Aston Martin threw down the gauntlet to its Hypercar rivals ahead of next weekend’s 24 Hours of Le Mans – round three of the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship campaign – as the second-season Valkyrie soared to the top of the timesheets during the official pre-event test.
All 62 entrants in the event took to the track around the Circuit de la Sarthe for six hours of running, as they focused on fine-tuning their preparations for the forthcoming 94th edition of the twice-round-the-clock contest (10-14 June).
Just over an hour into the afternoon session, Tom Gamble – who alongside Aston Martin THOR Team driving partner Harry Tincknell, recently celebrated his finest Hypercar finish to-date with fourth place in the TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps – lowered the target time by more than half-a-second. Behind the wheel of the #007 Valkyrie, the Brit stopped the clocks at 3m26.293s – a stellar lap that would not subsequently be beaten.
“It was a pretty successful and positive day overall,” Gamble mused. “Coming to Le Mans, you never know where you’re going to be compared to everyone else, but the team did an amazing job preparing for the test and already this morning, the #009 was P4 so we’ve shown strong pace throughout and everything is running smoothly so far.
“It’s such a pleasure to drive the Valkyrie around this amazing circuit. It feels night and day compared to last year, and we’re constantly chipping away and improving.
“Going quickest is a nice morale boost for the team, but it doesn’t mean anything really and we don’t know who has shown their hand yet. The main thing is to be up at the sharp end come Sunday afternoon. Le Mans is like the Superbowl of our season, and I’m sure the atmosphere during the race is going to be incredible.”
Three-time Le Mans winner Brendon Hartley ultimately narrowed the gap to the Aston Martin to just over a tenth-of-a-second in TOYOTA RACING’s Imola-winning #8 entry. The Japanese prototype had earlier required repairs following a clash between Ryō Hirakawa and LMP2 driver Jake Hughes at the Goodyear Chicane just under half-an-hour from the end of the morning session, causing significant damage to the TR010 Hybrid and bringing out the red flags.
The top two ended up half-a-second clear of last year’s pole-sitting #12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R – the day’s early pace-setter in the hands of Will Stevens, with Norman Nato shaving almost a full second off his team-mate’s effort in the afternoon as the American marque bids to shine at La Sarthe once again.
Less than a tenth-of-a-second further back was the #35 Alpine Endurance Team A424; Charles Milesi went second-quickest towards the end of session one, before Ferdinand Habsburg posted the car’s best time later in the day. The top five was rounded out by IMSA regular Cadillac WTR, courtesy of Filipe Albuquerque’s morning benchmark.
The remaining top ten Hypercar positions were filled by the #36 Alpine (Victor Martins), Spa-winning #20 BMW (Robin Frijns), #51 Ferrari (Alessandro Pier Guidi) – despite the defending world champion lightly tapping the barriers at Indianapolis in the afternoon – #7 Toyota (Kamui Kobayashi) and, impressively, the #19 Genesis in the hands of Paul-Loup Chatin.
The Korean brand’s #17 GMR-001 similarly ran well in the morning, with ‘Pipo’ Derani setting the 11th-quickest time in the car in which Genesis Magma Racing Trajectory Programme member, Jamie Chadwick enjoyed her first Hypercar laps at Le Mans.
All eight manufacturers in the series’ top-tier were ultimately blanketed by under a second – hinting at a fiercely competitive race ahead.
In LMGT3, VISTA AF Corse topped both sessions, with Alessio Rovera’s morning marker in the #21 Ferrari 296 subsequently being bettered in the afternoon by stablemate and countryman Francesco Castellacci in the #54 entry.
The latter wound up a scant nine thousandths-of-a-second ahead of the #91 Manthey DK Engineering Porsche 911 GT3 R piloted by Timur Boguslavskiy, with Jonny Edgar similarly in close attendance in third in the #33 TF Sport Corvette Z06.
Job van Uitert set the pace in LMP2 in the #28 IDEC Sport prototype, 0.175s quicker than 2025 pole-sitter Mathias Beche in the #14 TDS Racing car.
Find the full Test Day times here.
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