2024 24h of Le Mans test: Porsche lead the way
Porsche made a statement ahead of this weekend’s 2024 24h of Le Mans by topping the final test day.
The two factory Porsche teams led the way with Kevin Estre putting the #6 Porsche 963 of Porsche Penske Motorsport top of the leaderboard at Le Mans.
Estre, Andre Lotterer and Laurens Vanthoor ended the test two tenths clear of the #4 Penske Porsche of Mathieu Jaminet, Felipe Nasr and Nick Tandy.
The entire 62-car field were in action ahead of this weekend’s 92nd running of the Le Mans 24h race.
Completing the top three overall was the #8 Toyota of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa, who were more than seven tenths down on the leading Porsche.
A test that lasted six hours, Hartley began the afternoon in fine form for Toyota as he went quickest before Estre responded with a time of 03:26.907s.
Fourth quickest was the third and final factory Porsche, with Matt Campbell, Michael Christensen and Frederic Makowiecki.
Fifth and over a second down on the lead Porsche of Estre, were reigning Le Mans champions Ferrari.
The team of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen set a time of 03:28.014s.
In terms of lap times, the top time from Estre was over 1.5 seconds faster than Ferrari’s leading time in testing last season.
In LMP2 it was the #22 Oreca Gibson United Autosports car of Oliver Jarvis, Bijoy Garg and Nolan Siegel that led the way.
Finally, in LMGT3 Corvette made a strong statement with Hiroshi Koizumi, Sébastien Baud and Daniel Juncadella taking top spot in the #82 car.