Practice report
WEC 24 Hours of Le Mans
Le Mans 24h: Toyota remains on top in second practice
Toyota remained firmly on top in the second three-hour practice session for the 2020 Le Mans 24 Hours, which was interrupted twice by heavy accidents.
Filip Cleeren
Edited: Sep 18, 2020, 2:04 AM
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Both Toyota TS050 Hybrids were initially hovering around the 3m21s mark until Sebastien Buemi fired off a lap of 3m19.719s in the #8 car just before the two-hour mark. Buemi’s time was nine tenths clear of the #7 sister car, which was second-fastest courtesy of Mike Conway's late 3m20.611s.
Nathanael Berthon put the #3 Rebellion R-13 in third, 3.456s removed from Buemi’s benchmark. The lone #4 ByKolles entry was fourth in class, but slower than the leading LMP2 car, Tom Dillmann clocking a 3m27.304s at the start of the session.
Rebellion’s #1 car was stuck in the garage for most of the session to complete an engine change.
In LMP2, reigning FIA Formula 2 champion Nyck de Vries set a benchmark of 3m27.884s in the first hour in the #29 Racing Team Nederland Oreca 07.
It took until the final hour for the competition to catch up to the Dutchman, Will Stevens clocking a 3m28.011s in the #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca. But De Vries then put the Dutch team further out in front with a 3m27.185s in the yellow machine.
Formula E champion Antonio Felix da Costa was third in the #38 JOTA Sport Oreca, a further five tenths back from Stevens.
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Aston Martin looked set to continue its clean sweep in GTE Pro until Michael Christensen overhauled Alex Lynn’s time to go fastest in the #92 Porsche RSR-19. Christensen set a time of 3m52.783s in the final 20 minutes of the session, bettering Lynn’s benchmark in the #97 Aston Martin Vantage by more than half a second.
Gianmaria Bruni was third in the #91 Porsche, followed by Toni Vilander in the #63 WeatherTech Racing Ferrari and James Calado in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari.
In GTE Am the #98 Aston long remained on top by virtue of Augusto Farfus’ early laptime of 3m55.167s, until Come Ledogar bettered the Brazilian’s time with just 10 minutes to go in the #61 Luzich Ferrari.
Ledogar was then overhauled himself by Matt Campbell in the #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche. The Porsche works driver lowered the benchmark to 3m53.961s, which was the fifth-fastest time of any GTE car.
The session was red flagged twice for heavy crashes, each involving an IDEC Sport LMP2 car. Just before the one-hour mark Paul Lafargue hit the barriers coming out of the second chicane in the #28 IDEC Sport Oreca.
An hour later, teammate Dwight Merriman crashed heavily coming out of the Porsche Curves in the #17 sister car, meaning the French team is facing an uphill battle to get ready for Thursday afternoon’s first 45-minute qualifying session.
The fastest six cars in each class from that session will progress to Friday’s Hyperpole shootout.
Session results:
Pos. # Drivers Car Class Time Gap Int. 1 8 
Sebastien Buemi
Kazuki Nakajima
Brendon Hartley Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 3'19.719 2 7 
Mike Conway
Kamui Kobayashi
Jose Maria Lopez Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 3'20.611 0.892 0.892 3 3 
Romain Dumas
Nathanaël Berthon
Louis Deletraz Rebellion R13 LMP1 3'23.175 3.456 2.564 4 29 
Frits van Eerd
Giedo van der Garde
Nyck de Vries Oreca 07 LMP2 3'27.185 7.466 4.010 5 4 Tom Dillmann
Bruno Spengler
Oliver Webb ENSO CLM P1/01 LMP1 3'27.304 7.585 0.119 6 37 
Ho-Pin Tung
Gabriel Aubry
Will Stevens Oreca 07 LMP2 3'28.011 8.292 0.707 7 38 Anthony Davidson
Antonio Felix da Costa
Roberto Gonzalez Oreca 07 LMP2 3'28.450 8.731 0.439 8 33 Kenta Yamashita
Mark Patterson
Anders Fjordbach Oreca 07 LMP2 3'29.064 9.345 0.614 9 26 
Roman Rusinov
Jean-Eric Vergne
Mikkel Jensen Aurus 01 LMP2 3'29.436 9.717 0.372 10 32 William Owen
Alex Brundle
Job Van Uitert Oreca 07 LMP2 3'29.666 9.947 0.230 11 22 Philip Hanson
Filipe Albuquerque
Paul di Resta Oreca 07 LMP2 3'30.171 10.452 0.505 12 31 Nico Jamin
Julien Canal
Matthieu Vaxivière Oreca 07 LMP2 3'30.375 10.656 0.204 13 21 
Juan Pablo Montoya
Timothe Buret
Memo Rojas Oreca 07 LMP2 3'30.485 10.766 0.110 14 30 Jonathan Hirschi
Konstantin Tereshchenko
Tristan Gommendy Oreca 07 LMP2 3'30.592 10.873 0.107 15 27 
Henrik Hedman
Ben Hanley
Renger van der Zande Oreca 07 LMP2 3'30.934 11.215 0.342 16 25 John Falb
Simon Trummer
Matthew McMurry Oreca 07 LMP2 3'31.061 11.342 0.127 17 39 
James Allen
Vincent Capillaire
Charles Milesi Oreca 07 LMP2 3'31.365 11.646 0.304 18 36 
André Negrão
Pierre Ragues
Thomas Laurent Alpine A470 LMP2 3'31.649 11.930 0.284 19 35 Nobuya Yamanaka
Nick Foster
