The 24 Hours of Le Mans, who celebrate their centenary in 2023, started on Sunday with the first tests before free practice. There were six hours of testing in which the 62 teams had their first contact with the particular Circuit de la Sarthe.
It already began to roll quickly and several hypercar, of the 16 that will meet at the start next Saturday (4:00 p.m.), set times below 3:30. The two units of Ferrari with his 499P marked the reference in each of the two tests and also reduced that time Porsche #6 and #75 and the Toyota #7. For the rest, in Peugeot took advantage of the sessions to put their 9X8 and the number #94 he did a total of 39 laps, while the #93 suffered minor reliability issues.
The test also served to see the innovator on track for the first time Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 #24 from Hendrick Motorsports based on the cars of the NASCAR who competes out of category. The trio formed by Jimmie Johnson, Mike Rockenfeller and Jenson Button They achieved a time of 3:53.761, which put into perspective puts it on a par with the GTs. “We think of this commitment as a true competitive program. Chevrolet wanted something serious, with the ambition to compete with the other LMGTE Ams. For the drivers and the team that we are, it is difficult not to fight in the race. Above all, we have the pressure in relation to the intrinsic performance of the car. We don’t know its weak points, its strong points, and we don’t know how it will behave against other GTs”, explains Johnson about the innovative project.
The cars will return to the track next Wednesday to start the first free practice sessions before qualifying. There the fire will already begin to be real before a race that is presented as special for everyone. ‘The race of the century’, as the organization has baptized it.
