The first day opening ceremony ahead of the 2026 24 Hours of Le Mans is now safely in the bag as just over half the expected sixty-two car entry passed through the Le Pesage process within the Place de La Republique in downtown Le Mans earlier today.
With the remainder of the field to have their time in front of both the scrutineers and expectant crowd in the square over the course of tomorrow, all five Aston Martin and Aston Martin Racing powered crews from both the Heart of Racing and Racing Spirit of Leman teams faced that opportunity earlier today.
Whilst the cars were in the town, there were also checks being made within each of the teams garages with their refuelling rigs before one Aston Martin Valkyrie and one Heart of Racing AMR Vantage LMGT3 then get a thrash around the old town of Le Mans and Saturday afternoons town centre procession.
That noise and motion will then lead into the two three-hour track sessions of the official test within which the teams will cycle through their respective test and build up programme as well as getting the likes of LM24 debutant Gray Newell in getting in his minimum laps ahead of the more formally timed and sanctioned track sessions next week.
With BoP now a closely guarded secret from the public arena within the FIA World Endurance Championship and that of the twenty-four hour being solely different from the mainstream WEC season anyway, it probably will not be until Qualifying and Hyperpole where we will find out just where either Aston Martin platform sits within their respective classes.
Photo credits – Teams / DPPI Images