Buemi Leads Toyota Sweep in Free Practice 2

Photo: James Moy/Toyota

Sebastien Buemi led a Toyota Gazoo Racing 1-2 in the first night practice session of the week at Le Mans.

The Swiss driver took the No. 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid to a best lap of 3:29.351, edging out teammate Kamui Kobayashi by 0.387 seconds.

Kobayashi’s 3:29.738 lap improved on co-driver’s Jose Maria Lopez time of 3:29.810 that was set early in the two-hour long Free Practice 2 session that put the Japanese manufacturer atop the time charts nearly from the get-go.

The No. 708 Glickenhaus 007 was third quickest with a 3:30.112 lap time, followed by the Alpine A480 Gibson in fourth and the sister Glickenhaus all within the top-five overall.

A 3:32.390 flyer by Anthony Davidson put the No. 38 JOTA Sport Oreca 07 Gibson quickest in LMP2.

Davidson’s time edged out the No. 70 Realteam entry of Norman Nato by two-tenths, with the No. 22 United Autosports Oreca of Filipe Albuquerque completing the top-three and G-Drive Racing’s Nyck De Vries fourth.

Ben Hanley had brought the No. 21 DragonSpeed Oreca up to fifth in class prior to an off-course excursion at Indianapolis in the closing minutes of the session.

Laurens Vanthoor put the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19 quickest in GTE-Pro, thanks to a 3:49.434 time set in the closing 30 minutes.

The Porsche factory driver edged out the No. 91 Manthey-run Porsche of Fred Makowiecki was second quickest ahead of the No. 52 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo, which hit trouble with a right-front puncture in the hands of Daniel Serra.

Serra stopped on track to bring out a red flag just past the halfway mark, with the session restarting with 47 minutes on the clock.

The No. 52 Ferrari did not complete any additional running after sustaining right-front damage to the car.

A second red flag brought the session to an early end with three minutes remaining when Robby Foley slammed into the tire barriers at Tertre Rouge in his No. 46 Team Project 1 Porsche.

Other incidents included the No. 57 Kessel Racing Ferrari of Scott Andrews, who limped back to the pits with a right-front flat-spot, as well as a stoppage for Patrick Kelly in the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca, which brought out a Slow Zone.

The Panis Racing-run PR1 machine was retrieved and returned to action later in the session.

GTE-Am was led by the No. 88 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche of Julien Andlauer, who edged out the No. 388 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari driven by veteran Jeroen Bleekemolen.

The No. 56 Team Project 1 Porsche of Riccardo Pera was third on the time sheets in class.

Cairoli’s time was faster than both of the GTE-Pro class Chevrolet Corvette C8.Rs, which ended the session 41st and 56th quickest overall.

Free Practice 3 is scheduled to get underway Thursday at 2 p.m. CET (8 a.m. ET).

RESULTS: Free Practice 2

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John