United Autosports proved fastest at 2024 24H of Le Mans Test Day

The 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans has officially begun! Six days before the twice-around-the-clock race in Sarthe, all cars hit the track on Sunday for Test Day, which included two sessions: 10am-1pm and 3.30pm-6.30pm. A key opportunity for teams and drivers to get their bearings before the race next weekend (June 15-16).

 LMP2:

This edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans is off to an ideal start for United Autosports’ #22 ORECA 07. Oliver Jarvis, Bijoy Garg, and Nolan Siegel were the only ones to lap under 3:35. They topped the timesheet with best lap: 3:34.704.

Algarve Pro Racing’s #25 ORECA 07 finished second, 1.277 sec behind. The Portuguese team has entrusted its prototype to Matthias Kaiser, Olli Caldwell, and Roman Senna De Angelis. As to John Falb, James Allen, and Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer behind the wheel of Duqueine Team’s #30 ORECA 07, they took the third place with 3:36.354. Enough to score the lead in the Pro-Am class.

Fourth in the LMP2 class, United Autosports USA’s #23 ORECA 07 finished second in Pro-Am (3:36.623). Ben Keating, Filipe Albuquerque, and Benjamin Hanley were over one tenth ahead of AF Corse’s #183 ORECA 07 (François Perrodo, Ben Barnicoat, Nicolas Varrone) which finished fourth in the LMP2 class.

Defending its title, Inter Europol Competition was rather discreet. Jakub Smiechowski, Vladislav Lomk, and Clément Novalak’s #34 ORECA 07 finished eighth, 2.681 secs away from the best lap (3:37.385). In pole position last year, IDEC Sport’s #28 ORECA 07 (Paul Lafargue, Job Van Uitert, Reshad De Gérus) was in the lead after the morning session, but finished twelfth with best lap of 3:37.939.

Hypercar:

Having entered the 2023 edition in the LMP2 class, Alpine Endurance Team returned to Le Mans with two A424s in the main class. Nicolas Lapierre, Mick Schumacher, and Matthieu Vaxiviere’s #36 car finished in seventeenth position, three places ahead of Paul-Loup Chatin, Ferdinand Habsburg-Lothringen, and Charles Milesi’s #37.

2024 24 Hours of Le Mans programme:

Wednesday 12 June
2pm-5pm Free Practice 1
7pm-8pm Qualifying
10pm-12am Free Practice 2

Thursday 13 June
3pm-6pm Free Practice 3
8pm-8:30pm Hyperpole
10pm-11pm Free Practice 4

Saturday 15 June
12pm-12:15pm Warm-up
4pm Start

Sunday 16 June
4pm Finish