WEC News: Toyota fires back in Le Mans Practice 2
The #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR10 – Hybrid of Ryo Hirakawa ended Wednesday at the stroke of midnight at Le Mans on top in the menacing ‘dark knight’ Toyota – but it wasn’t without drama at the end!
The sun went down… the lights got turned on for the first time, with Free Practice 2 ending the track action for the teams taking part in the 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Two hours on the clock for the 62 cars to dial themselves in, and acclimatize themselves to the blanket of darkness. The dance of the headlights, searching into the distance, trailing brake lights, the glow from the brake disks, the pops from the exhausts – who’s on a mission and who is adjusting their braking points.
There is something special about nighttime at Le Mans.
Le Mans Hypercar
The ever present #83 AF Corse run Ferrari 499P has been near the sharp end in many of the sessions so far this week and they set the initial pace in the opening hour of the session with Philip Hanson at the wheel of the striking yellow prancing horse.
Sebastien Buemi in menacing black #8 Toyota was 1.065 seconds behind and the star of this afternoon, Alex Lynn in the thunderous #12 Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac in third a further half a second back. With the fastest time from the #83 – a sub 03:26 time deleted, this shuffled the pack as the clock hit zero with the #8 Toyota on top, #12 Cadillac second and the #83 Ferrari rustling up on its 22nd lap a third fastest time.
As track temperatures dropped, movement on the leaderboard was gradual or sporadic. Teams only get three hours over the two days in the darkness and even with a brief Red Flag stoppage – teams went straight back out to make every kilometer count. Last years victors the #50 Ferrari put in a giant shift – gathering 28 laps in total, amassing over 380 kilometers of data.
One of the positives to take away from FP2 was a glimpse of pace from Peugeot TotalEnergies, with the #93 Peugeot 9X8 running well into the top 10 at various points – with fellow French hopefuls Alpine trading times.
Aston Martin fans can see the progress of the Valkyrie. After the #009 rounded out the top 15 qualifiers for Hyperpole 1 and 2 tomorrow, the Aston Martin Thor Team finished the session in 13th – improving with every run in the car.
The #8 Toyota was in the wars after the checkered flag had fallen – making contact and glancing the #57 Kessel Racing Ferrari 296 LM6T3. Both drivers are ok – but the teams will have a long night ahead to check over both cars.
Late collision between the #8 Toyota and the #57 Ferrari at the end of Free Practice 2. 😱
The two cars made contact at the end of the session.#LeMans24 #WEC pic.twitter.com/8w1R10udem
— 24 Hours of Le Mans (@24hoursoflemans) June 11, 2025
Le Mans LMP2
In the LMP2 category Spike gained his wings with Louis Deletraz flying around Circuit de la Sarthe. The Swiss driver right at home in the AO by TF ORECA was quickest this afternoon and continued that trend when the sun went down, eking out a margin of 1.1 seconds early in the session. The #22 United Autosports version of the LMP2 car was second while #37 CLX – Pure Racing were happy with their nights work in third.
Le Mans LMGT3
It was a flying formation for the Akkofis ASP Team who marched both of their Lexus RC F LMGT3 cars to first and second respectively in the LMGT3 order – a position they held for most of the session. Keeping in touch, and the only other GT car under the 03:56 barrier was the #92 Manthey 1ST Phorm Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3.
Two cars failed to make it out of the garages for Free Practice 2. The #33 TF Sport Corvette saw the mechanics poring over the rear of the car all night, while the #63 Iron Lynx garage was a hive of activity with the engine out of the Mercedes-AMG – and the car being rebuilt with what looked like donor parts from another car.