Toyota Goes 1-2 in Opening Le Mans Practice

Brendon Hartley led a Toyota 1-2 in the opening Free Practice session for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which ended early due to a crash for Corvette Racing’s Nico Varrone.

Hartley clocked a best lap of 3:27.742 around the Circuit de la Sarthe to go quickest aboard the No. 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid.

The New Zealander’s time was 0.133 seconds quicker than an earlier effort by Kamui Kobayashi’s No. 7 Toyota, which ended the session in second.

Earl Bamber slotted into third in the No. 2 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R, with Felipe Nasr and Kevin Estre rounding out the top five for Porsche Penske Motorsport.

All drivers in the top five set their times within the final hour, as a flurry of improvements following a lengthy red flag saw the pair of Peugeot 9X8s drop out of the top five.

Both French cars sat inside the top three for much of the early running during the first three-hour session on Thursday afternoon, but Loic Duval and Mikkel Jensen found themselves sixth and seventh in the final results.

Antonio Fuoco came eighth in the No. 50 Ferrari 499P, leading the No. 3 Cadillac and No. 5 Porsche 963 in completing out the top ten.

Pietro Fittipaldi led the way in LMP2 aboard the No. 28 JOTA Oreca 07 Gibson, reeling off a best lap 0f 3:34.579.

He outpaced Cool Racing’s Malthe Jakobsen by 0.032 seconds as the Danish driver topped LMP2 Pro-Am aboard the No. 47 machine.

Prema’s No. 63 Oreca came third, ahead of the No. 36 Alpine Elf Team entry piloted by Matthieu Vaxiviere.

GMB Motorsport’s No. 55 Aston Martin Vantage AMR set the pace in GTE-Am in the hands of Marco Sorensen.

He led the No. 86 GR Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19 piloted by Riccardo Pera, with the No. 72 TF Sport Aston Martin completing the top three.

The session was brought to a premature end due to crash for Corvette Racing’s Nico Varrone, which resulted in a red flag.

Varrone lost control of the No. 33 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R at Tertre Rouge and spun into the tire barriers with three minutes remaining, after which the session was not resumed.

It marked the second time running was halted, although the second red flag was considerably shorter than the first stoppage.

That came when the No. 777 D’Station Racing Aston Martin of Casper Stevenson hit the barriers exiting the Esses.

Stevenson was then collected by the No. 13 Tower Motorsports Oreca driven by Steven Thomas, leading to a red flag that lasted for 34 minutes.

Track action at the 24 Hours of Le Mans resumes with Qualifying Practice at 7 p.m. CEST (3 p.m. ET), which will determine the participants for Thursday’s Hyperpole session.

RESULTS: Free Practice 1