Lone Star Le Mans – Free practice: Porsche and Ferrari go head to head
While night fell in France on Friday, the afternoon was in full swing in Austin, for the Lone Star Le Mans. The N°5 Porsche dominated Free Practice 1, while the two official Ferraris dominated the second salvo.
The 6th round of the WEC is underway: the Austin circuit brought together Hypercar and LMGT3 for the first free practice session on Friday.
The Hypercar class once again revealed how evenly matched the field was: the first free practice sessions were dominated by the Porsche No. 5 (Campbell/Christensen/Makowiecki), who had inherited the pole position in Spa. With a time of 1:53.574, the difference was clear with the next car, the unofficial Ferrari No. 83 from AF Corse (Kubica/Ye/Schwartzman), by four tenths.
Once again, French cars have lagged behind: the Alpines, three kilos lighter than in Sao Paulo, only achieved the 13th and 14th times, respectively car number 36 and car number 35. The Peugeots were also grouped together, but much further back: cars number 94 and number 93 finished a distant 16th and 17th.
Free practice 2 was much more dense in terms of gaps: the two official Ferraris dominated the time sheet. The No. 51 outpaced the No. 50, which is fighting for the title, and then the surprising BMW No. 20 (S. Van der Linde/Frinjs/Rast). The Toyotas, heavily penalized by the BoP, did no better than 6th (No. 8) and 10th places.
The news was not necessarily more cheerful for Alpine and Peugeot: on the Dieppe side, car No. 36 finished 12th and car No. 35 only 14th. On the Sochaux side, the 16th and 18th places of cars No. 93 and No. 94 suggest that the fight for the Hyperpole, tonight, is likely to be complicated, despite a more lenient Balance of Performance.
LMGT3: an order constantly disrupted
The GT category is as unpredictable as ever. The first practice session was dominated by a car that we finally see little at the front: the 296 GT3 No. 55 from Vista AF Corse took the lead, ahead of the two Ford Mustangs from the Proton team (in order of No. 88 and No. 77).
The Americans were prophets in their own country: Corvette took the lead in the second free practice session, with N°82. But Ferrari was also in good shape, since the two Vista AF Corse cars ended up behind: N°55 missed out by just 43 thousandths, N°54 by 78 thousandths.
Among the good surprises, Akkodis and the Lexus No. 87 finished the FP2 in 4th place, even though the GT3 is very old.
The Iron Dames, in the Lamborghini No. 85, did not have an easy time: in FP1, they finished 17th, then 11th in the second session. The Porsche No. 92 from Manthey Pure Racing, leading the championship, finished 18th and last, then 15th.
Free Practice 3 will take place at 6 p.m. French time, and the qualifications at 10 p.m.
