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Autosport
Autosport
Gary Watkins

Le Mans test day: Ferrari ends running fastest

Antonio Giovinazzi ended the six hours of testing ahead of next weekend’s double-points round of the World Endurance Championship with the best time of the day aboard the quickest of the two Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercars.

The Italian’s 3m29.504s set early in the afternoon session edged out the best of the Porsche 963 LMDhs, which ended up second on a 3m29.648s from Laurens Vanthoor.

But the Belgian had a quicker time that would have given him the top spot, a 3m29.274s half an hour into the afternoon session, scrubbed out for a track limits violation on the exit of Tertre Rouge

Toyota jumped to third in the closing stages of the afternoon session when Kamui Kobayashi got down to a 3m29.827s aboard the GR010 HYBRID LMH, which had sustained bodywork damage when Mike Conway went off right at the end of the morning.

The second of the two Ferraris, which has topped the times in the morning, ended up fourth with a 3m29.856s from Antonio Fuoco.

Porsche Penske Motorsport got all three of its cars in the top six, a 3m29.905s from Felipe Nasr giving him fifth ahead of Michael Christensen who finished on 3m50.568s.

Peugeot ended up seventh, Paul di Resta improving to 3m30.427s right at the end of a session that started late for the #93 9X8 LMH after the car encountered undisclosed technical problems in the morning.

Eighth place went to the first of the three Cadillacs, the full-season Ganassi entry with Earl Bamber at the wheel, ahead of the second Toyota in which Brendon Hartley set the time.

#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez (Photo by: Rainier Ehrhardt)

The Vanwall-Gibson Vandervell 680 LMHi Tom Dillmann’s hands outpaced both Glickenhaus-Pipo 007s to end up as the fastest of the garagistes with non-hybrid LMH machinery.

Jota was quickest in LMP2 with a 3m35.472s from Pietro Fittipaldi aboard its solo ORECA-Gibson 07.

That gave him a margin of eight tenth’s over the second-placed WRT ORECA in which Ferdinand Habsburg recorded a 3m36.243s.

The Signatech-run Alpine squad took third and fourth, just a tenth separating Andre Negrao and Matthieu Vaxiviere.

The JMW Ferrari team again headed the times in GTE Am.

Thomas Neubauer’s 3m56.088s gave him a margin of just under two tenths over Francesco Castellacci in the best of the AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evos.

The Hendrick Motorsport Garage 56 entry went three seconds faster than in the morning session, Mike Rockenfeller setting a 3m53.761s in the Chevrolet Camaro LS1 Next Gen NASCAR Cup car.

Track action for the blue riband round of the WEC resumes on Wednesday with the opening session of free practice at 2pm local time.

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