Weekend Recap: Le Mans Test Day; Detroit, Paul Ricard Results & More
Catch up on a busy weekend of sports car racing around the globe...
Toyota Quickest in Le Mans Test Day
Jose Maria Lopez set the quickest time in the afternoon test day session ahead of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, completing a sweep of both sessions.
The Argentinean reeled off a lap of 3:29.986 behind the wheel of the No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid, setting the quickest lap of the day in the process.
It was an improvement of an earlier time set by the No. 708 Glickenhaus 007 Pipo driven by Romain Dumas.
The car, with Lopez at the wheel, was involved in a safety exercise gone awry at the Mulsanne corner in the closing minutes of the session causing a red flag, although the car did not suffer any damage.
Dumas had posted a 3:30.104 roughly half an hour into the four-hour session, which remained fastest until Lopez topped it with just over an hour of running left on the clock.
The sister No. 8 Toyota, driven by Ryo Hirakawa, completed the top three ahead of Ryan Briscoe’s second Glickenhaus.
Both Toyotas posted flying laps early in the session, which was in sharp contrast to the first session where it nearly took them two hours to post a representative lap.
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Bourdais, Van der Zande Take Controlling Belle Isle Win
Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande claimed a controlling win in Saturday’s Chevrolet Sports Car Classic at Belle Isle, taking Chip Ganassi Racing back to victory lane in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition.
Van der Zande drove the No. 01 Cadillac DPi-V.R to a narrow 0.398-second win over the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-05 of Oliver Jarvis in the 100-minute contest that ran caution-free.
Having started from pole, Bourdais stretched out into an early lead, with the No. 01 Cadillac untouchable until a frantic closing stages that saw the top four DPis separated by less than two seconds at the line.
A single-stop strategy for both the Nos. 01 and 60 cars initially appeared to pay dividends until a late-race charge for the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac of Pipo Derani, which pitted twice.
Olivier Pla, in his first race with the reigning DPi championship-winning team, came in on Lap 11 to hand over to the Brazilian, who made the car’s second stop with 44 minutes left on the clock.
Derani recovered nearly 30 seconds in his final stint, getting around the No. 02 CGR Cadillac of Earl Bamber for third with 18 minutes remaining before Bamber retook the position with less than five minutes to go in dramatic fashion.
The two rival Cadillacs made slight contact, with race control deeming no further action.
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Iron Lynx Takes Paul Ricard 1-2 as Rivals Encounter Trouble
Daniel Serra, Davide Rigon and Antonio Fuoco kept it clean to win the Paul Ricard 1000km and led home a one-two result for the Iron Lynx Ferrari squad.
The victorious No. 71 Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 started from pole and bounced back from losing a few positions early on to control the final two hours of the six-hour race.
Fuoco took the midnight checkered flag 7.8 seconds ahead of his teammate Miguel Molina in the sister No. 51 Ferrari that also featured James Calado and Nicklas Nielsen.
Molina captured second by muscling his way around Jules Gounon’s No. 88 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo into the Signes right-hander shortly after a late restart.
Gounon settled for third alongside his Akkodis ASP co-drivers Daniel Juncadella and Raffaele Marciello, while the BMW Junior Team trio of Max Hesse, Dan Harper and Neil Verhagen took fourth.
The winning Iron Lynx Ferrari crew put together a clean race while several of their key competitors encountered setbacks.
Akkodis ASP lost ground with two stop-hold penalties totaling 15 seconds in the fourth hour, while WRT’s No. 32 Audi entry that won the Imola season-opener retired after Dries Vanthoor had contact with the Madpanda Motorsport Mercedes-AMG in hour five.
Emil Frey Racing’s No. 63 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo also dropped away after the organizers gave it a black flag in the final hour, forcing Mirko Bortolotti to pit for repairs to a faulty rear light that stemmed from puncture collateral.
Several Lamborghinis, including all three of the Emil Frey cars, and a handful of Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo IIs were affected by left-rear tire issues throughout the race.
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BMW Reveals LMDh Car
WTR Building LMDh Test Team
No Acura LMDh at Le Mans in ‘23
Acura Teases ARX-06
Audi Keen to Maintain WRT