Test Day complete and all is well within the two Aston Martin Racing powered teams at Le Mans

Monday, June 10, 2024

It appeared from the outside to be a another successful Le Mans 24 Hour official test day for the two Aston Martin Racing Vantage LMGT3 powered crews from both the Heart of Racing and D’Station Racing teams.

Having already passed through the technical inspection of Le Pesage within the town of Le Mans on Friday as well as being part of the parade through the town later on Saturday, Sunday saw the sixty-two strong Hypercar, LMP2 and LMGT3 class grids take to the infamous Circuit de La Sarthe for the first of three timed sessions on Sunday morning.

Object of the exercise was to obviously comply with Regulations for any necessary novice drivers, in this case with Erwan Bastard from the #777 D’Station Racing team who was racing at the Le Mans for the first time, whilst also getting all other drivers (and indeed supporting team) up to speed ahead of the start of more formally timed sessions that will take place later this week.

With lap times of no real meaning, both Aston Martin powered crews appeared to have completed a similar programme to one another and comparable to others within the twenty-three strong LMGT3 grid.

Whilst there was no change in personnel for the #23 Heart of Racing team compared to last year, other than general pre-race housekeeping preparations there wasn’t any restriction placed upon the team and that allowed Alex Riberas to deliver the second fastest time in class (with a sub four-minute laps time) during the second Free Practice session alongside competitive laps times from both Ian James and Daniel Mancinelli.

Whilst the #23 team would get about twenty-five laps in (collectively) during the FP1, they expanded that out slightly to just thirty-three laps within the closing session before calling it a day on what was already a red flag halted session.

That compared differently to the #777 D’Station Racing team who not only had to get Bastard around for the ten-lap mandate for a novice driver but also to get Satoshi Hoshino back up to speed within his international team set as this will be his only World Endurance Championship representation this season before handing back to Clement Mateu.

Whilst both Hoshino and Bastard each completed ten laps, Marco Sorenson only got in another five in the morning before Hoshino clocked fifteen laps in the afternoon against Bastard/Sorenson’s ten apiece.

The real business will follow later this week when the opening Free Practice and Qualifying rounds begin on track on Wednesday and through into Thursday. That’s when we will get to see what effect (if any) the new specific LM24 Balance of Performance requirements will have across the classes. Test Day was just that – a test day!!