Lapierre Splits Toyotas in Final Practice at Le Mans

Photo: MPS Agency

Nico Lapierre split the pair of Toyota GR010 Hybrids in the fourth and final Free Practice session for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The Frenchman’s 3:28.280 lap time in the No. 36 Alpine A480 Gibson was 0.286 seconds slower than Kazuki Nakajima, who paced Thursday’s two-hour night session in the No. 7 Toyota.

The pole-sitting No. 8 Toyota of Kamui Kobayashi was third on the time charts thanks to a 3:29.567 lap followed by the No. 709 Glickenhaus 007 of Ryan Briscoe in fourth.

Glickenhaus’ other Hypercar class entry was 26th overall.

Franco Colapinto topped the time charts in LMP2 in the No. 26 G-Drive Racing Aurus 01 Gibson, ahead of the No. 29 Racing Team Nederland Oreca 07 Gibson of Job van Uitert and the Filipe Albuquerque-driven No. 22 United Autosports Oreca.

Laurens Vanthoor led the way in GTE-Pro in the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19 while the No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo of Nicklas Nielsen paced GTE-Am.

The session ended early after an accident for the No. 71 Inception Racing Ferrari of Ollie Milroy at the Ford Chicane. Millroy had second the second quickest time in GTE-Am prior to his off.

It was the only red flag of the session, which started ten minutes late due to a delay in Hyperpole.

Other cars to face issues in the session included the No. 54 AF Corse Ferrari of Thomas Flor, who spun at the Dunlop Curves and a brief off for Kobayashi.

Fifty eight of the 62 cars turned laps, with both the crashed No. 92 Porsche and No. 17 IDEC Sport Oreca from Hyperpole and FP3, respectively, not setting any times.

The No. 21 DragonSpeed Oreca, however, did return to action after Juan Pablo Montoya’s heavy off in the previous practice and set the 21st quickest time in class.

The next on-track action will be warmup on Saturday at 11:30 a.m. CET (5:30 a.m. ET).

RESULTS: Free Practice 4

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