Practice report
WEC 24 Hours of Le Mans
Le Mans 24h: Calado puts Ferrari top in final practice session
Ferrari continued its strong form for the 2023 Le Mans 24 Hours as James Calado topped a disrupted final practice session on Thursday evening ahead of Glickenhaus.
James Newbold
Edited: Jun 8, 2023, 11:13 PM
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Taking over the #51 Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercar that Alessandro Pier Guidi drove to second in Hyperpole, Calado whisked to a time of 3m27.275s shortly before Jean-Eric Vergne’s #93 Peugeot 9X8 LMH brought out the red flags when it stopped between the two Mulsanne Chicanes.
The one-hour session was restarted with 20 minutes still on the clock, but there were few noteworthy improvements thereafter as Calado’s benchmark time held.
Calado was 1.003s faster than Esteban Gutierrez in the Le Mans-only #709 Glickenhaus-Pipo 007 that will start the World Endurance Championship blue riband from 14th.
Gutierrez was in turn 0.162s faster than the Jota Porsche 963 LMDh campaigned by Will Stevens, which missed qualifying on Wednesday due to an electronic problem.
Kevin Estre improved to fourth after the red flag in the best of the factory Penske-run Porsches, his #6 machine usurping the Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Alexander Sims.
Jose Maria Lopez completed the top six in the leading Toyota GR010 HYBRID, 1.648s down on Calado, while a late effort from polesitter Antonio Fuoco in the second Ferrari secured him seventh in the #50 machine that didn’t set a time prior to the stoppage.
Vergne was shuffled back to eighth ahead of Michael Christensen’s #5 Penske Porsche as Richard Westbrook completed the top 10 in WEC full-season Ganassi Cadillac.
Tom Dillmann’s early effort aboard the Vanwall Vandervell 680 slotted him into 11th, ahead of Romain Dumas in the second Glickenhaus and Mathieu Jaminet’s #75 Porsche.
#75 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 of Felipe Nasr, Mathieu Jaminet, Nick Tandy
Photo by: Marc Fleury
The #7 Toyota likewise only appeared in the final third of the session and ended up 14th in Sebastien Buemi's hands ahead of the #93 Peugeot campaigned by Loic Duval.
After a burst high pressure fuel hose caused a fire in Hyperpole, the #3 Ganassi Cadillac didn’t turn a lap.
The LMP2 pace was set by Dries Vanthoor’s TF Sport-run Racing Team Turkey ORECA-Gibson 07 as the BMW factory driver stormed to the top of the timesheets.
Vanthoor logged a 3m36.229s aboard the pro-am entry to beat Job van Uitert by 0.421s in the ORECA fielded by Panis Racing.
After a late effort from Prema’s Mirko Bortolotti secured the fastest time in Wednesday evening’s FP2 session, the Lamborghini factory driver repeated the trick to move into third in the dying minutes of the session.
That demoted Tom Blomqvist to fourth in the #23 United Autosport entry, as Ben Barnicoat (AF Corse) and Pietro Fittipaldi’s pole-contending Jota machine rounded out the top six.
LMP2 polewinners IDEC Sport ended up 14th with Laurents Horr setting its best time.
#66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari 488 GTE EVO of Thomas Neubauer, Louis Prette, Giacomo Petrobelli
Photo by: Alexander Trienitz
An early lap from Thomas Neubauer in the repaired JMW Motorsport Ferrari 488 GTE Evo secured the top spot in GTE Am.
The Frenchman, in the car crashed during opening practice by Louis Prette, beat Ferrari factory driver Daniel Serra’s Kessel example to the top spot by 0.104s with a 3m52.965s lap.
Alessio Picariello shuffled up the order into third in the closing stages aboard his Iron Lynx Porsche 911 RSR-19 ahead of fellow late improver Jan Heylen’s Proton example, as polewinner Corvette Racing’s works-entered C8.R ended up sixth with Nicolas Varrone at the wheel.
