Racing Team Nederland dominates intense qualifying session
After a first day of checks, the 20 ORECA 07s entered in the 2020 24 Hours of Le Mans had a busy day on Thursday 17 September: 10 hours of free practice and a 45-minute qualifying session – dominated by Racing Team Nederland – that determined the six driver line-ups (by class) to participate in the Hyperpole on Friday at 11:30.
Free Practice 1:
In the LMP2 class, the #33 ORECA 07 of Danish team High Class Racing (Mark Patterson/Anders Fjordbach/Kenta Yamashita) clocked the fastest time of 3:29.873 ahead of Racing Team Nederland, Jota, Duqueine Team and Jackie Chan DC Racing.
Several red flags, including two for IDEC SPORT Racing incidents, disrupted the free practice.
The LMP1 session was dominated by the #8 Toyota TS050 with the quickest time, 3:21.656, ahead of the #7 sister car and the #1 Rebellion of Gustavo Menezes/Norman Nato/Bruno Senna followed by the second Rebellion of Nathanaël Berthon/Louis Delétraz/Romain Dumas.
Free Practice 2:
In LMP2, Racing Team Nederland topped the hierarchy after finishing second in the first session, followed by Jackie Chan DC Racing’s #37, Jota’s #38 ORECA 07, High Class Racing’s #33 and G-Drive Racing’s #26 Aurus 01.
The #3 Rebellion R13 finished third in the LMP1 class while the #1 Rebellion failed to clock a time due to an engine intervention.
Qualifying:
By the end of an intense 45-minute qualifying session, Nyck de Vries had scored the fastest time of 3:26.648 at the wheel of Racing Team Nederland’s #29 ORECA 07. Six ORECA 07s will take part in the Hyperpole, a new feature of this 88th 24 Hours of Le Mans: Racing Team Nederland, the #37 of Jackie Chan DC Racing, the #22 of United Autosports, the #26 of G-Drive Racing, the #32 of United Autosports and the #33 of High Class Racing.
In LMP1, the #3 Rebellion shared by Bruno Senna, Gustavo Menezes and Norman Nato is in third position and its sister car, the #1 driven by Romain Dumas, Louis Delétraz and Nathanaël Berthon, is in fourth.
#29 RACING TEAM NEDERLAND 3:26.648
#37 JACKIE CHAN DC RACING 3:27.097
#22 UNITED AUTOSPORTS 3:27.148
#26 G-DRIVE RACING 3:27.366
#32 UNITED AUTOSPORTS 3:27.598
#33 HIGH CLASS RACING 3:27.611
#38 JOTA 3:27.728
#16 G-DRIVE RACING BY ALGARVE 3:27.767
#31 PANIS RACING 3:27.791
#36 SIGNATECH ALPINE ELF 3:27.794
#27 DRAGONSPEED 3:27.913
#42 COOL RACING 3:28.509
#39 SO24-HAS BY GRAFF 3:28.574
#30 DUQUEINE TEAM 3:29.091
#25 ALGARVE PRO RACING 3:29.402
#21 DRAGONSPEED 3:29.741
#47 CETILAR RACING 3:29.880
#35 EURASIA MOTORSPORT 3:30.497
#24 NIELSEN RACING 3:30.897
#50 RICHARD MILLE RACING TEAM 3:31.020
#34 INTER EUROPOL COMPETITION 3:31.393
#11 EUROINTERNATIONAL 3:33.747
The third free practice session will take place from 20:00 to midnight, and the fourth on Friday from 10:00 until the Hyperpole at 11:30.