LE MANS — Aston Martin were back at the top of the timesheets at Le Mans during Sunday’s second test session at the famed Circuit de la Sarthe for next weekend’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Toyota, Cadillac and Alpine were all in hot pursuit, as defending champions Ferrari struggled to show their hand on the opening day.
The morning milestone of 3.27.011 was instantly lowered from the word go, as the Alpine Endurance Team in the opening handful of laps went under the 3.27 mark with the first 3.26 of the week – Charles Milesi picking up from his strong morning showing with a 3:26.990 in the #35 A424. The No. 12 Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac, still sore after being pipped at the post in the morning, backed up its earlier pace, edging the order to the tune of 3:26.853 at the end of the first hour.
A brief Full Course Yellow at the start of the second hour was launched to clear some on track debris, but shortly after, the No. 007 Aston Martin Valkyrie deployed operation ‘licence to thrill’ by giving the British fans a moment to cheer as Harry Tincknell went fastest with a 3:26.293 in the V12 machine.
After the disaster in the first session, the No. 8 Toyota TR010 Hybrid which made contact with two slower cars to bring out the red flag, bounced back this afternoon as Kiwi Brendon Hartley showed his hand to also join the 3.26 club. While the N o. 12 Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac and No. 35 Alpine were the only other cars to go under 3.27.
The brand-new for 2026 Genesis GMR-001-Hypercar continued to find its feet at Circuit de la Sarthe, with the South Korean manufacturer finding almost a second in performance in one session alone, with the No. 15 car just ahead of the No. 17.
Nielsen Racing with Edward Perason at the controls came out of the traps quickest in LMP2 with AF Corse right in the wheel-tracks. AF Corse turned the screw at the end of the first hour to leapfrog themselves back to the top for most of the session.
However, it was the No. 28 IDEC Sport car produced the late, late show with a time that went fastest at the fall of the flag.
Sean Gelael pushed his BMW M4 LMGT3 Evo run by Team WRT to the front in the early stages but the No. 91 Manthey DK Engineering Porsche would get into its stride and blast into the 3.56 window with a 3:36.655 early doors – dragging the No. 33 Corvette run by TF Sport with it – just two tenths behind.
Leaving it later than last time, the Vista AF Corse team were on a roll with the #54 machine topping the session for the Maranello marque.
And finally, in Free Practice 2, all 62 cars went underneath the magic four-minute marker for the first time.
