24h of Le Mans – Toyota in provisional pole position

After leaving Porsche set the best time in the free practice session earlier in the day, Toyota returned to the top of the timesheet this Wednesday evening at Le Mans at the end of the first qualifying session of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, shortened by around twenty minutes due to repairs to barriers after Claudio Sdanewitsch's accident (Ferrari Spirit of Race n°55) which hit the safety barriers before the Porsche corners in free practice for the Road to Le Mans.

Kamui Kobayashi stood out in the Sarthe night by setting the reference time after just under twenty minutes of driving in 3’18”793 with the No. 050 Toyota TS7 Hybrid shared with Mike conway and Stéphane Sarrazin. A time superior to the reference of the Test Day (3’18″132) and which will only be approached by 638 thousandths by the No. 8 Toyota of Kazuki Nakajima, supported by Sébastien Buemi and Anthony Davidson.

Brendon Hartley – Earl Bamber – Timo Bernhard place the first Porsche 919 Hybrid n°2 in third position, 917 thousandths ahead of the third Toyota n°9 of Stone – Kunimoto – Lopez, clocked at 1″165. The Porsche 919 n°1 of Jani – Lotterer – Tandy completes the top 5 of the LM P1 hybrids at 2″3. The ENSO CLM P1/01 ByKolles of Webb – Bonanomi – Kraihamer took sixth place, more than ten seconds behind.

Vaxivière makes TDS Racing shine

CEFC Manor Racing has long dominated the LM P2 category, but ultimately had to lose to TDS Racing. It was initially Jean-Eric Vergne on the No. 07 Oreca 24 who established the first notable reference for Graeme Lowdon's team in 3'30"847.

Vitaly Petrov, lined up in the No. 25, then found the speed and clear lap necessary to improve less than twenty minutes from the end of the session by setting a time of 3'30"502. Events then accelerated with the consecutive takeover of power by Bruno Senna (Oreca 07 n°31 Vaillante Rebellion) then by Matthieu Vaxivière (Oreca 07 n°28 TDS Racing), who had the best final time in 3’29”333.

The No. 07 Oreca 38 of Jackie Chan DC Racing of Jarvis – Tung – Laurent follows in the standings of this first qualifying session in 3’31″024 ahead of the two Alpine A470 Signatech Alpine n°36 of Dumas – Rao – Menezes and n°35 of Panciatici – Ragues – negrao.

The best Dallara P217, the No. 29 of Racing Team Nederland of Lammers – Barrichello – Van Eerd, rose to 13th place when the first Ligier JS P217 No. 32 of United Autosports of de Sadeleer – Owen – Albuquerque finished 15th.

The category experienced several incidents including the immobilization at the start of the session of the No. 47 Dallara of Cetilar Villorba Corse, before the No. 217 Dallara P27 of SMP Racing experienced the start of a fire at the Mulsanne bend. . The #217 Ligier JS P49 of ARC Bratislava made a mistake at Tertre Rouge, before being able to return to the track.

Aston Martin dominates in GTE

The Aston Martins and Ferraris were the fastest in the first qualifying session. The No. 95 Vantage of Sorensen-Thiim-Stanaway achieved the best provisional time in the category with a time of 3’52”117. The two AF Corse Ferraris complete the top three, but the No. 71 of Rigon-Bird-Molina is the closest with a tenth behind, while the No. 51 of Calado-Pier Guidi-Rugolo follows at a distance. second.

The Porsche 911 RSRs were further behind, with the No. 92 of Werner-Christensen-Estre in 6th place. The #91 of Makowiecki-Pilet-Lietz is in 8th position behind the Risi Competizione Ferrari of Vilander-Fisichella-Kaffer.

The Ford GTs took a while to position themselves, but the end of the session allowed us to see the Americans move up a little further in the hierarchy. The No. 67 of Priaulx-Tincknell-Derani rose to 5th position, while the No. 68 of Hand-Müller-Kanaan finished just outside the top ten completed by the two Corvettes. The Ford GTs still seem to be in difficulty, unless it is a strategy concerning the BOP.

The #98 Aston Martin of Lamy-Lauda-Dalla Lana dominated the GTE Am in this session with a time of 3’55”134 where it is ahead of the last two Ford GTs. The Larbre Compétition C7R is in 5th place in the category with a time set at the start of the session by Fernando Rees, before Christian Philippon continues the laps.

Qualifying will resume this Thursday, June 15 with two sessions scheduled between 19 p.m. and 21 p.m. then from 22 p.m. to midnight.

The trend after the first qualifying session, at night: @Toyota_Hybrid #7 in Provisional Pole! # LEMANS24 pic.twitter.com/lLADpFeJrL

- 24 Heures du Mans (@ 24heuresdumans) June 14, 2017

Ranking Qualifications 1