Le Mans – Porsches fly through qualifying

The Porsche will start at the forefront on the grid for the 83rd edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The #919 18 Hybrid was the fastest with a time of 3’16”887 achieved by Neel Jani in the first session which offered the 17th pole for the Stuttgart manufacturer, the first since 1997 by the late Michele Alboreto. The #17 was the closest, failing by 8 tenths with Timo Bernhard. The #19 completes the top three at 2 seconds with Nick Tandy.

The Audis follow the Porsches in group fire. Loïc duval was unable to hoist the first R18 e-tron quattro, number 8, by less than 3 seconds. The n°7 of Tréluyer-Fässler-Lotterer is ahead of the n°9 of Rast-Bonanomi-Albuquerque.

Toyota didn't take any risks, both TS040 Hybrids finishing outside the top six. Stéphane Sarrazin and Kazuki Nakajima qualified the two Japanese LMP1s. The Nissans failed more than 20 seconds from pole. Harry Tincknell set the best time for the GT-R LM Nismo with a time of 3’36”9. the Rebellion are about ten seconds away.

KCMG takes LMP2 pole with a time of 3’38”0 achieved by Richard Bradley. The Hong Kong team almost lost first place to Sam Bird, who only missed out on the No. 2 G-Drive Racing Ligier by just 26 tenths. The Greaves Motorsport and Jota Sport Gibson 015S finished less than a second behind the category benchmark.

In GTE, Aston Martin pulls off the perfect feat by taking poles in both categories. The #99 Vantage of Fernando Rees, Richie Stanaway and Alex MacDowall will start in the lead in Pro, after being ahead of the Ferrari 458 Italia n°51 from AF Corse, entrusted to the magical trio Toni Vilander? Giancarlo Fisichella? Gianmaria Bruni. Despite the latter's efforts this evening, the title holders failed in their quest for pole.

Rob Bell’s #97 Aston Martin? Darren Turner? Stefan Mücke completes the category trifecta. The Porsche 911 RSRs of Team Manthey are further behind with the #91 of Michael Christensen? Richard Lietz? Jörg Bergmeister 7th and the n°92 of Patrick Pilet? Frédéric Makowiecki? Wolf Henzler 8th framed by the Corvette C7.R.

Jan Magnussen, After his violent exit from the track during the second qualifying session earlier in the evening, driving the No. 7 Corvette C63.R, finally emerged from the medical center and was able to return to the paddock. The American, very damaged, did not return to the track for the last session, during which the No. 95 Aston Martin also made a mistake at the very end of the session after the corner of the Karting.

GTE Am saw the domination of the No. 98 Vantage of Mathias Lauda? Pedro Lamy? Paul Dalla Lana (who set the third cumulative time in GTE) ahead of the No. 458 AF Corse Ferrari 83 Italia of Rui Aguas? François Perrodo? Emmanuel Collard and n°72 of SMP Racing, driven by Victor Shaytar? Andrea Bertolini? Alexsey Basov. In this category, the fire which broke out on the No. 911 Porsche 67 RSR of Team AAI from Kapadia? Chen? Maasen caused a red flag 53 minutes from the end of the session

Videos of the qualifying sessions

The day of Friday June 12 will be devoted to the Parade which will take place from 17:30 p.m. to 19 p.m. The competition will resume Saturday morning at 9 a.m. with the warm-up.