Le Mans – The #7 Toyota takes pole at the 24 Hours of Le Mans

Loïc duval took pole in 3'22"349 last year, Kazuki Nakajima won it with a lap completed in 3'21"789 on the Toyota No. 7 which he shares with Stéphane Sarrazin and Alex Wurz. The Japanese driver becomes the first Japanese in the history of the Le Mans event to set the best time on the Sarthe circuit. It is also the first pole for Toyota since Martin Brundle's victory at the wheel of the GT-One in 1999. Porsche However, seemed keen to take first place, the 919 Hybrid coming out with new tires at the end of the session. But the last minutes were marked by a Slow Zone following the exit of Karun Chandhok on the Oreca 03R of Murphy Prototypes. However, the No. 919 14 Hybrid of Jani-Lieb-Dumas will start on the front row, falling three tenths behind with a best lap completed by the Frenchman.

The second row will be similar since the No. 8 Toyota will start from third place with a lap completed by Sébastien Buemi seven tenths from the reference, while the No. 20 Porsche of Hartley-Webber-Bernhard follows in fourth place, one second behind the reference time with a best time set by the German). On the other hand, Audi is further behind since no R18 is on the first two rows. The No. 3 Audi of Bonanomi-Jarvis-Albuquerque is ahead of the No. 2 of Tréluyer-Fässler-Lotterer and the No. 1 of Gené-Di Grassi-Kristensen. The Rebellion bring up the rear of the P1. The reigning winning manufacturer probably wanted to play it safe following the crash of Loïc Duval replaced by Marc Gené.

In LMP2, it is the Thiriet by TDS Racing of Thiriet-Badey-Gommendy which has the honor of offering a pole for the first event of the Ligier JSP2 thanks to a time of 3'37"609 achieved by Tristan Gommendy. But first place in the category was hotly contested since the No. 46 was just six hundredths ahead of Jota Sport's Zytek led by Harry Tincknel. Oak Racing places a second Ligier in the top three with the #35 of Jann Mardenborough ahead of the #26 Morgan of G-Drive Racing of Pla-Rusinov-Canal and theAlpine by Chatin-Panciatici-Webb. After a very sluggish start, the Nissan Zeod RC was able to drive a little more normally. Ordonez-Motoyama-Reip will start ahead of the GTEs after the Spaniard set a time of 3'50"185.

AF Corse scored well by taking the two GTE poles. It's here Ferrari #51 of Bruni-Vilander-Fisichella who will start at the head of the GTE Pro with a lap completed in 3'53"700 by the reigning champion ahead of the #73 Corvette of Magnussen-Garcia-Taylor who is only 77 thousandths behind with a performance achieved by Antonio Garcia. Aston Martin completes the top three with the No. 97 of Turner-Mücke-Senna following less than two tenths behind. On the other hand, the 911 RSRs are slightly behind since they are outside the top five. In GTE Am, first position went to the No. 458 F81 of Sam Bird.

The start of the 82nd edition of the 24 Hours will take place on Saturday at 15 p.m. and will be followed live and in full on AUTOhebdo.fr. Photos of the tests can be viewed on this link.