Following the afternoon’s first free practice session, the Le Mans 24 Hours programme provided its first real challenge with the qualifying practice against the clock to determine which cars will take part in tomorrow’s scheduled Hyperpole.
LMGTE Pro. The sixty-minute session was red-flagged shortly after the halfway point due to an accident involving the no. 93 Proton Competition-run Porsche. Once the session resumed, the track was hit by rain, impeding any further improvement on the timesheets. Two out of the three 488 GTEs secured the right to battle out the class pole position: the no. 51, with a 3'51"502 time and the no. 52, with 3'51"614. The two Ferraris took fifth and sixth respectively, more than half a second behind the leading no. 92 Porsche. Seventh went to the Riley Motorsports 488 GTE, stopping the clock on 3'54"116.
LMGTE Am. Four Ferraris will contest the front row of the Am class grid, with the Kessel Racing 488 GTE setting the second best time of 3'53"489, 930 milliseconds behind Northwest AMR’s Aston Martin. Mikkel Jensen finished ahead of Nick Cassidy and Rahel Frey who secured qualification for the AF Corse and Iron Dames cars. Sixth position went to AF Corse's no. 61 488 GTE, driven by Vincent Abril.
Free Practice. The cars are set to return to the track for the second free practice, the first night-time session on the French circuit. The session gets underway at 22:00 and is due to conclude two hours later.