Ferrari dominates in 24 Hours of Le Mans qualifier

Antonio Fuoco led a Ferrari 1-2 in Wednesday evening’s qualifying practice session for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. 

Clearly a man on a mission, Fuoco steered the No. 50 Ferrari 499P around the 13.626km Circuit de la Sarthe in a time of 3:25.213. The Italian driver was 0.199s faster than his teammate, Alessandro Pier Guidi, in the No. 51 Ferrari, who finished the session in second. 

Jose Maria Lopez secured third in the No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid with a 3:25.485, followed closely by Brendon Hartley in the No. 8 Toyota (3:25.749) and Fred Makowiecki (3:25.848) in the No. 5 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963. 

Felipe Nasr in the No. 75 Porsche slotted into sixth (3:25.868), with 24 Hour of Le Mans veterans Sebastien Bourdais and Earl Bamber rounding off the top eight for Cadillac Racing and thus cementing their entry into Thursday evening’s all-important Hyperpole shoot-out, which determines the top four rows on the grid for this weekend’s race. 

Further down the timing sheet, Peugeot fans were left wondering where it all went wrong as both of the French team’s 9X8 entries were left floundering in 10th and 11th place.

Pietro Fittipaldi proved the man to beat in the LMP2 class after he clocked a 3:34.751 in the No. 28 Jota Oreca 07 Gibson. 

The popular and ever competitive LMGTE Am class came to an exciting conclusion in the dying seconds of the session when Alessio Rovera pulled out all the stops to put the No. 83 Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo at the sharp end of the pack with an ultra-snappy time of 3:51.877 — 0.037s faster than Davide Rigon in the No. 54 AF Corse Ferrari.

Nicky Catsburg went third fastest in the No. 33 Corvette Racing C8.R (3:52.228) followed by Charlie Eastwood in the No. 25 ORT by TF Aston Martin Vantage AMR, Daniel Serra in the No. 57 Kessel Racing Ferrari, Gustuv Dahlmann Birch in the No. 55 GMB Motorsport Aston Martin, Ulysse de Pauw in the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari and Kei Cozzolino in the No. 74 Kessel Racing Ferrari. Incredibly, not a single Porsche made it into the top eight. 

The Hendrick Motorsports Garage 56-entered Chevrolet Camaro ZR1 NASCAR Cup car proved noticeably quicker than the LMGTE Am cars after setting a time of 3:47.976. 

Thursday’s Hyperpole shoot-out starts at 8pm.