Rebellin driver Louis Deltraz led the Free Practice session in the 24 Hours of Le Mans which was featuring four hours of night-time run which gives opportunity for the drivers and teams to test their cars for the night ahead of the weekend race.
Majority of the fastest lap times were set on the first half of the session as the other half many teams switched to tyre work. Louis Deletraz set a time of 3m19.158s in the first hour as he was driving the No.3 Rebellion R-13 LMP1 privateer.
Kamui Kobayashi with the Toyota TS050 Hybrid recorded 3m19.638s on his second lap which was an improvement from his previous laps as Gustavo Mendez closely followed with the second Rebellion R-13. Sebastian Buemi came fourth with the sister N0.8 Toyota TS050 Hybrid. Much later the Bykolles came in as the fifth and final of the LMP1 cars losing a lot of time after Bruno Spengler made contact with the barrier at Tetre Rouge just an hour and a half in the session bringing out a red flag.
Tristan Gommendy set the pace for the LMP2 cars in his No.30 Duqueine Oreca 07 with 3m 28.013s in the first hours of the session as the record remained untouched. United Autosports’ Job Van Uitart came in second with the No.32 Oreca-07 just nine tenths of a second later than Gommendy as Jean Eric Vergne in his No.26 G-Drive Oreca came in third a tenth of a second later.
Both of the IDEC cars remained in the pits after suffering accidents early Thursday with the team’s No.28 Oreca requiring a new tub.
Kevin Estre took the lead in the GTEPro class after recording a time of 3m 52.177s in the first hour of the session aboard the No.92 Porsche 911-RSR 19. The No.97 Aston Martin Vantage driven by Maxime Martin came second just three tenths of a second later as Marco Sorensen took third with the No.95 Aston Martin Vantage. James Calado took 4th with the No.51 Ferrari AF Corse making it the first of the Ferraris.
In the GTE Am category Kei cozzolino topped with the japanese MR Racing Ferrari recording a time of 3m 54.490s beating Paolo Rubetri’s No.60 Iron Lynx Ferrari time in the final hour. The No.98 Aston Martin with Augusto Farfus came second a tenth of a second after Cozzolino.
The session was halted 15 minutes early after a huge accident for Bonamy Grimes in the Red River Ferrari after the Briton lost his car under braking for the first Mulsanne chicane and rammed into the barriers, but climbed out unhurt.
