Testing at Le Mans belonged to Aston Martin
All 62 participants went for six hours to the Circuit de la Sarthe circuit to focus on fine-tuning preparations for the upcoming 94th year of the race, which takes place from Wednesday (10-14 June). .
A little over an hour after the start of the afternoon part of the test day, Tom Gamble, who recently celebrated his best result in the FIA WEC race, took the fourth place in the 6 Hours of Spa- Francorchamps alongside Harry Tinknell, reduced target time by more than half a second. Behind the wheel of Valkyrie with the number 007 Brit ended in time 3: 26,293 s.
"Overall it was quite a successful and positive day," sums up Gamble. "When you go to Le Mans, you never know where you will be compared to the others, but the team has done an amazing job preparing for the test, and already this morning the number 009 car was in fourth place, so we've been showing a strong pace all the time and so far everything is going smoothly.
It is such a pleasure to drive Valkyrie on this wonderful circuit. Compared to last year, we feel like day and night and we are constantly improving.
Being the fastest is a pleasant boost to morale for the team, but it doesn't really mean anything because we don't know who already showed their powers. The important thing is to be on top Sunday afternoon. Le Mans is like the Super Bowl of our season and I'm sure the atmosphere during the race will be incredible. "
The three-time winner of Le Mans Brendon Hartley finally with car number 8 Toyota Racing, who won in Imola, reduced the loss of Aston Martin to just over a tenth of a second. The Japanese prototype requested repairs after the collision between RyProcessing Hirakawa and the LMP2 driver Jake Hughes in the bullying Goodyear 30 minutes before the end of the morning part of the race, causing significant damage to the TR010 Hybrid and the red flag.
All eight producers in the highest class of the series ended up with a difference of less than a second - suggesting that there is a full competition ahead.
In the LMGT3 category, the VISTA AF Corse team won both training parts. The morning performance of Alessia Rover in Ferrari Car 296 No. 21 was subsequently exceeded by his colleague from the stable and the district of Francesco Castellacci in car 54.
The other ended only nine thousand seconds ahead of the Porsche 911 GT3 R No. 91 of the Manthey DK Engineering team, who flew Timur Boguslavski. Jonny Edgar was just behind him in third place in the TF Sport Corvette Z06 No. 33.
Job van Uitert reported the pace in category LMP2 in the IDEC Sport prototype No. 28, by 0.175 with faster status than Mathias Beche, holder of field position from 2025, in the TDS Racing car No. 14.