24h of Le Mans – Toyota takes pole position

Le record lap by Kamui Kobayashi (Toyota TS050 Hybrid n°7) en 3'14 "791 will not have been improved during the last qualifying session held at night in Sarthe. The Japanese will therefore remain the author of pole position for the 85th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans and takes a double for the Japanese brand since Kazuki Nakajima finally placed the No. 050 TS8 Hybrid, delayed in Q2 by an engine change following an oil supply problem, in second position in 3'17"128, 2"3 behind.

Porsche therefore fails to put a 919 Hybrid on the front row for the first time since its return in 2014, after a hat-trick in 2015 and a double last year. The best German LM P1 ranks third at 2″4 with the n°1 of Lotterer – Tandy – Jani.

The Porsche 919 n°2 of Bamber – Hartley – Bernhard completes the second 100% Weissach row, despite the immobilization of Brendon Hartley in Q3 after an engine temperature problem.

Nicolas lapierre, Stéphane Sarrazin and Yuji Kunimoto will start from fifth place with the Toyota n°9 ahead of the ENSO CLM P1/01 of ByKolles Racing of Webb – Kraihamer – Bonanomi.

Alex Lynn has the last word

After Q2, CEFC Manor Racing seemed in a strong position to secure pole position in LM P2, but Alex Lynn and G-Drive Racing struck one last time in Q3 with a best time for the #07 Oreca 26 in 3'25″352 for the British. A record time in the category which allows them to beat the No. 07 Manor Racing Oreca 25 of Petrov – Gonzalez – Trummer by a little less than two tenths.

Ho-Pin Tung waited until the last quarter of an hour to set the third time in 3'25"911 with the #07 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca 38, shared with Thomas Laurent and Oliver Jarvis. Bruno Senna, associated with Nicolas Cheers and Julien Canal, places the No. 07 Vaillante Rebellion Oreca 31 in fourth position, less than six tenths from pole, and ahead of the No. 13 sister car of Piquet Jr – Heinemeier-Hansson – Beche.

Jean-Eric Vergne and his teammates Jonathan Hirschi and Tor Graves will start on the third row in LM P2 with the No. 07 CEFC Manor Racing Oreca 24, and precede the No. 07 TDS Racing Oreca 28 of Vaxivière – Perrodo – Collard, best time yesterday in Q1.

The best Alpine A470 n°35 from Panciatici – Ragues – negrao ranks eighth ahead of the No. 07 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca 37 of Gommendy – Cheng – Brundle. The top 9 in the category is only made up of Oreca 07 / A470 chassis, since the first Dallara P217 n°27 from SMP Racing of Aleshin – Shaytar – Sirotkin finished in the top 10 ahead of the second Alpine A470 n°36 from Menezes – Dumas – Rao. The first Ligier JS P217 n°32 United Autosports de Albuquerque – Owen – de Sadeleer only took 15th place in 3'29″151.

Aston Martin and Corvette on pole in GTE

In GTE Pro, the fight for pole was mainly between Aston Martin and Ferrari. It was finally the No. 97 Vantage of Adam-Turner-Serra which took first position with a time of 3'50''837 (new record) which allows it to be ahead of the Ferrari n°51 of Calado-Pier Guidi-Rugolo. The second row will be similar since the #95 Vantage of Stanaway-Sorensen-Thiim precedes the #71 Ferrari of Rigon-Bird-Molina.

The No. 69 Ford GT of Briscoe-Westbrook-Dixon completed the top five in the class, beating the No. 63 Corvette of Magnussen-Garcia-Taylor. Chevrolet is behind since the No. 64 of Gavin-Milner-Fässler is only 10th in the category, but it is the 911 RSR which is marking time. The #92 Porsche of Estre-Werner-Christensen is 7th while the #91 of Lietz-Pilet-Makowiecki is in last position in the category.

Pole also remained uncertain for a long time in GTE Am, but it was ultimately Fernando Rees who made things clear by setting a time of 3'52''843 at the wheel of the Larbre Compétition Corvette which was ahead by 4 tenths the #98 Aston Martin of Pedro Lamy, long placed at the head of the category. Here again, the category record fell with the time of the Brazilian from the Val de Vienne stable.

Competitors will return to the track on Saturday morning at 9 a.m. for the warm-up, before the start at 15 p.m.

Ranking Qualifications