Third row starts for the two Aston Martins in their years 24 Hours of Le Mans
Thursday, June 13, 2024
Having a final three-hour Free Practice this afternoon, this evening final piece of the qualifying jigsaw saw all twenty-four Hyperpole runners have to wait for extensive barrier repairs to be completed after a substantial accident for a LMP3 runner in the preceding Le Mans Cup race.
This time around, it was the turn of the bronze ranked drivers to do their stuff after the others two drivers per car ran in yesterday’s Qualifying round.
That meant that Ian James and Satoshi Hoshino would be out in the #27 Heart of Racing and #777 D’Station Racing AMR’s respectively, but James had his first flying lap deleted for track limits whilst Hoshino posted a 4:04:992 banker.
Next time around, James’ lap time was just over the 4-minute mark whilst Hoshino took two seconds off his time before both cars went around the 8-mile circuit again before pitting.
Their next lap was interrupted by a red flag for a Hypercar in the gravel at Indianapolis and whilst the #777 wasn’t to come out again, the #27 car posted their first and only sub 4-minute time with a 3:59:655 to claim P5 in class with the #777 confirmed in P6 for the start of the grid.
The 24 Hours of Le Mans is never won in qualifying anyway!! Saturday and Sunday will confirm that.
Photo credits – D Gibson / N Dungan
