No.38 Cadillac tops last 24 Hours of Le Mans free practice session
- Marios Gantzoudis
- 29 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Sébastien Bourdais grabbed first place at the last possible moment in the final 24 Hours of Le Mans practice session, pipping the No.20 BMW in a relatively straightforward FP4.
As it happened
It was a quiet start to the session, with few cars immediately entering the track, as most sat in their garages, many of them being attended to by mechanics.
In fact, only three Hypercars, the two Peugeot cars and the No.83 Ferrari were running on track after five minutes, with the No.94 Peugeot setting the early benchmark time, only for the Phil Hansen-driven Ferrari to beat it, setting a 3:27.415 that was the session's best for quite some time, as most teams fine-tuned their race setups and made some final tweaks, with the grid already set.
Slowly but surely though all cars entered the track and by the 20-minute mark, it was as busy as ever. The No.25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca had by that point set the early session-best LMP2 time, with the No.33 TF Sport Chevrolet doing the same for the LMGT3 class.
Around the half-way mark, the No.83 Ferrari's time was bested by the No.7 Toyota of Mike Conway, who set a time of 3:27.146. In LMP2, the best time was set by the No. 183 AF Corse Oreca of Ben Barnicoat, who did a 3:36.119, as the LMGT3 topping time was ultimately set by Nicky Catsburg, in the No.33 TF Sport Chevrolet, the Dutchman doing a 3:55.262, marginally faster than teammate Jonny Edgar, who initially held the best time.
Although it looked like Conway's time would stay as FP4's best, Robin Frijns in the No.20 BMW had other ideas, with the experienced racer, beating the Toyota's time by a tenth, achieving a 3:27.037, but it only was the session's second fastest time.
With the chequered flag havin already fallen, Sébastien Bourdais in the No.38 Cadillac, completed a last gasp effort, topping the session timesheets, with a fine 3:26.843, the only driver below the 3:27 mark come the end.
Ben Barnicoat and the No.183 AF Corse LMP2 entry remained atop, with a slightly faster 3:36.111, with the next best time, No.30 Duqueine Team's being seven tenths off, as third place was occupied by the No.37 CLX Motorsport car.
Finally, the LMGT3 best was after all the No.33 TF Sport Chevrolet, with the No.34 Racing Team Turkey by TF Chevrolet in second and the No.23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin in third.
