Cooper MacNeil (Hinsdale, Ill.), Laurens Vanthoor (Belgium), and Earl Bamber (New Zealand) were fastest in night practice after just missing Hyperpole today at the Circuit de la Sarthe.
The WeatherTech Racing Porsche 911 RSR proved, once again, it has pace. In the qualifying session run at 19:00 CET this evening Bamber couldn’t get a clean lap to qualify for the Hyperpole session tomorrow. His best time placed him seventh in the eight car GTLM PRO category.
Once night fell all three drivers put in time in the darkness for the first time this week. MacNeil posted fast lap times without error as did Bamber and Vanthoor. As the practice wound down, with about 30-minutes remaining, Vanthoor put in the fastest lap of the session with a 3:49.018. The Proton Competition team and drivers continue to fine tune the WeatherTech Porsche for this weekend’s race.
“Night practice went well, the WeatherTech Porsche is strong,” MacNeil said. “We ended up being quickest tonight, which is always good for the team vibe. We have one more day of practice tomorrow to keep tuning the car for Saturday. The team is working well together, so I am looking forward to a good race.”
“The day was good,” Bamber said. “Disappointing we just missed out on Hyperpole. It was quite close. We didn’t have great timing with the slow zones and traffic in qualifying. That is Le Mans. We have a fast race car. We topped the times in night practice. We are working our way up to the race. Cooper is showing good pace and getting more comfortable. We have another day of practice to play around with it and get better. The car has speed. I think we have a strong racing car.”
“We ran some good laps, but I am not putting too much thought into times and what the others are doing,” Vanthoor said. “We are working on things for the long run and that is what the session was for. I don’t think we are in bad shape.”
The team will return to on track action on Thursday for the second day of official practice starting at 14:00 CET.
Source. Kyle Chura/WeatherTech Racing
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