Roberto Merhi Ligier JSP 217 LMP2 3'32.725 13.006 1.076 20 16 
Ryan Cullen
Oliver Jarvis
Nick Tandy Aurus 01 LMP2 3'32.735 13.016 0.010 21 50 Tatiana Calderón
Sophia Floersch
Beitske Visser Oreca 07 LMP2 3'32.915 13.196 0.180 22 28 Paul Lafargue
Paul Loup Chatin
Richard Bradley Oreca 07 LMP2 3'32.995 13.276 0.080 23 47 
Roberto Lacorte
Andrea Belicchi
Giorgio Sernagiotto Dallara P217 LMP2 3'33.122 13.403 0.127 24 34 
Jakub Smiechowski
Rene Binder
Matevos Isaakyan Ligier JSP 217 LMP2 3'34.991 15.272 1.869 25 42 Nicolas Lapierre
Antonin Borga
Alexandre Coigny Oreca 07 LMP2 3'35.050 15.331 0.059 26 24 Garret Grist
Alex Kapadia
Anthony Wells Oreca 07 LMP2 3'36.053 16.334 1.003 27 17 Dwight Merriman
Kyle Tilley
John Kennard Oreca 07 LMP2 3'36.402 16.683 0.349 28 11 Adrien Tambay
Erik Maris
Christophe d'Ansembourg Ligier JSP 217 LMP2 3'51.919 32.200 15.517 29 92 Michael Christensen
Kevin Estre
Laurens Vanthoor Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 3'52.783 33.064 0.864 30 97 Maxime Martin
Alex Lynn
Harry Tincknell Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE PRO 3'53.346 33.627 0.563 31 91 Gianmaria Bruni
Richard Lietz
Frédéric Makowiecki Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 3'53.561 33.842 0.215 32 63 Cooper MacNeil
Toni Vilander
Jeffrey Segal Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 3'53.670 33.951 0.109 33 77 Christian Ried
Riccardo Pera
Matt Campbell Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 3'53.961 34.242 0.291 34 51 Alessandro Pier Guidi
James Calado
Daniel Serra Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 3'54.088 34.369 0.127 35 95 Nicki Thiim
Marco Sørensen
Richard Westbrook Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE PRO 3'54.501 34.782 0.413 36 71 Davide Rigon
Miguel Molina
Sam Bird Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 3'54.734 35.015 0.233 37 82 Olivier Pla
Sebastien Bourdais
Jules Gounon Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 3'54.776 35.057 0.042 38 61 Francesco Piovanetti
Oswaldo Negri Jr
Côme Ledogar Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'54.901 35.182 0.125 39 86 Michael Wainwright
Ben Barker
Andrew Watson Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 3'55.061 35.342 0.160 40 98 Paul Dalla Lana
Ross Gunn
Augusto Farfus Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 3'55.167 35.448 0.106 41 99 
Vutthikorn Inthraphuvasak
Lucas Légeret
Julien Andlauer Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 3'55.226 35.507 0.059 42 57 Ben Keating
Felipe Fraga
Jeroen Bleekemolen Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 3'55.507 35.788 0.281 43 83 François Perrodo
Emmanuel Collard
Nicklas Nielsen Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'55.670 35.951 0.163 44 54 Thomas Flohr
Francesco Castellacci
Giancarlo Fisichella Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'55.674 35.955 0.004 45 90 
Salih Yoluc
Charlie Eastwood
Jonathan Adam Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 3'55.722 36.003 0.048 46 75 Rino Mastronardi
Matteo Cressoni
Andrea Piccini Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'56.352 36.633 0.630 47 56 
Egidio Perfetti
Larry ten Voorde
Matteo Cairoli Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 3'56.462 36.743 0.110 48 88 Thomas Preining
Dominique Bastien
Adrien de Leener Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 3'56.501 36.782 0.039 49 60 Claudio Schiavoni
Sergio Pianezzola
Paolo Ruberti Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'57.196 37.477 0.695 50 70 Takeshi Kimura
Vincent Abril
Kei Cozzolino Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'57.633 37.914 0.437 51 55 Duncan Cameron
Aaron Scott
Matt Griffin Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'57.703 37.984 0.070 52 66 Richard Heistand
Max Root
Jan Magnussen Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'57.908 38.189 0.205 53 78 Horst Felbermayr Jr.
Michele Beretta
Max van Splunteren Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 3'58.056 38.337 0.148 54 85 Manuela Gostner
Rahel Frey
Michelle Gatting Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'58.713 38.994 0.657 55 62 Bonamy Grimes
Johnny Mowlem
Charles Hollings Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 4'00.462 40.743 1.749 56 72 
Morris Chen
Tom Blomqvist
Marcos Gomes Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 4'00.694 40.975 0.232 57 89 Philippe Haezebrouck
Julien Piguet
Andreas Laskaratos Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 4'01.737 42.018 1.043 58 52 Christoph Ulrich
Steffen Gorig
Alexander West Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 4'04.604 44.885 2.867 59 1 Bruno Senna
Norman Nato
Gustavo Menezes Rebellion R13 LMP1 no time
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