The final Free Practice session for the centenary 24 Hours of Le Mans saw Ferrari’s No. 51 499P top the times with a 3m27.275s from James Calado.
The session was a was punctuated by an electrical breakdown for one of the Peugeot TotalEnergies 9X8 Hypercars. In Free Practice 3, it was the No. 94 Peugeot that went back to the pits with a trail of smoke behind it. This car was fine for Free Practice 4 – this time, the gremlins struck down the No. 93 car.
Jean-Eric Vergne was exiting the first Mulsanne Chicane when the lights began to flicker on and off in the darkness. Vergne rolled the Peugeot to a stop along the right side of Les Hunaudieres, and a Slow Zone was declared for a few minutes.
Race director Eduardo Freitas didn’t like how some unnamed drivers were running to the right instead of the left, so he decided to red-flag the session for 20 minutes.
The other notable story out of the Hypercar class came from Cadillac Racing. After the No. 3 Cadillac V-Series.R caught fire in the Hyperpole session, the fire-damaged car was returned to the garage to assess the damage caused by what Cadillac Racing confirmed was a burst high-pressure fuel hose. But it did not take any further part in Thursday track activities.
Glickenhaus Racing ended up second, Esteban Gutierrez just a second off the No. 51 with a 3m28.278s in the No. 709 SCG 007, ahead of Will Stevens in the Hertz Team JOTA Porsche 963.
There was little drama at all in LMP2; no major incidents to report, and all 24 cars were able to get significant track time. Dries Vanthoor in the No. 923 Racing Team Turkey Oreca 07-Gibson was fastest on a 3m36.229s.