This is going to be a short post because 1) lots to do 2) I am genuinely shattered. It's been an incredibly busy week here at Le Mans. And the race hasn't even started.
Looking at the practice times, a few things are quite clear.
LMDh cars on top
In general, it seems the LMDh cars have, in general, a pace advantage.
The top 3 cars when you average out 20% pace from all four practice sessions shows the Cadillac and BMWs are the top 2 manufacturers.
The Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac were fastest on average, followed closely by the JOTA-run Cadillacs, the WEC factory team.
The BMWs are a little way behind, but not an awful lot.
Keep in mind these two were fastest in qualifying as well.
The Toyotas are third fastest on average, yet were nowhere in qualifying, with neither car advancing to Hyperpole 2 for the pole shoot out yesterday evening.
Alpine are almost identical to Toyota average pace wise.
The LMDh car advantage was reiterated to me by Toyota's Brendon Hartley, off record, before Hyperpole, although he couldn't or wouldn't expand on the reason for that advantage.
David Floury, Toyota's technical director, only told media that, 'It's a two class quali with LMDh on top and LMH behind,' and there was 'surely a reason' for this although he declined to expand further.
Phil Oakley
Ferrari and Toyota are not showing their hand
Regardless of whether it's a two class race, I'm convinced that Toyota and Ferrari haven't shown their full hand in practice.
If you take just the day time sessions, Ferrari look substantially quicker (well, the satellite #83 does), as do Toyota. Cadillac, BMW and Alpine drop down.
It makes sense to set the cars up for day time rather than night as the race finishes at 4pm, when it could still be relatively hot.
It's going to be close-fought
Based on practice pace there's not an awful lot between most of the manufacturers. BMW believe Cadillac, Alpine and Toyota are their main competition, according to Robin Frijns.
"You just don't know what Cadillac and Toyota are doing. Because I think Cadillac is the team to look look at. I do think that they are the strongest package at the moment. Alpine is one of those teams that are the underdog, I would say, and we are in the mix somewhere up front," the Belgian told me (see more on MotorsportWeek).
Cadillac, meanwhile, remained tight lipped on their chances – perhaps out of a wish not to jinx themselves – but their pace looks very strong.
And, as I reported on MotorsportWeek, Alpine have said they're more prepared than in previous years here, and their upgrades have fixed their aero balance problems.
Let's see what the race brings. I'm really hoping it's as close as we believe it's going to be.
