by Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa set the fastest lap. The Toyota completed the track in 3:26.013 minutes.
But not everything went according to Toyota’s wishes: Both of the Japanese hypercars were penalized for a slow zone violation and lost training time as a result. Overall, the session was without any major upsets, but it did record a number of minor slip-ups and numerous technical defects.
The biggest incident of the training was caused by Alex Lynn in the Cadillac #2. The Briton lost control of his V-Series.R on fresh tires in Tetre Rouge and hit the wall, causing the second and final interruption of the Le Mans training.
The first red flag was called out shortly after the #35 Alpine stopped at the pit exit after a technical problem. The A424 with Ferdinand Habsburg at the wheel was able to continue training later. At the same time, a GT3 car had to park in a dangerous place after a technical problem.
Hypercars: Jota-Porsche and BMW first Toyota pursuers
While the #8 Toyota had already set its best time earlier in the session, Dries Vanthoor in the #15 BMW set the second fastest time of the day with a run shortly before the end of the session, but the lap was disallowed due to a track limit violation. The BMW still finished in P3.
In the results table, the first Porsche was ranked second behind the #8 Toyota. This is the #12 customer car from Jota. The Spa winners lost 0.597 seconds to the Toyota on their fastest lap. The Proton Porsche #99 came in fourth. The factory Porsches held back in their pursuit of times and ended up in 15th and 20th place.
The #7 Toyota completed the top 5. The other places were taken by the #2 Cadillac, the #20 BMW and the #50 Ferrari, all of which were separated by only a few hundredths of a second. Alpine rounded off the top 10 with a solid LMDh debut in Le Mans. The #36 car, driven by Mick Schumacher among others, beat its sister car.
Just like the factory Porsches, Peugeot did not set any fast laps in the first practice session and ended up in P17 and P19. Lamborghini, which sees its first appearance at Le Mans with the SC63 primarily as a learning event, finished the first practice session in 21st and 22nd place, while the Isotta-Fraschini came in a long way behind in last place.
Le Mans 24h 2024, 1st practice – Result Hypercars
| Pos | No. | Team/Brand | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8th | Toyota | 3:26,013 |
| 2 | 12 | Jota Porsche | 3:26,610 |
| 3 | 15 | BMW | 3:26,671 |
| 4 | 99 | Proton Porsche | 3:26,891 |
| 5 | 7 | Toyota | 3:26,918 |
| 6 | 2 | Cadillac | 3:26,928 |
| 7 | 20 | BMW | 3:26,947 |
| 8th | 50 | Ferrari | 3:26,973 |
| 9 | 36 | Alpine | 3:27,430 |
| 10 | 35 | Alpine | 3:27,483 |
| 11 | 83 | AF Corse Ferrari | 3:27,513 |
| 12 | 38 | Jota Porsche | 3:27,661 |
| 13 | 3 | Cadillac | 3:27,672 |
| 14 | 5 | Porsche | 3:27,672 |
| 15 | 6 | Porsche | 3:27,679 |
| 16 | 51 | Ferrari | 3:27,737 |
| 17 | 93 | Peugeot | 3:28,354 |
| 18 | 311 | Whelen-Cadillac | 3:28,479 |
| 19 | 94 | Peugeot | 3:28,936 |
| 20 | 4 | Porsche | 3:28,959 |
| 21 | 19 | Lamborghini | 3:29,055 |
| 22 | 63 | Lamborghini | 3:30,747 |
| 23 | 11 | Isotta Fraschini | 3:33,983 |
GT3: Lexus at the top
The #87 Lexus of Akkodis ASP finished the session first in class in the LMGT3 class, ahead of two McLarens: the #70 Inception car and the #59 United Autsport car. The top five were completed by the #27 Aston Martin of Heart of Racing and the #86 GR Racing Ferrari.
In the LMP2 class, which will no longer be part of the WEC in 2024 but will only fill the starting field at Le Mans, #14 AO by TF secured the best time, followed by the #30 Duqueine Oreca and the #23 United Autosports car.
Training in Le Mans: Hardly any accidents, many defects
Apart from the impact of the Cadillac, the practice session was practically accident-free. However, there were a number of smaller excursions, each of which resulted in slow zones. Both the #65 Panis Racing car with Rodrigo Salas at the wheel and the #23 United Autosports car with Ben Keating both had an excursion into the gravel. Both situations led to short slow zones. As a result of one of these slow zones, the Isotta-Fraschini hypercar, which was running on slightly colder tires, spun. Towards the end of the session, the #155 Spirit-of-Race Ferrari and the #183 AF-Corse-Oreca broke down with different problems.
Le Mans 24h, Too fast: Both Toyotas penalized
Due to the disregard of slow zones, which had been declared by this series of incidents, the stewards handed out a series of penalties in the last 70 minutes of practice. The number 7 Toyota Gazoo Racing car was hit by a 5-minute pit stop penalty. Such penalties are standard in the WEC and although they have no effect for the rest of the weekend, the car in question loses some practice time.
At the time of the offence, Jose Maria Lopez was behind the wheel of the Toyota. The Argentinian will replace Mike Conway at the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans, who was injured in a cycling accident beforehand. The Isotta-Fraschini car was given the corresponding five-minute penalty twice due to two SZ offences.
With 50 minutes to go, Toyota’s Hypercar (#8) was also penalized for a slow zone violation. In the top class, the #99 Proton Porsche was also penalized for the same offense towards the end of the session. A number of cars from the lower classes (#44 AF-Corse-Ferrari, #70 Inception-McLaren, #183 AF-Corse-Oreca) were also found guilty of slow zone violations.