#7 Toyota’s Kamui Kobayashi set the fastest time in free practice 2 in the dying minutes of the 2 hour night session, with the Toyota man lapping Circuit de la Sarthe in 3:26.096.
Yifei Ye, the long-time pace setter across the session in the #83 AF Corse Ferrari, was second, 0.220 adrift of Kobayashi. This came after being one of 3 cars not getting through to Thursday’s Hyperpole in Wednesday qualifying, with the car starting 17th and second from last on Saturday afternoon.
Just 0.071 slower than Ye in the #101 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac was Filipe Albuquerque. In fourth was Le Mans debutant Victor Martins in the #36 Alpine, a further 0.030 back from Albuquerque. Fifth was Louis Deletraz in the #12 JOTA Cadillac, only 0.003 off Martins.
The qualifying pace setter, the #35 Alpine, sat 13th in the practice session.
The session was clean for the most part, with the #22 United Autosports Oreca of Gregoire Saucy one of the bigger incidents, although there was no damage. Saucy had an unidentified mechanical issue near Indianapolis corner and stopped the car. The Oreca later returned to the pits on the back of a flatbed, with the team investigating the issue.
Esteban Masson in the #29 Forestier Racing by Panis Oreca was fastest in LMP2, with the Toyota junior setting a 3:33.765. This was just over 1.3 seconds faster than Alex Quinn in the #04 Crowdstrike by APR Oreca, while third was Matthieu Vaxiviere in the #183 AF Corse Oreca, a further 7 tenths off Quinn and over 2 seconds adrift of Masson.
And in LMGT3, Augusto Farfus set the pace in the #32 WRT BMW, with a 3:55.132. Maxime Martin was second in the #61 Iron Lynx Mercedes, a few tenths off Farfus, while third was Riccardo Pera in the #92 The Bend Manthey Porsche.