Jakobsen Paces Opening Paul Ricard Practice

Malthe Jakobsen set the fastest time in the opening Free Practice session for the 4 Hours of Le Castellet.

The Danish racer and Peugeot junior steered the No. 37 Cool Racing Oreca 07 Gibson to a best lap of 1:41.186 to outpace Vector Sport’s Felipe Drugovich by 0.210 seconds.

Louis Deletraz completed the overall top three for AO by TF, a further 0.080s seconds back.

Job van Uitert slotted into fourth aboard the No. 28 IDEC Sport Oreca, leading the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition machine of Tom Dillmann.

Matthieu Vaxiviere set the pace in LMP2 Pro-Am, with his 1:41.969 behind the wheel of the No. 83 AF Corse machine quick enough for sixth overall.

Cool Racing’s second Oreca picked up seventh with Frederik Vesti at the wheel, with Ben Hanley and Paul Di Resta eighth and ninth for United Autosports. James Allen rounded out the overall top ten in the No. 30 Duqueine Team Oreca.

In the LMP3 class, Duqueine led Ligier as Wyatt Brichacek reeled off a 1:49.545 aboard the No. 4 DKR Engineering Duqueine D08 Nissan.

Manuel Espírito Santo came second behind the wheel of the No. 17 Cool Racing Ligier JS P320 Nissan, while Pedro Perino completed the top three for Inter Europol Competition.

Julien Andlauer prevented a Ferrari-led sweep of the top five in LMGT3 by setting the fastest lap in class aboard the No. 60 Proton Competition Porsche 911 GT3 R.

The Frenchman’s effort of 1:55.257 was 0.242 seconds quicker than the No. 86 GR Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 of Davide Rigon.

Ben Tuck took third for JMW Motorsport, ahead of Formula Racing’s Nicklas Nielsen, the No. 51 AF Corse entry of Nico Varrone and Matt Griffin aboard the No. 55 Spirit of Race Ferrari.

Qualifying for the 4 Hours of Le Castellet takes place on Saturday at 2:40 p.m. CEST (8:40 a.m. EDT), which is preceded by the second and final Free Practice session at 10:10 a.m. CEST (4:10 a.m. EDT).

RESULTS: Free Practice 1