Practice report

Le Mans 24 Hours: Cadillac sets blistering pace in opening practice to head Ferrari

Sebastien Bourdais topped the timesheets for Cadillac as practice got under way for the Le Mans 24 Hours, lapping a tenth quicker than the best of the Ferraris

Cadillac has set the pace in the first official practice session for the 2025 Le Mans 24 Hours with Sebastien Bourdais only lapping half a second slower than last year's pole.

The Hypercar crews were setting a blistering pace right from the very start of the three-hour session with Antonio Fuoco's #51 Ferrari 499P LMH clocking a 3m25.302s with his first flying effort - a time that was almost a second faster than the best achieved during Sunday's Test Day.

Fuoco's early lap remained the benchmark until the final 35 minutes of the session when Bourdais clocked a 3m25.148s in the #38 Jota Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh to grab top spot.

Porsche's Kevin Estre was third fastest with a 3m25.568s that was set at the mid-point of the session in the #6 963 LMDh, while Toyota made it four different manufacturers in the top four.

Brendon Hartley's 3m25.702s in the #8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID LMH, also set on the car's first flying lap, meant the quartet of brands were split by just over half a second.

Two further Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 LMDhs occupied fifth and seventh spots with both the #5 and #4 machines within a second of Bourdais' outright pace.

They were sandwiched by the second Jota Cadillac of Will Stevens, which improved to sixth late on.

#50 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Antonio Fuoco, Nicklas Nielsen, Miguel Molina

Photo by: Rainier Ehrhardt

The best of the BMW M Hybrid V8s, the #15 machine driven by Dries Vanthoor, was eighth quickest, setting a 3m26.022s.

The top Alpine, Paul-Loup Chatin's #35 A424 LMDh, was ninth on a 3m26.120s to still be within a second of Bourdais, while the privateer Proton Porsche of Neel Jani rounded out the top 10.

The second Toyota was 11th, while the other two Ferraris were only 15th and 19th respectively.

Aston Martin outpaced Peugeot at the bottom of the Hypercar ranks, the #007 Valkyrie setting a 3m27.068s best courtesy of Harry Tincknell to be 17th of the 21 top-class entries.

The two Peugeot 9X8s brought up the tail of the leaderboard with the first of these, the #93 machine, 3.6s off the outright pace.

The LMP2 ranks were headed by the #16 RLR Sport ORECA-Gibson 07 after Patrick Pilet clocked a 3m36.888s after just 18 minutes of the session.

Second spot was taken by the #43 Inter Europol entry of Nick Yelloly, which was about a quarter of a second adrift, while #45 Algarve Pro machine of Alex Quinn was third in class on a 3m37.342s.

#78 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus RC F LMGT3: Arnold Robin, Jack Hawksworth, Finn Gehrsitz

Photo by: Rainier Ehrhardt

Lexus continued to set the pace among the LMGT3 division, the Akkodis ASP Team having remained on top after heading the Test Day timesheets.

The #78 RC F of Jack Hawksworth went fastest half an hour into the session and its 3m57.248s was never bettered.

The #54 AF Corse Ferrari 296 of Davide Rigon was second, just half a tenth adrift, while the #10 Racing Spirit of Le Mans Aston Martin went third in the final seconds of the session thanks to Valentin Hasse-Clot.

The #63 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG of Stephen Grove was the only car to suffer major strife during the three hours when he had a heavy impact with the Dunlop Chicane barriers after 75 minutes of the session, which triggered a red flag.