Le Mans Saturday Notebook

***The remaining 25 cars passed through scrutineering in the Place de la Republique in downtown Le Mans on Saturday, including the factory Penske Porsche 963s, the three AF Corse Ferrari 499Ps and the two Toyota GR010 Hybrids.

***Akkodis ASP substitute Jack Hawksworth showed up for scrutineering some time after teammates Takeshi Kimura and Esteban Masson, having made the trip overnight from Mid-Ohio. The British driver was seen wearing Kelvin van der Linde’s overalls, with van der Linde away on DTM duty at Zandvoort.

***Incidentally, Hawksworth had been in Europe late last month to test the as-yet unnamed 2026 Lexus GT3 car at Spa-Francorchamps.

***Elsewhere within the Akkodis ASP stable, Timur Boguslavskiy was not seen with his teammate in the No. 78 car, Arnold Robin. Team principal Jerome Policand revealed to Sportscar365 that Boguslavskiy was delayed getting through passport control.

***Toyota team director Rob Leupen described the decision to put Jose Maria Lopez in the No. 7 GR010 Hybrid over official reserve Ritomo Miyata as a “very simple one.” He said: “Ritomo has never driven here at Le Mans, and he is with Cool Racing. The other option was Jose. It’s because of his experience and [Miyata’s] lack of experience.”

***Leupen said working out who would replace Lopez at Akkodis ASP was a harder task, with both Miyata and Ben Barnicoat, Hawksworth’s fellow Lexus IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship full-timer, also under consideration. “We had options, Ben was considered, but he had other commitments [with AF Corse in LMP2]; Ritomo was considered. But thank God Jack arrived, just from Mid-Ohio.”

***Leupen confirmed that Miyata will turn “a few laps” in a GR010 Hybrid for the test day, and remains on hand should Toyota need a further stand-in. He added: “If Jose was not there, we would have put Ritomo in. But this is [theoretical].”

***Sportscar365 understands that Ferrari has filed an appeal about the outcome of last month’s 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. A hearing is set for Sept. 9, which is in between the Circuit of The Americas and Fuji rounds of the championship.

***Spokespeople from both Ferrari and FIA acknowledged the appeal when approached for comment by Sportscar365, but declined to go into specifics as to the contents of the appeal. Ferrari’s initial protest, issued on May 12, was thrown out as a stewards decision (which was used to restart and lengthen the race after the initial red flag) “can not be the subject of a protest under article 13.2.1 of FIA International Sporting Code.”

***However, the same stewards document states that “competitors are reminded that they have the right to appeal certain decisions of the Stewards, in accordance with 7.2.6 of WEC Sporting Regulations, Article 15.1.5 of the FIA Sporting Code and Article 9.1.1 and 10.1 of the FIA Judicial and Disciplinary Rules, within the applicable time limits.”

***Proton Competition’s No. 99 Porsche is decked out with a revised livery with lime green elements that are reminiscent of the Joest Porsche 962 that won the 1991 Rolex 24 at Daytona. Ironically, the scheme replaces the one used for the opening three rounds of the WEC season, which pays tribute to the 1994 Le Mans-winning Dauer 962 LM Porsche.

***Bent Viscaal, who is driving Proton’s LMP2 entry at Le Mans, told Sportscar365 that he is open to additional outings with the team’s GTP effort in the WeatherTech Championship, although he added that at present he is focusing on his European Le Mans Series commitments with the Christian Ried-led squad instead.

***Hertz Team JOTA’s Callum Ilott arrives at Le Mans fresh from contesting the Indianapolis 500, where he finished 11th for Arrow McLaren. The Briton joked that “I’ll have to remember to turn right sometimes!” as he makes his second Le Mans start and first since 2021, when he drove for Iron Lynx in the GTE Am class.

***On contesting two of the three Triple Crown races in the same year, he added: “The others racing in both aren’t here [for test day], so I’m the only one who gets to experience both events in full. To do it two very competitive cars as well is awesome.”

***Asked whether his future is more likely to lie in sports cars or single-seaters, Ilott replied: “IndyCar is officially done for the year, and the focus is now on Le Mans. Once we get this race out of the way, that’s when things will start falling into place.”

***Louis Deletraz, who is representing AO by TF Sport in the LMP2 ranks, believes that an expanded Hypercar field won’t make much difference to those in the secondary prototype class, but feels that GTE Am being replaced by LMGT3 could change the nature of how to negotiate slower traffic.

***Deletraz explained: “The LMGT3s have ABS, so they can brake into the corner and with a lower top speed they can brake a bit later anyway. It’s becoming more of a risk to overtake under braking now, we might have to overtake more on the straights, and it might be worth to lift and coast because they brake so late. The Test Day will be important for everyone to learn about this.”

***Roman De Angelis, who is making his LMP2 and Le Mans debut in Algarve Pro Racing’s Oreca 07 Gibson, will be keeping a close eye on one LMGT3 car in particular, given that his normal employer Heart of Racing Team is competing in the production-based class.

***De Angelis told Sportscar365: “It’s never good when your boss and your teammates are in another class and you have to pass them! So I have to behave myself a lot in traffic against those guys. Now I’m the problem so I have to be pretty careful about what I do. I don’t want Ian [James], Alex [Riberas] and Dani [Mancinelli] to be too upset with me. I’m going to give them tons of room.”

***Sunday’s test day is split into two three-hour sessions. The first session begins at 10 a.m. local time (4 a.m. EDT) and runs until 1 p.m. (7 a.m. EDT), while the second runs from 3:30 p.m. (9:30 a.m. EDT) to 6:30 p.m. (12:30 p.m. EDT).

John Dagys and Davey Euwema contributed to this report