Toyota narrowly leads Ferrari in Hypercar as 2025 Le…

Toyota topped the times at the Le Mans Test Day as track running ahead of next weekend’s double-points round of the World Endurance Championship kicked off on Sunday.

Brendon Hartley led the way aboard the #8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID Le Mans Hypercar with a 3m26.246s set early in the second of two three-hours sessions on the full Circuit de la Sarthe at Le Mans.

That gave him half a second over the 3m26.777s from James Calado in the best of defending Le Mans champion Ferrari’s factory 499P LMHs.

Robert Kubica made it two Ferraris in the top three driving the customer 499P run by AF Corse, his 3m26.902s afternoon best representing an improvement of one tenth over the time with which he had taken top spot in the morning.

Hypercar testing at Le Mans

#36 Alpine Endurance Team Alpine A424: Mick Schumacher, Frederic Makowiecki, Jules Gounon (Photo by: Rainier Ehrhardt)

Alpine ended up fourth in the combined Hypercar class times, Mick Schumacher leap frogging up the order in the final hour of the afternoon period.

He initially put the #36 Alpine A424 LMDh fifth, before finding eight hundredths to get down to a 3m27.313s on his next lap to push Kevin Estre in the fastest of the factory Porsche 963 LMDhs down a position.

Nick Tandy was sixth fastest in the additional factory Porsche Penske Motorsport entry for Le Mans with a 3m27.489s, just three hundredths up on Miguel Molina’s 3m27.516s in the #50 factory Ferrari.

#12 Cadillac Hertz Team Jota Cadillac V-Series.R: Will Stevens, Norman Nato, Alex Lynn (Photo by: Rainier Ehrhardt)

Robin Frijns claimed eighth for BMW in the #20 M Hybrid V8 LMDh with a 3m27.554s before the car was brought to a precautionary halt on track. The WRT team found an oil leak on the car’s return to the pits, which precluded its involvement in the remainder of the session.

Cadillac took ninth in the combined times with Alex Lynn in the #12 V-Series.R run by the British Jota squad, while Charles Milesi rounded out the top 10 in the second Alpine entry.

Tom Gamble put the best of The Heart of Racing team’s Aston Martin Valkyrie LMHs 18th, while Peugeot struggled with its 9X8 2024 LMH at the rear of the 21-car Hypercar field, ending up 19th and 20th in the opening session and 19th and 21st in the second.

LMP2 testing

#22 United Autosports Oreca 07 - Gibson: Renger Van Der Zande, Pietro Fittipaldi, David Heinemeier Hansson (Photo by: Rainier Ehrhardt)

United Autosports led the way in LMP2, Pietro Fittipaldi posting a best time of 3m35.770s aboard the team’s #22 ORECA-Gibson 07.

That put him four tenths clear of the 3m36.225s to which Mathias Beche improved late on in the afternoon aboard the TDS Racing entry.

LMGT3 testing

#78 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus RC F LMGT3: Arnold Robin, Jack Hawksworth, Finn Gehrsitz (Photo by: Rainier Ehrhardt)

Jose Maria Lopez topped the times for Lexus in LMGT3 at the end of both sessions.

His afternoon best of 3m55.276s in the #87 RC F GT3 run by the French Auto Sport Promotion team gave him a margin of a second and a half over Alessio Rovera in the #21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3.

Track running at Le Mans for round four of the 2025 WEC resumes on Wednesday with first practice session at 14:00 local time ahead of opening qualifying at 18:45. Full schedule here at Motorsport.com