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Le Mans 24 Hour - Free Practice - 1/6/14

By MJP Media / Formula Photographie | 4 June 2014

Toyota top the time sheet in the practice session on Test Day at the world famous Le Mans 24 Hour with Audi hot on their heels.

The No. 8 Toyota topped the time sheet in practice

It was no surprise that Toyota set the pace during a full eight hours of free testing on Sunday ahead of the 2014 Le Mans 24 Hour with both cars at the top of the times at the historic circuit. Having already won both the first two rounds of the 2014 FIA World Endurance Championship, Toyota came out in full race trim with hybrid number 8 of Scotsman Anthony Davidson, Nicolas Lapierre and former F1 star Sebastien Buemi posting a time of 3m 23.014secs.

Their sister car, the number 7 TS040 of two times Le Mans winner Alexander Wurz, ex-Minardi F1 driver Stephane Sarrazin and former Williams F1 driver Kazuki Nakajima followed up in second place with the Toyota pair over a second faster than nearest rivals Filip Albuquerque, Marco Bonanomi and Oliver Jarvis in the number 3 Audi R18 e-tron. Although effectively the junior of the three Audis in the field, they had been the quickest of anyone in the morning session, however, they posted the third fastest time of the day after the afternoon session. The number 1 R18 of Tom Kristensen, Loic Duval and Lucas di Grassi were in fourth with an almost identical time.

Audi were 3rd and 4th fastest

With this year's event headlined by the much anticipated return of Porsche, the German manufacturer's two 919 hybrids occupied fifth and seventh place with the number 2 Audi splitting them. These positions are largely academic however as there was less than 2 seconds separating the whole of the LMP1 field. Based on this, 2014 could well be the most competitive race for a few years.

Undoubtedly the strangest car on the circuit was the Nissan ZEOD RC which completed its first 24 laps of Circuit de la Sarthe with GT Academy winner Wolfgang Reip and two-time Le Mans P2 winner Tommy Erdos at the wheel. Although the car was delayed with two small technical issues - a broken fuel pump and a broken exhaust - today's test was an important step in the development of the car that aims to complete an entire lap of Le Mans on pure electric power.

Nissan Motorsports Global's ZEOD RC

"Today has been a very important step in the development of the car and what we have achieved is actually quite remarkable." said NISMO's Global Head of Brand, Marketing & Sales, Darren Cox. "We knew we were tackling a huge challenge with the goal of building a car that could complete an entire 8.5 mile lap of Le Mans on nothing but electric power. We have certainly discovered why nobody has tackled it previously. We completed large sections of the circuit today on EV power and learned a great deal." Cox continued. "Today was about testing the systems and ensuring the transition from electric to internal combustion power was seamless. Testing at other venues is extremely valuable but there is no substitute to running here at Le Mans. We ran with the test car today and we'll continue to test with the actual race car all week back in the UK before heading back for the race."

The race itself is on the 14th and 15th of June and we will bring you a full report on it and the British interest directly after the race.

Words copyright MJP Media
Pictures copyright MJP Media / Formula Photographie

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