- Back on Sunday, 62 teams gathered at the Circuit de la Sarthe for the annual Le Mans Test Day ahead of this weekend's 24 Hours of Le Mans. Toyota GAZOO Racing's Kamui Kobayashi was fastest in the first session with a lap of the 8.467-mile circuit at 146.216 mph. He was .738 seconds faster than Porsche Penske Motorsport's Kevin Estre. BMW M Team WRT's Robin Frijns was third, then Lamborghini Iron
Lynx's Mirko Bortolotti. AF Corse's Robert Kubica was fifth in the customer Ferrari 499P.
In LMP2, IDEC Sport's Job van Uitert was fastest with a lap at 140.438 mph, just .132 seconds faster than United Autosports' Oliver Jarvis. AO by TF [Sport]'s Louis Deletraz was third (best of the Pro-Am teams), then Inter Europol Competition's Clement Novalak and Panis Racing's
Mathias Beche.
LMGT3 was led by the Akkodis ASP Team Lexuses. Kelvin van der Linde was fastest with a lap at 126.949 mph, .562 seconds faster than teammate Esteban Masson. Team WRT's Sean Galael was third, then the McLarens of United Autosports' Nicolas Costa and Inception Racing's Frederik Schandorff.
The afternoon session saw Estre go fastest with a lap at 147.318 mph in his Porsche. That lap was .235 seconds faster than Felipe Nasr in the third Porsche from the IMSA team. Toyota's Brendon Hartley was third, then Michael Christensen and Miguel Molina.
Jarvis was fastest in LMP2 with a lap at 141.968 mph.
His lap was 1.277 seconds faster than Algarve Pro Racing's Olli Caldwell. Duqueine Team's James Allen was third and fastest in Pro-Am. Filipe Albuquerque was fourth, then AF Corse's Nico Varrone.
Finally, TF Sport's Sebastien Baud was fastest in his Corvette with a lap at 127.067 mph. His lap was a mere .037 seconds faster than a tie for second between The Heart of
Racing's Alex Riberas and Team WRT's Augusto Farfus (Riberas wins the tiebreaker since he set the time first). The Lamborghini of Matteo Cressoni was fourth, then Costa.
The final session ended five minutes early due to a crash for Kobayashi. COOL Racing's Lorenzo Fluxa also crashed towards the end of the first session in the Porsche Curves. The team was able to make
repairs and get out for the afternoon session.
