24 Hours of Le Mans – Free Practice 2: Porsche shines in the night

From the first few minutes, in the Hypercar category, Ferrari chose to make its mark, following its best time in qualifying sessions. Specifically, it was the car number 51 driven by Alessandro Pier Guidi, ahead of Paul di Resta in the Peugeot and Mike Conway in the Toyota car number 7.

Behind, in LMP2, the first reference was set by Simon Pagenaud, driving the Cool Racing No. 47. This second free practice session was also supposed to be beneficial for Alpine, which failed far behind in qualifying (especially due to the contact between the No. 36 of Matthieu Vaxivière and the United Autosport No. 22).

Finally, in GTE-Am, this first part of the session was put under the (temporary) authority of Proton Competition, with the Porsche No. 911. The Nascar No. 24, meanwhile, remains faster than the GT cars as Jenson Button, with a pace of 3’32, was already three seconds ahead.

This second practice session was also going to be very important for Peugeot: the major reliability issues seem to have been resolved and the 9X8s are capable of completing quite a few laps.

The fall of night changes the game in terms of everyone’s rhythms. The change in grip does not seem to disturb Ferrari, which placed its two 499Ps in the Top 5. The Porsches, especially Frédéric Makowiecki’s No. 5, seemed to be performing well, even though their lap times were four seconds off the previous benchmarks.

In this first hour, it was also worth noting the top speeds:

-In Hypercar, Ferrari No. 51 and Peugeot No. 94 jointly held the record of 339.12 km/h, even though the displayed speeds were not those of the qualifying sessions.

In the LMP2 category, two cars also reached their maximum speed: the Jota No. 28 and the Inter Europol No. 34 had reached up to 321.96 km/h.

Finally in GT, the AF Corse No. 54 reached a speed of 303.03 km/h. On the other hand, the Nascar No. 24 stood out with its 310 km/h.

The session was momentarily disrupted by the breakdown of Dane Cameron’s Porsche No. 5, just as he exited the pits, and the Cadillac from Action Express Racing (No. 311), which was able to immediately return to the pits. Each seemed to be affected by an electrical issue.

A last studious hour

At the halfway point of the session, the lap times did not significantly drop. The AF Corse LMP2 No. 80 was slowing down at the exit of the Porsche corners. On the other hand, the Peugeot No. 94 came to a stop right in the middle of the pit lane, just as Gustavo Menezes was about to exit.

Everything was going well, however, for Laurens Vanthoor, who snatched the best time from the Ferrari N°51, with a mere tenth of a second difference, in 3’29”157.

The tricolored LMP2 clan also appeared to be performing better: the Alpine No. 36, with half an hour to go, was in 6th position, over a second behind the Prema No. 63. The other blue car, on the other hand, remained in a discreet 17th place.

In GTE-Am, teams have stepped up their pace: this is the case for Iron Lynx, whose Porsche No. 60, driven by Matteo Cressoni, achieved a time of 3’54″080, 92 milliseconds ahead of another Porsche, No. 56 from Project 1- AO.

The Nascar is, for its part, in a no-man’s land between two categories: with its lap time of 3’51”, it follows the last LMP2 cars by about seven seconds, and is three seconds ahead of the first GT cars.

At the end of this session, Porsche responded to Ferrari by securing the best time, which was also improved by two tenths (3’28″878). Is this a sign of a legendary battle in the Hyperpole?