24 Hours of Le Mans – Toyota on provisional pole

Après avoir dominé les premiers essais libres plus tôt dans l’après-midi, Toyota Gazoo Racing a poursuivi sur sa lancée lors de la première séance de qualifications nocturnes aux 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Kazuki Nakajima (Toyota n°8), associated with Fernando Alonso et Sébastien Buemi, quickly took the lead in the session by completing his second lap in 3'17 "270. A time which will only be approached to 107 thousandths per Kamui Kobayashi, teammate of Mike conway and Jose Maria Lopez. A hierarchy that will no longer change until the end of the session.

Note that seven laps of the No. 8 were canceled due to excessive fuel consumption noted by the stewards.

SMP Racing moved up to the provisional second row thanks to the time set by Stéphane Sarrazin on the #17 BR in 3'19"483, 2"2 behind the leading Toyota. Followed by the two Rebellion R13 n°1 of Lotterer – Jani – Senna and n°3 of Laurent – ​​Beche – Menezes. at 2″3 and 2″6.

The BR1 n°10 – Dragonspeed (which experienced a technical problem) and n°11 – SMP Racing, where Jenson Button is racing, finished 6th and 7th ahead of the CLM P1/01 – Nismo n°4 – ByKolles and the two Ginetta G60s -LT-P1 – CEFC TRSM Racing.

IDEC Sport replica

Beaten by G-Drive in free practice, IDEC Sport Racing responded in qualifying thanks to Paul-Loup Chatin. The driver of the #07 Oreca 48 was the fastest in LM P2 in 3’24”956, by more than two tenths ahead of the lap of Loïc duval (Oreca n°28 – TDS Racing).

G-Drive Racing finished in third place at 1″4 with the No. 07 Oreca 26 of Jean-Eric Vergne – Andrea Pizzitola – Romain Rusinov. The top five in the category is completed by the Oreca 07 n°31 – Dragonspeed de Gonzalez – Maldonado – Berthon and theAlpine A470 n°36 – Signatech Alpine de negrao - Stone – Thiriet.

United Autosports is once again the best representative of the Ligier clan, with sixth place for the No. 217 JS P22 from Hanson – Albuquerque – di Resta, 1″8 behind.

Bruni gets everyone to agree… and makes a mistake

Gianmaria Bruni (Porsche 911 RSR n°91) quickly took control of the session in GTE Pro in 3'47″504, the best time in a GTE at Le Mans... before making a mistake just before the Dunlop chicane in the process and causing the implementation of a Slow Zone.

A front-right puncture could be the cause of the incident, with the car being pushed off the circuit by the marshals. Porsche confirmed 1h11 from the end of the session that the #91 would not return to the track.

Gravel trap for #91 @PorscheRaces while @GianmariaBruni had just achieved the best time in the GTE Pro category in 3:47:504 # LEMANS24 #WEC pic.twitter.com/MSj5yyLccA

- 24 Heures du Mans (@ 24heuresdumans) June 13, 2018

The German brand will, however, retain its first position and also signs the provisional double with the No. 92 of Christensen – Estre – Vanthoor, clocked at 1″5. The No. 66 Ford GT of Mücke – Pla – Johnson and No. 68 of Hand – Müller – Bourdais follow in the ranking at 1″6 and 2″0.

Alessandro Pier Guidi – James Calado – Daniel Serra place the best Ferrari 488 – AF Corse 2″3 ahead of the two other Porsche 911 RSRs n°94 of Bernhard – Dumas – Müller and n°93 of Pilet – Tandy – Bamber.

The best No. 8 BMW M82 from Farfus – Felix da Costa – Sims takes 9th place in the category at 3″, when the first No. 7 Corvette C63.R from Rockenfeller – Magnussen – Garcia climbs to 13th place at 3″2.

Still a difficult scenario for Aston Martin with the last places in GTE Pro for n°97 and n°95

Three Porsche 911 RSRs monopolize the first three places in GTE Am, with the two examples of Dempsey – Proton Racing n°88 from Cairoli – Al Qubaisi – Roda (best time in 3’50″728) and n°77 from Andlauer – Ried – Campbell at the forefront.

The No. 86 – Gulf Racing of Wainwright – Barker – Davison completes the master trio in the category.

Ranking Qualifications 1

The second qualifying session will begin tomorrow at 19 p.m., and will once again be followed live on our website via our live-text.