DC Racing Quickest in Road to Le Mans Free Practice

French driver Thomas Laurent put the No. 85 DC Racing Ligier JS P3 Nissan at the top of the time charts in the Road to Le Mans Free Practice session on Wednesday evening.

Laurent’s fastest lap of 4:05.758 was set on his sixth and final lap of the session, as track conditions improved towards the end of the first practice session.

The No. 61 Graff Ligier JS P3 of James Winslow finished the session in second place, its fastest time 4.128 seconds slower than the DC Racing entry. M Racing-YMR’s Yann Ehrlacher set the third fastest lap time on his final lap of the session.

Charlie Robertson, driving the No. 32 Ginetta P3-15 Nissan, was the first to put in a reasonably fast time, but less than a minute later Winslow moved into first place, with a time of 4:09.886.

The No.28 Delahaye Racing Team Porsche 997 GT3 R losing oil on the rundown to the first of the two Mulsanne chicanes caused a slow zone early in the session. Increased rainfall after the session had gone back to green meant none of the teams was able to improve for most of the session.

In the final minutes of the session weather and track conditions started to improve and Laurent, who had gone onto his final lap shortly before the checkered flag was shown, was able to beat Winslow’s time.

Fastest in GT3 was the No. 57 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 of Aleksey Basov and Victor Shaitar, with Shaitar setting the fastest lap.

The SMP Racing driver beat the No. 17 Duqueine Engineering Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 of Lonni Martins and the No. 88 Mentos Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Klaus Bachler.

The only Adess 03 on the grid, the No. 48 PS Racing entry of Philippe Prette, lost its front left wheel on its out lap. The car stopped at the Esses and was later towed back.

RESULT: Free Practice