As most teams elected to give drivers pitstop practice in live conditions, only 12 of the 23 Hypercar entries set a time during the short 15-minute session that precedes the World Endurance Championship’s blue-riband event, with Kubica heading a Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercar 1-2 in his customer #83 AF Corse example.
His 3m29.260s lap time proved 0.409s quicker than Antonio Giovinazzi, the defending Le Mans winner’s #51 factory entry losing time in the final sector after setting two purple sectors earlier in the lap.
De Vries had by this time returned to the pits with nose damage on his #7 Toyota GR010 HYBRID, which will start from the back of the Hypercar grid after Kamui Kobayashi’s spin in qualifying brought out red flags.
The Dutchman was caught out as he closed on van der Linde’s ASP-run Lexus RC F GT3 on the exit of the Porsche Curves, and was unable to avoid making contact with the DTM points leader before spinning.
The stewards deemed that van der Linde was predominantly at fault for the collision, as the South African’s car had slowed while still on the racing line.
He was given a suspended stop-and-go penalty, while the team faces a race against time to repair the damage in time for the race.
Another incident occurred at the first Mulsanne Chicane when Matt Rao’s Algarve Pro Racing ORECA-Gibson 07 LMP2 car clattered into the side of Sebastien Bourdais in the Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series. R LMDh, although both cars continued.
#83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Robert Kubica, Robert Shwartzman, Yifei Ye
Photo by: Alexander Trienitz
Charles Milesi improved to clock the third-fastest time in the #35 Alpine A424 LMDh, 1.843s behind Kubica, while Laurens Vanthoor in the polesitting #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 LMDh moved into fourth.
That demoted Will Stevens to fifth in the rebuilt #12 Jota Porsche 963 LMDh, getting its first laps on-track since Callum Ilott’s crash during night practice on Wednesday, following a successful shakedown on the Le Mans air strip last night.
Frederic Makowiecki was sixth in the #5 PPM 963, slotting in ahead of Jack Aitken’s Action Express Cadillac and Nicolas Lapierre in the second Alpine. Sebastien Buemi (Toyota) and Felipe Nasr in the third PPM Porsche completed the top 10.
Ben Barnicoat headed the LMP2 times in his #183 AF Corse-entered ORECA. The Briton’s 3m36.884s lap put him 0.651s clear of Mathias Beche’s Panis Racing entry, with Job van Uitert third for IDEC Sport.
In LMGT3, factory driver Daniel Serra set the pace in the GR Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 which will start the race from the back of the grid after power delivery problems meant it was unable to set a time in qualifying.
The Brazilian lapped 0.204s quicker than Dennis Olsen’s #88 Proton Ford Mustang, while the polesitting Inception Racing McLaren 720S EVO of Frederik Schandorff was third.
Warm-up was held on a track that race control declared wet, although rain only truly hit as cars were trailing back to the pits at the session’s conclusion.
The 2024 Le Mans 24 Hours will begin at 4pm local time (3pm BST).
