Le Mans 24 Hours : #8 Toyota sets the fastest time in a disrupted FP1 session

After a Test Day from which it is - as usual - impossible to draw any conclusions, competitors took to the track at 2pm for the first free practice session of the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans. Grand Marshal of this centenary edition, Tom Kristensen waved the green flag at the end of the pit straight.

As expected, several cars observed their 20-minute Stop & Go for excessive track limits abuse during Test Day, including Oreca #10 (Vector), #13 (Tower), #80 (AF Corse), #923 (Racing Team Turkey), #30 (Duqueine Team) and #14 (Nielsen Racing).

While several cars were, for a time, reported slow on track, the first notorious  event concerned the JMW Motorsport Ferrari 488 #66, which went off in the last sector in the hands of Louis Prette at 2.13pm. Although the team has yet to confirm this, it fears that the chassis may have been affected. This incident occurred five minutes after José Maria Lopez had set a convincing 3'28''290 in the #7 Toyota.

At 2.37pm, the n#93 Peugeot stopped at the end of the pit lane. The French team's mechanics had to get it back to the box. Then, it was Ollie Caldwell (Oreca #35 / Alpine) who went off in the same place as the #66, while Mirko Bortolotti also made light contact with the wall at the wheel of the Prema Racing Oreca 07 #63.

But at 3.28pm, the red flag was waved after the #777 D'Station Racing Aston Martin hit the barriers in the S de la forêt. Casper Stevenson, stopped in the middle of the track, was then hit by Steven Thomas (Oreca 07 #13 / Tower Motorsports), who was unable to avoid the British car, unlike the #33 Corvette a few seconds before.

At 4.03pm, the session resumed after a 40-minute break. And at 16h12, Kamui Kobayashi (Toyota #7) improved the fastest time to 3'27''875. But at 4:40 p.m., his teammate Brendon Hartley did better in 3'27''742.

Unfortunately, a few minutes later, Chandler Hull (Ferrari 488 #100 / Walkenhorst Motorsport) went off at the Dunlop chicane. Although a red flag was feared, the American managed to restart quickly. The session was prematurely interrupted a few minutes later, at 4.56pm, when Nico Varrone (Corvette C8.R n°63) went off at the beginning of Mulsanne straight.

The best times of FP1 in the Hypercar, LMP2 and GTE Am classes went to the #8 Toyota, the #28 Oreca of Jota and the #55 GMB Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage AMR. In the Hypercar class, the top eight - which includes all five manufacturers - were all within the same second of.

Three cars received 5-minute Stop & Go penalties. Two for abusing track limits (Oreca #39 / Graff and Oreca #65 / Panis Racing) and one for failing to comply with a Full Course Yellow procedure (Peugeot 9X8 #94).

Qualifying starts at 7pm, with live-audio coverage on Endurance-Info.

Lap times are HERE

Lap times by driver are HERE