Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA set the fastest lap in Wednesday’s opening practice for 24 Hours of Le Mans FP1 after Sebastien Bourdais late flyer.
Sixty-two cars took to the Circuit de la Sarthe for a three-hour session that proved both eventful and highly competitive, setting the tone for what promises to be an intense and closely fought WEC race weekend.
From the outset, the Hypercar class demonstrated blistering pace with multiple manufacturers pushing their machines to the limit.
Early in the session, reigning 24 Hours of Le Mans champion Antonio Fuoco in the No. 50 Ferrari AF Corse 499P LMH set a strong benchmark with an impressive 3m25.302s lap on his very first flying lap out of the garage.
This time was notably almost a full second faster than the best lap recorded during the previous Test Day, signaling that teams had made significant progress and were ready to challenge for top honors.
However, the session was not without its interruptions. Just ten minutes into FP1 a Full Course Yellow was deployed after the No. 150 Richard Mille Ferrari LMGT3 car got beached in the gravel, temporarily halting the momentum of the session.
Shortly after the restart, the No. 38 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R driven at the time by Earl Bamber, experienced a near-miss incident at the Ford chicane when the car spun off and narrowly avoided contact with an LMGT3 competitor while rejoining the track.
This incident led to some time lost and required repairs later in the session due to delaminated carbon fiber which kept the team busy in the garage.
Despite the setback, the No. 38 Jota Cadillac mounted a remarkable recovery. With 35 minutes remaining in the session local hero Sebastien Bourdais unleashed a stunning lap time of 3m25.148s, edging out Ferrari’s Fuoco by a fraction and putting the Cadillac on top of the time sheets.
Bourdais’s lap was only about half a second slower than last year’s pole position time, underscoring the competitiveness of the Hypercar field this year.
The Hypercar class was tightly packed, with just over half a second separating the top four manufacturers. Porsche’s Kevin Estre driving the No. 6 963 LMDh secured third place with a 3m25.568s lap set mid-session, while Toyota’s Brendon Hartley was fourth fastest in the No. 8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID LMH, posting a 3m25.702s on the car’s first flying lap.
The close competition among Cadillac, Ferrari, Porsche, and Toyota highlighted the depth and balance of performance in the Hypercar category.
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Further down the order Porsche Penske Motorsport’s two other 963 LMDh entries were competitive as well, with the No. 5 and No. 4 cars placing fifth and seventh respectively with Will Stevens splitting the duo in the second JOTA Cadillac.
Dries Vanthoor’s No. 15 WRT BMW M Hybrid V8, Paul-Loup Chatin in the No. 35 Alpine A424 and Neel Jani in the No. 99 Proton Competition Porsche rounded out the top ten in hypercar category, representing six different manufacturers all separated by less than a second.
In LMP2, Patrick Pilet topped Le Mans FP1 timesheets in the No. 16 RLR M Sport Oreca 07-Gibson with a time of 3:36.888, just 0.237s ahead of Nick Yelloly in the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca.
Meanwhile, Alex Quinn in the No. 45 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca took third.
In the LMGT3 class, Jack Hawksworth was quickest in the No. 78 ASP Lexus RC F GT3 with a 3:57.248. Davide Rigon was second fastest in the No. 54 AF Corse Ferrari, while Valentin Hasse Clot in the No. 10 Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 took third.
