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24H Le Mans

Conway Fastest in Incident-Filled Warmup Session

Mike Conway leads warmup as Corvette hits trouble and LMP2 runners find the gravel…

Photo: MPS Agency

Mike Conway set the fastest lap in the Saturday morning warmup session for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which was filled with several incidents.

Conway posted a 3:31.236 behind the wheel of the No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid, 1.9 seconds up on the No. 31 Team WRT Oreca of Rene Rast.

Sebastien Buemi was third, while Romain Dumas set the third-quickest Hypercar time but was eighth overall, nearly five seconds behind Conway.

Dumas’ teammate Franck Mailleux was one of several drivers that found himself in trouble during the short, 15-minute session as the Frenchman spun the No. 709 Glickenhaus 007 Pipo at Mulsanne corner and was left stationary by the side of the track for some time before resuming.

Multiple LMP2 runners also found issues, with Nico Mueller ending up in the gravel at Indianapolis for Vector Sport and Laurents Hoerr spinning the No. 3 DKR Engineering Oreca 07 Gibson at the Dunlop Chicane.

Both incidents occurred simultaneously, causing a full course yellow.

While Rast led the way in LMP2, TDS Racing driver Nyck de Vries, who turned his first lap behind the wheel of the No. 13 Oreca, was second.

The Dutchman was brought into the French team’s lineup as a late replacement for Philippe Cimadomo and set a 3:33.759, with Ferdinand Habsburg, Paul Loup Chatin and Alex Brundle rounding out the top five.

Corvette Racing set the quickest time in GTE-Pro as Antonio Garcia set a 3:54.788 in the No. 63 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R.

The sister car, which will start from class pole position later today, encountered trouble with Nick Tandy at the wheel.

Tandy slowed on track and crawled back to the pits, where the car was diagnosed with a driveshaft failure.

Fred Makowiecki was second for Porsche leading teammate Kevin Estre, with James Calado fourth in the No. 51 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo.

Toni Vilander led GTE-Am in the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari with a best lap of 3:56.532, outpacing Vincent Abril and Matt Griffin.

The 24 Hours of Le Mans kicks off at 4 p.m. CEST (10 a.m. ET).

RESULTS: Warmup

Davey Euwema is Sportscar365's European Editor. Based in The Netherlands, Euwema covers the FIA World Endurance Championship, European Le Mans Series and Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS, among other series.

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