Le Mans 24 Hours - FP4 results:
Cla # Drivers Car Class Time Gap 1 51 James Calado
Antonio Giovinazzi
Alessandro Pier Guidi
Ferrari 499P HYPERCAR 3'27.275 2 709 Nathanael Berthon
Esteban Gutierrez
Franck Mailleux
Glickenhaus 007 LMH HYPERCAR 3'28.278 1.003 3 38 Antonio Felix da Costa
Will Stevens
Ye Yifei
Porsche 963 HYPERCAR 3'28.440 1.165 4 6 Kevin Estre
Andre Lotterer
Laurens Vanthoor
Porsche 963 HYPERCAR 3'28.457 1.182 5 311 Jack Aitken
Pipo Derani
Alexander Sims
Cadillac V-Series.R HYPERCAR 3'28.603 1.328 6 7 Mike Conway
Kamui Kobayashi
Jose Maria Lopez
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 3'28.923 1.648 7 50 Antonio Fuoco
Miguel Molina
Nicklas Nielsen
Ferrari 499P HYPERCAR 3'28.935 1.660 8 93 Paul di Resta
Mikkel Jensen
Jean-Eric Vergne
Peugeot 9X8 HYPERCAR 3'29.053 1.778 9 5 Dane Cameron
Michael Christensen
Frédéric Makowiecki
Porsche 963 HYPERCAR 3'29.371 2.096 10 2 Earl Bamber
Alex Lynn
Richard Westbrook
Cadillac V-Series.R HYPERCAR 3'29.948 2.673 11 4 Tom Dillmann
Esteban Guerrieri
Tristan Vautier
Vanwall Vandervell 680 HYPERCAR 3'30.115 2.840 12 708 Ryan Briscoe
Romain Dumas
Olivier Pla
Glickenhaus 007 LMH HYPERCAR 3'30.202 2.927 13 75 Mathieu Jaminet
Felipe Nasr
Nick Tandy
Porsche 963 HYPERCAR 3'30.534 3.259 14 8 Sébastien Buemi
Brendon Hartley
Ryo Hirakawa
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 3'30.616 3.341 15 94 Loic Duval
Gustavo Menezes
Nico Müller
Peugeot 9X8 HYPERCAR 3'30.881 3.606 16 923 Tom Gamble
Dries Vanthoor
Salih Yoluc
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'36.229 8.954 17 65 Tijmen van der Helm
Manuel Maldonado
Job Van Uitert
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'36.650 9.375 18 63 Mirko Bortolotti
Daniil Kvyat
Doriane Pin
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'36.904 9.629 19 23 Tom Blomqvist
Oliver Jarvis
Josh Pierson
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'36.964 9.689 20 80 Ben Barnicoat
Norman Nato
François Perrodo
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'37.126 9.851 21 28 Pietro Fittipaldi
David Heinemeier Hansson
Oliver Rasmussen
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'37.351 10.076 22 9 Juan Manuel Correa
Filip Ugran
Bent Viscaal
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'37.360 10.085 23 22 Filipe Albuquerque
Philip Hanson
Frederick Lubin
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'37.407 10.132 24 31 Robin Frijns
Sean Gelael
Ferdinand Habsburg
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'37.877 10.602 25 37 Alexandre Coigny
Malthe Jakobsen
Nicolas Lapierre
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'38.241 10.966 26 14 Mathias Beche
Ben Hanley
Rodrigo Sales
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'38.637 11.362 27 47 Reshad de Gerus
Vlad Lomko
Simon Pagenaud
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'38.714 11.439 28 43 Maxime Martin
Tom Van Rompuy
Ugo de Wilde
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'38.760 11.485 29 48 Paul-Loup Chatin
Laurents Hörr
Paul Lafargue
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'38.777 11.502 30 36 Julien Canal
Charles Milesi
Matthieu Vaxiviere
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'38.972 11.697 31 41 Rui Andrade
Louis Deletraz
Robert Kubica
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'39.064 11.789 32 39 Giedo van der Garde
Roberto Lacorte
Patrick Pilet
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'39.155 11.880 33 34 Albert Costa
Fabio Scherer
Jakub Smiechowski
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'39.211 11.936 34 30 Rene Binder
Neel Jani
Nicolas Pino
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'39.376 12.101 35 10 Gabriel Aubry
Ryan Cullen
Matthias Kaiser
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'40.079 12.804 36 45 James Allen
Colin Braun
George Kurtz
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'40.689 13.414 37 13 René Rast
Ricky Taylor
Steven Thomas
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'40.822 13.547 38 32 Anders Fjordbach
Mark Kvamme
Jan Magnussen
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'42.853 15.578 39 35 Olli Caldwell
Andre Negrao
Memo Rojas
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'43.623 16.348 40 24 Jenson Button
Jimmie Johnson
Mike Rockenfeller
Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 INNOVATIVE CAR 3'51.903 24.628 41 66 Thomas Neubauer
Giacomo Petrobelli
Louis Prette
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'52.965 25.690 42 57 Scott Huffaker
Takeshi Kimura
Daniel Serra
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'53.069 25.794 43 60 Matteo Cressoni
Alessio Picariello
Claudio Schiavoni
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 3'53.316 26.041 44 16 Ryan Hardwick
Jan Heylen
Zacharie Robichon
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 3'53.419 26.144 45 56 Matteo Cairoli
PJ Hyett
Gunnar Jeannette
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 3'53.439 26.164 46 33 Nick Catsburg
Ben Keating
Nicolas Varrone
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R LMGTE AM 3'53.624 26.349 47 54 Francesco Castellacci
Thomas Flohr
Davide Rigon
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'53.652 26.377 48 21 Simon Mann
Ulysse De Pauw
Julien Piguet
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'53.721 26.446 49 88 Jonas Ried
Harry Tincknell
Don Yount
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 3'53.745 26.470 50 98 Ian James
Daniel Mancinelli
Alex Riberas
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 3'53.861 26.586 51 86 Benjamin Barker
Riccardo Pera
Michael Wainwright
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 3'53.912 26.637 52 85 Sarah Bovy
Rahel Frey
Michelle Gatting
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 3'54.423 27.148 53 83 Luis Perez Companc
Alessio Rovera
Lilou Wadoux
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'54.602 27.327 54 55 Gustav Birch
Jens Reno Moller
Marco Sorensen
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 3'57.318 30.043 55 74 Kei Cozzolino
Yorikatsu Tsujiko
Naoki Yokomizo
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'59.031 31.756 56 100 Andrew Haryanto
Chandler Hull
Jeff Segal
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 4'00.451 33.176 57 777 Tomonobu Fujii
Satoshi Hoshino
Casper Stevenson
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 4'01.206 33.931 58 72 Valentin Hasse-Clot
Arnold Robin
Maxime Robin
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 4'01.606 34.331 59 77 Julien Andlauer
Christian Ried
Mikkel Pedersen
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 4'07.309 40.034 60 3 Sébastien Bourdais
Scott Dixon
Renger van der Zande
Cadillac V-Series.R HYPERCAR 61 25 Ahmad Al Harthy
Michael Dinan
Charles Eastwood
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 62 911 Michael Fassbender
Richard Lietz
Martin Rump
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM View full results
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