Porsche’s Vanthoor Fastest in Night Practice

Laurens Vanthoor set the quickest time for Porsche Penske Motorsport in the first night practice session for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The Belgian driver steered the No. 6 Porsche 963 to a best lap of 3:28.878, outpacing Ferrari’s James Calado by 0.347 seconds.

Calado’s No. 51 Ferrari 499P initially sat atop the timesheets for a large part of the two-hour session, with the British driver’s 3:29.225 an improvement upon an earlier effort from Alessandro Pier Guidi.

Dane Cameron made it two Porsches in the top three by going third aboard the No. 5 car, with Earl Bamber fourth for Chip Ganassi Racing.

Kamui Kobayashi completed the top five in the No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid, leading the No. 311 Cadillac V-Series.R in the hands of Jack Aitken.

The Action Express Racing-operated car briefly ran into trouble halfway through the two-hour session with Alexander Sims at the wheel.

Sims brought the car into the pits with bodywork damage and only the left-side headlight working, but it later returned to the circuit.

Nicklas Nielsen took seventh in the second Ferrari with Antonio Felix da Costa in eight for Porsche customer Hertz Team JOTA, which completed 27 laps after working on an issue that affected its qualifying run earlier in the evening.

The top ten was completed by the No. 708 Glickenhaus 007 Pipo in the hands of Olivier Pla and Renger van der Zande’s No. 2 Cadillac.

Prema led LMP2 thanks to a fast lap from Mirko Bortolotti, beating out United Autosports and JOTA.

Bortolotti set a best time of 3:36.863 aboard the No. 63 Oreca 07 Gibson, nearly a second clear of the No. 22 machine driven by Filipe Albuquerque.

Pietro Fittipaldi came third in the No. 28 JOTA machine, with United’s second car fourth in the hands of Tom Blomqvist.

A late flyer from Kei Cozzolino put Kessel Racing up top in GTE-Am.

The No. 74 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo jumped to the top in the closing moments of the session with best lap of 3:53.796.

Iron Lynx slotted into second thanks to a lap of 3:54.080 from the No. 60 Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Alessio Picariello.

Matteo Cairoli took fourth for Project 1 – AO ahead of AF Corse’s Davide Rigon.

The third Free Practice session at Le Mans is scheduled for Thursday at 3 p.m. CEST (9 a.m. EDT).

RESULTS: Free Practice 2