If the test day of the 24 Hours of Le Mans is not at stake, the lap times for this Sunday June 5 are very scrutinized. The Toyota n°7 set the best time with a lap of 3:29.896, followed by Glickenhaus n°708 in 3’30”104. In LPM2, it’s a neck and neck duel: the United Autosports n°22 came first with less than 3 thousandths of a second ahead of the British of Jota.
On the other hand, in hypercar, the French from Alpine, despite leading the championship, finished last and even in seventh place overall with a time of 3’32”420. “After the race is long, it’s not just a stopwatch“, relativizes the pilot Nicolas Lapierre. “Toyota is clearly the favorite here, the circuit suits their car more than ours, but we will have to have a good race anyway.”
– Raphael Cann
Duel before time
Because there is something at stake: with his victory in the 1,000 miles of Sebring, Alpine leads the championship standings. The third round, these 24 Hours of Le Mans, worth more points than the other races, it could decide between the two teams. “We hope to regain the lead in the championship here, otherwise it could be complicated“, concedes Alexander Wurz, Toyota sports coach and former double winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. “Technically, we prepared as best we could. We double-checked everything at least four times.”
The spectators scrutinized in any case this duel before the hour. If last year, the test day was behind closed doors, this time, the public was able to return to the stands, quite sparse. “It’s cooler, there are fewer people, it’s not the same atmosphere, but it’s nice all the same“, judge Alysson. Foreigners have not yet arrived, for the moment, the spectators are mainly Sarthois.
– Raphael Cann
“I’ve done the 24 Hours a lot of times, it’s still quite physical days for the children“, explains Nicolas, accompanied by his five-year-old son. “I can’t go there for an hour and leave, so I take advantage of this day to take the temperature with them, to see if it’s playable or not.“But some people regret not having the same animations as during the race.”To see the cars, it’s the best, the only problem is that we don’t have the screens to follow them or watch the times”, sorry guy.
– Raphael Cann