Cadillac led the opening practice for the 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans after the No3⭕8 Jota-run car of Sebastien Bourdais, Jenson Button aജnd Earl Bamber topped a twice red-flagged FP1.

The opening session ahead of the 2025 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans proved to be a lively one, as numerous incidents interrup🃏ted the three hours of running.

The No38 Jota Cadillac battled its way through numerous proble⛄ms to eventually top FP1 after a late qualifying simulation from Sebastien Bourdais put the car fastest with 𒁃a 3m25.148s lap.

He led the No🦂50 Ferrari AF Corse entry, with Antonio Fuoco posting a 3m25.302s lap early in the session that the💛 crew would not better through to the chequered flag.

Porsche 💮completed the top three outright and in the Hypercar class with the No6 963 ent𝓀ry driven by Matt Campbell.

The three-hour session began at 2pm local time but would be interrupted just 10 minutes in by a Full Course Yellow due to an off for the No24 Nielsen Racing LMP2 car that would end up beach♐ed in the gravel.

When the green flag was brought back out, the No38 Jota Cadillac had a near-miss at the Ford chicane when the car -ꦿ driven by Earl Bamber at the time - spun off and nearly made contact with an LMGT3 car upon rejoining.

Bamber complained over the radio of proble♓ms with his brakes, echoing complaints that have been made by other Cadillac drivers since the official test day last Sunday.

After the first half an hour of rᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚunning, the No50 Ferrari led the way with 3m25.302s, which wouldn’t be bettered until the final hour.

With just under an hour and 45 minutes to go, the red flag was brought out for the first time when the No63 Iron Lynx Mercedes AMG-GT3 of Stephen Grove crashed on the way i🥂nto the Dunlop chicane.

The s𝄹ession was quickly restarted around 10 minutes later, but would be stopped again due to an issue on track with an hour and 20 minutes to go.

𓆏The final part of the session would run largely without incident, with the No38 Jota Cadillac piloted by Bourdais firing in its FP1-topping 3m25.148s with just under 40 minutes r🐲emaining.

The No38 car would see out the sess💦ion 0.154s clear of the field, with Jenson Button reporting over the radio after his final run that the machine was working better than it was a few hours ago.

Fuoco’s 3m25.302s lap would keep reigning Le Mans winner Ferrari second, with Porsche sneaking into third with the🐻 No6 car.

Toyota was fourth with the No8 car of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa, while the No5 Porsche 𝓰Penske Motorsport entry of Julien Andlauer, Michael Christensen and Mathieu Jaminet completed the top five.

Will Stevens put the No12 Jota🐻 Cadillac into sixth late on ahead of the No4 Porsche Penske car, the No15 WRT BM𓃲W, the No35 Alpine and the No99 Proton Competition-run Porsche.

Fastest time in the LMGT3 class went to the No78 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus crew of Jack Hawkworth, Finn Ge𝔉hrsitz and Arnold Robin, while the 🍒No46 WRT BMW crew featuring Valentino Rossi was 11th in class.

Top LMP2 honours wen🌜t to the No16 RLR M Sport Oreca 07 driven by Ryan Cullen, Patrick Pilet and Mikkel Jensen.