Tokyo-The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd.'s collaborator, ADVAN KONDO Racing, took overall 6th place at the official test day for the 72nd 24 Hours of Le Mans. ADVAN KONDO Racing is headed by Team Director Masahiko Kondo and Yokohama Rubber is its main sponsor. In the official test day at the Sarthe Circuit in France on April 25, the team set a time of 3 minutes 36.150 seconds, gaining 6th place overall, and demonstrating that preparations for the actual race in June are progressing well.

The official test day was held for a total of 8 hours in two sessions, one from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and the other from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Fuel pump and engine problems affected the time in the morning, but in the afternoon session, Hiroki Kato, who will be the team's main time attacker in the actual race, broke the 3 minute 40 second barrier to record a time of 3 minutes 39.699 seconds. After changing tires, Kato made another attack and pushed his time to 3 minutes 36.150 seconds, securing 6th place overall.

Ryo Michigami and Hayanari Shimoda also produced times in the fast half of the 3 minutes 40 second range, so all in all, the day's practice was a firm step forwards in preparation for the 24 Hours. In the LM-GT Class, Team ADVAN's ace driver Manabu Orido at the wheel of a Choroq Racing car with Yokohama tires recorded a time of 4 minutes 13.983 seconds, ranking 7th in class despite this being his Le Mans debut.

Team Director Masahiko Kondo reports on the test day: "This year we have had a lot of assistance from many different people and as a result we've been able to create a really good team setup. Considering the condition of the car and the state of the tires, I am satisfied to get a 6th position. There's still plenty of room for performance to improve, though, so we should be able to produce even better times on the race weekend. The tire people have incorporated what was learned during testing at Spa-Francorchamps in March into the new tires, so they are better this time around. The test day has provided additional information to work with, so I'm sure that we will have even better tires for the actual race. We're going to keep on producing the best performance we can, so please keep cheering us on.