Le Mans Sunday Notebook

Photo: Porsche

***The No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid required new front and rear bodywork parts after Mike Conway’s accident in the morning. Toyota Gazoo Racing WEC technical director Pascal Vasselon told reporters that there were “no big issues” with the car following the repair work.

***Vasselon said: “We have more issues with car No. 8 which is even slower than car No. 7 and it’s still not fully understood. The accident [for car No. 7] is of course always an issue, especially for our budget. But it did not really penalize the day of car No. 7.”

***Toyota hit the track for the first time with a recent 37 kg Balance of Performance weight increase, having posted the third and ninth quickest times of the test. “It’s not a surprise,” Vasselon said regarding the team’s pace. “We just have to get on with it and find workarounds.”

***TGR-Europe vice chairman Kazuki Nakajima, who is serving as the team’s reserve driver, completed out and in-laps in the No. 8 Toyota this morning, but that was the extent of the three-time Le Mans winner’s seat time as he left most of the running to the race lineup.

***Toyota introduced a livery tweak to both of its cars with cherry blossoms displayed on the nose, sidepod and fin. Similarly, the No. 708 Glickenhaus 708 features an art design. Team owner Jim Glickenhaus said at the previous FIA World Endurance Championship round at Spa that the livery will be part of a charity auction supporting UNICEF.

***The No. 6 Porsche 963 experienced a “positive day” according to Andre Lotterer, although he stated that the crew needed time to find the right setup direction. “We had to improve it quite a bit with the first few attempts, but we made the right steps throughout the day,” he told Sportscar365. “For sure there’s more room for improvement. I think in terms of how we feel over the bumps and everything but it was a positive day.”

***Lotterer pointed towards the ride quality as a concrete area of improvement for Porsche Penske Motorsport to address in the coming days. “There’s some spots where the track is bumpier than it has been, like just before Indianapolis and entry to Porsche Curves, to try to make the car a bit more compliant and better for us to drive over the 24 hours,” the German said.

***A brake-by-wire issue saw the No. 75 Porsche complete only 15 laps in the second session although both Felipe Nasr and Nick Tandy posted lap times that were good enough to be in the top-eight overall among Hypercar drivers.

***Sunday’s test marked the first time that Porsche Penske Motorsport operated three cars simultaneously. “It was very important that we were able to put our team structure, all the tools and all the equipment to the test during this day,” said PPM managing director Jonathan Diuguid. “We have a third car on the grid here in addition to our two cars from the FIA WEC. The effort is enormous.”

***The No. 93 Peugeot 9X8, which stopped on track in the first session with Paul Di Resta at the wheel, is understood to have suffered some form of hybrid malfunction, although Peugeot Sport only described the issue as being electrical in nature. Sportscar365 understands the red warning light for a hybrid failure was activated on the car, which led to the lengthy red flag in order to undertake the high-voltage safety protocol.

***The three Le Mans debuting Cadillac V-Series.Rs combined to complete 157 laps over the course of the six hours of testing, although was the slowest of the factory Hypercar entries with the No. 2 Chip Ganassi Racing entry being the fastest in eighth, 1.1 seconds adrift from the pace-setting Ferrari.

***GM sports car racing program manager Laura Wontrop Klauser said: “We are excited to have this test day to take advantage of as much on-track as possible to gather real-world data with these new cars because no one can test on the circuit until they come to the Le Mans event. We have each of the three cars on different test plans so that we can maximize the amount of information that we can gather for the program. It also gives the opportunity to test all the equipment that runs behind the scenes.”

***Teams practiced the revised safety car and new wave-by procedure twice on Sunday, with the first simulation lasting 26 minutes in the opening session and the second one taking 37 minutes, with the latter having been triggered by two LMP2 cars beached in the gravel.

***Dane Cameron told Sportscar365: “It was a little bit different to do the pass arounds and all that stuff. I was in the front-end of the queue, so I didn’t see much but it seemed to work OK for what it was. We’ll see how it influences the race and how much they decide to use it. They have more tools than they do in the U.S. It’s up to them how they choose to deploy it so let’s see how it comes back in the race.”

***Nearly every driver that competed in yesterday’s Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup round at Paul Ricard turned laps during the first test session on Sunday morning. Out of a group of 13 that included the likes of Dries Vanthoor, Mirko Bortolotti and the Iron Dames, only Davide Rigon did not set a time. Antonio Fuoco notably topped the first session for Ferrari’s Hypercar squad.

***In addition to the GTWC Europe drivers coming from Paul Ricard, Ugo de Wilde made the same trip from the south of France after competing in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe support races.

***Juan Manuel Correa and Prema team principal Rene Rosin, meanwhile, arrived around 4 p.m. from Barcelona following the FIA Formula 2 feature race earlier in the day where Correa claimed a 11th place finish. Correa completed 15 laps at the wheel of the No. 9 Prema Oreca 07 Gibson.

***All Le Mans rookies completed their minimum ten laps that’s required to compete in the race.

***A number of times were deleted due to cars exceeding track limits, including the No. 311 Action Express Racing Cadillac and the No. 65 Panis Racing Oreca, which both had to serve five-minute stop-and-hold penalties for multiple infractions.

***Ben Barnicoat said his Le Mans LMP2 debut with AF Corse, in one of nine Pro-Am entries in the 24-car class, puts him in a solid position compared to last year when he was at the wheel of a Porsche 911 RSR-19 with Team Project 1. The Lexus factory driver is dovetailing his IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship program with a season in the European Le Mans Series with Francois Perrodo’s Oreca.

***Barnicoat told Sportscar365: “I prefer doing this as last year I was doing WEC in a Porsche and then switching to GTD Pro in IMSA in the Lexus, and I found that quite tough because although they’re both GT cars, they’re extremely different in how they drive. The strengths of the RSR vs. the strengths of our Lexus GT3 were way different elements.”

***George Kurtz will be pulling double-duty in his Le Mans debut, with the CrowdStrike Racing by APR driver also taking part in the Road to Le Mans races in a Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo entered by Winward Racing and fellow American Russell Ward. “He called me and it all sort of came together,” Kurtz told Sportscar365. “He needed a Bronze guy.”

***Competitors will return to the track on Wednesday for Free Practice and qualifying, although a number of activities are scheduled for Tuesday, including two autograph sessions, a pit walk and pit stop challenge.

Daniel Lloyd & Davey Euwema contributed to this report

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