The opening Free Practice session of the weekend at the 2022 4 Hours of Le Castellet saw Swiss team COOL Racing dominate in LMP2 and LMP2 Pro/Am categories.
Cool Racing tops the timing screens
The no47 Oreca, driven by Jose Maria Lopez, set the fastest lap time of 1m43.030, securing the top spot in the timing screens, which was only a few milliseconds slower than the pole position lap (1m43.038) set by Mathias Beche.
The no37 COOL Racing Oreca, driven by Malthe Jakobsen, was the second fastest and the fastest Pro/Am entry, setting a lap time of 1m43.936, 0.906s behind his teammate.
The third and fourth placed cars were also a mixture of LMP2 and LMP2 Pro/Am, with Job Van Uitert posting a lap time of 1m44.004 in the no65 Panis Racing Oreca, and Matthieu Vaxiviere setting a time of 1m44.204 in the no83 AF Corse Oreca, the second fastest of the 11 Pro/Am entries.
Inter Europol Competition leads in LMP3, GMB Motorsport dominates in LMGTE
LMP3 was led by the no13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier, with Kai Askey setting the fastest lap time of 1m50.542 in the 90-minute session, 0.103s ahead of the championship leader, no17 COOL Racing Ligier, with Marcos Siebert posting a time of 1m50.645. The no31 Racing Spirit or Leman Ligier was the third fastest LMP3 entry with a lap time of 1m50.749, 0.207s behind the leader.
In the LMGTE category, the no44 GMB Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage was the fastest of the 12 entries, with a lap time of 1m54.804 set by Nicki Thiim. The no55 Spirit of Race Ferrari was second, with Matt Griffin setting a best time of 1m54.812, just 0.008s behind Thiim. The no60 Iron Lynx Porsche, driven by former LMGTE Champion Matteo Cressoni, was the third quickest with a lap time of 1m54.831, making it three manufacturers in the top three, all split by just 0.027s.
The next Free Practice session is scheduled for Saturday morning at 10h10.
