FIA World Endurance Championship leader Toyota Racing has thrown down the gauntlet to rivals Audi and Porsche ahead of the 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans by setting the top two fastest laps at today’s one-day Official Test.
The no8 TS040 Hybrid of Sébastien Buemi posted a lap of 3m23.014 in the second of two 4-hour test sessions, 0.7 seconds quicker than the quickest time in the morning set by the no3 Audi R18 e-tron quattro. Buemi’s time was just 0.142s faster than the no7 Toyota of Kazuki Nakajima. The no3 Audi finished the day with the third quickest time thanks to the 3m23.799 set in the morning, with Marco Bonanomi posting a 3m24.453 lap in the second session, exactly the same time as teammate Loïc Duval in no1 Audi.
The two LMP1-H Porsches were split by the no2 Audi of André Lotterer, just 0.065s behind the no14 919 hybrid of Neel Jani, who posted a 3m24.692 lap. Jani was 0.2s faster than team mate Timo Bernard in the no20 Porsche.
The no12 Rebellion R-One LMP1-L class car was 1.3 seconds ahead of the no13 R-One at the end of the day, with Mathias Beche posting a 3m31.700 lap, 8.6s behind the lead Toyota on the 13.629km long Le Mans circuit.
Like Toyota, the LMP2 championship leader G-Drive Racing got its Le Mans challenge off to a great start with Roman Rusinov in the no26 Morgan-Nissan posting the quickest lap in the class with a 3m37.795 lap, 0.3s faster than the no48 Murphy Prototypes Oreca Nissan and a futher0.8s ahead of the no36 Signatech Alpine. The no47 KCMG Oreca was the second quickest of the five LMP2 runners entered from the FIA WEC, posting the 5th fastest time in LMP2 but just 1.68s behind the time set by Rusinov in the G-Drive Racing Morgan.
After Ferrari dominated the morning test session it was Porsche that topped the times at the end of the day, with Fred Makowiecki setting a 3m57.260 lap to top the time sheets, 3 seconds quicker than the best time set by the no92 Team Manthey Porsche in the morning. It was a bitter sweet afternoon for the Porsche team as the no91 911 was forced to miss the afternoon session after Jorg Bergmeister’s car flew across the gravel trap at the final corner earlier in the day.
The leading Ferrari was not a LMGTE Pro class car but the LMGTE Am 8 Star Motorsports 458 of Paolo Ruberti, the Italian posting the second fastest time across the whole of the two LMGTE classes with a 3m57.403, just 0.143s behind Makowieki’s LMGTE Pro spec Porsche and ahead of the works Ferraris run by AF Corse, the nr51 AF Corse Ferrari of Giancarlo Fisichella finishing 0.08s behind Ruberti’s 458.
The Official Test is now over for another year and the teams are looking forward to the start of Le Mans week on Sunday 8 June when the teams and drivers head to the Place de la Republique for two days of scrutineering in the centre of Le Mans. The track action begins once again with Free Practice on Wednesday 11 June.
CLICK HERE for the results from the afternoon session at the official test.
24 Hours of Le Mans Test Day Press Conference par fiawec
Jeff Carter
