Schwartzman took over the No. 51 Ferrari 499P for the second half of the three-hour session and set an impressive time of 1 minute 48.559 seconds on his first day in the LMH machine.
The 24-year-old’s lap was slightly faster than the time set by Will Stevens this morning in the Jota Porsche, meaning he also topped the overall standings at the end of the day.
The Ferrari F1 reserve driver shared the car with fellow Ferrari factory driver Lillou Wadu and, after a short run in the morning session, managed to improve his time by nearly seven seconds in the afternoon.
Waddu, who ran the same test last year in a Toyota GR010 Hybrid, set a best time of 1 minute 49.488 seconds, nine tenths slower than Schwartzman’s time later in the session.
Jota was second in the afternoon, with Norman Nato, who drove the team’s customer Porsche 963 solo during the session, setting a time of 1 minute 49.130 seconds.
Robert Kubica was due to appear in the car ahead of Jota’s hypercar program scheduled for 2024, but the Polish driver did not appear at the test, which took place the day after winning the LMP2 title with WRT. There wasn’t.
In Kubica’s absence, Nato completed only 13 laps around the track in the car that achieved a season-best fourth place in the Bahrain 8 Hours.
Photo provided by: JEP/Motorsports Image
#93 Peugeot Total Energy Peugeot 9X8: Paul di Resta, Mikel Jensen, Jean-Eric Vergne
European Le Mans Series front runner René Binder pushed his Porsche, another Proton Competition customer, into third place with a time of 1 minute 50.308 seconds.
Fellow Austrian Thomas Planing placed his factory Porsche Penske car in fourth place after completing 56 more laps following his first tryout in the morning.
The newly crowned DTM champion set a best lap of 1 minute 50.603 seconds, just under three tenths slower than Binder’s time in the Proton-powered 963 LMDh.
The only Toyota GR010 Hybrid to take part in the test was ranked fifth with Lexus driver Ben Barnicoat’s best time of 1 minute 52.134 seconds.
Bernico Court’s lap was just under half a second faster than Jack Hawksworth’s best time behind the wheel of this year’s championship-winning car.
Stoffel Vandoorne in his Peugeot 9X8 finished sixth with a best time of 1 minute 53.046 seconds, while Kiffin Simpson placed his Cadillac LMDh in seventh place with an early time of 1 minute 53.380 seconds.
The hypercar field was anchored by Job van Uytert in his Vanwall LMH, with the Dutchman finishing just behind the two Peugeots in second place.
Photo credit: Shameem Farhas
#31 Team WRT Oreca 07 – Gibson: Valentino Rossi
WRT took the lead in the LMP2 standings with BMW factory driver Charles Wiertz at the wheel of the renamed #46 ORECA, but Wiertz’s time of 1 minute 54.302 seconds was faster than the Inter Euro in the morning session. This was 0.019 seconds slower than the record of Clement Novak, who topped the chart in the Paul Oreca 07.
MotoGP star Valentino Rossi increased his mileage at the wheel of the WRT LMP2 machine in the afternoon, setting a best time of 1 min 55.118 seconds just before the red flag and leading the order until Werz took over the car for the final part. It became. A look at the session.
Daniel Schneider finished last in fourth place in the United Autosport Oreca behind PJ Hyett’s Prema, but Novalac moved much closer to the morning benchmark, putting Inter Europol in second place in the session.
In the final official session with GTE cars, Lorenzo Patrese of the Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari GTE took the lead.
Patrese recorded a time of 1 minute 58.261 seconds, nearly two seconds faster than fellow AF Corse Ferrari driver Nicola Marinangeli.
In third place was Timur Boguslavsky in the Corvette C8.R, a further two seconds behind.
The only red flag of the day came for Christoph Ulrich in the #23 AF Corse Ferrari, who stopped on the track just an hour into the afternoon session.