Le Mans 24h: #8 Toyota heads 1-2 in red-flagged FP2

The two-hour FP2 session was run in darkness throughout, with all drivers required to complete at least five laps at night ahead of Saturday’s race.

Jose Maria Lopez set the early pace in the #7 Toyota GR010 HYBRID he shares with Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi with a time of 3m29.810s, while Kazuki Nakajima worked down to 3m30.705s in the sister #8 machine.

Soon after taking over the #8 car he shares with Nakajima and Brendon Hartley, Buemi improved to a 3m30.176s and then lowered it to 3m29.351s, over four tenths up on the sister car.

Meanwhile, Conway locked up and went off into the gravel at Mulsanne on his first dark flying lap in the #7 Toyota, but made it back to the pits. Kobayashi closed to within 0.387s of Buemi in the closing stages, but was unable to wrest away the top spot.

After a red flag to recover Daniel Serra's #52 GTE Pro Ferrari, which came to a halt after suffering a puncture, there was a fierce competition for best-of-the-rest spot between Glickenhaus and Alpine.

Pipo Derani unleashed a lap of 3m30.112s in his #708 Glickenhaus-Pipo 007 with 30 minutes remaining to go third fastest, 0.761s off the quickest Toyota time.

That jumped him ahead of Nicolas Lapierre's 3m30.744s in the Alpine-Gibson A480, with Ryan Briscoe bringing up the rear in the five-car Hypercar field with the #709 Glickenhaus.

#709 Glickenhaus Racing Glickenhaus 007 LMH Hypercar, Ryan Briscoe, Richard Westbrook, Romain Dumas

Photo by: Rainier Ehrhardt

In LMP2, Anthony Davison set the quickest time in Jota’s #38 ORECA at 3m32.390s, 0.218s ahead of Berlin E-Prix winner Norman Nato’s Realteam Racing #70 example.

Having missed out on Hyperpole, United Autosport's World Endurance Championship points-leading #22 car placed third, ahead of G-Drive’s #26 Aurus-badged ORECA and the #21 Dragonspeed USA car in Ben Hanley’s hands. However, the Briton ran into the gravel at Indianapolis on the very next lap.

The only incident of note besides that was the PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports #24 car, which stopped on track in Patrick Kelly’s hands, causing a slow zone while it was towed away.

In GTE Pro, Ferrari returnee Sam Bird was the first to dip under the 3m50s barrier, producing a lap of 3m49.993s in the #52 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE that he shares with Serra and Miguel Molina, before Fred Makowiecki's #91 factory Porsche 911 RSR-19 usurped him with a 3m49.938s.

Serra hit trouble just before the halfway point of the session when the Brazilian suffered a huge lockup at Mulsanne Corner and had to crawl along as the tyre blew, wrecking the car's front-right bodywork.The car was recovered back to the pits on a tow truck.

After the red flag, Laurens Vanthoor grabbed the top spot in the Proton-run WeatherTech Racing Porsche with an impressive lap of 3m49.018s, putting the 2018 Le Mans GTE Pro class winner to the top spot by nine tenths of a second.

Behind Makowiecki and Serra, the #52 machine staying in the garage for the rest of the session, Neel Jani was fourth fastest in the #92 works Porsche on 3m50.589s, ahead of the #51 Ferrari driven by James Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Come Ledogar.

#79 Weathertech Racing Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE Pro, Cooper MacNeil, Earl Bamber, Laurens Vanthoor

Photo by: Marc Fleury

In GTE Am, fastest qualifier Julien Andlauer again set the pace in his #88 Dempsey-Proton Porsche, the Frenchman's 3m51.452s effort beating Riccardo Pera’s early 3m52.206s that had kept the #56 Team Project 1 Porsche at the head of the times for the majority of the session.

Jeroen Bleekemolen further demoted Pera late on in his #388 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari to take second spot.

The #39 Spirit of Race Ferrari and #98 Northwest AMR Aston Martin were fourth and fifth.

Robby Foley crashed his #46 Team Project 1 Porsche at Tertre Rouge late on, suffering heavy right-rear damage and causing a red flag that curtailed the session three minutes early.

The next session is Free Practice 3 at 2pm local time on Thursday.

Le Mans 24 Hours - FP2 results:

Cla	Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Sébastien Buemi Kazuki Nakajima Brendon Hartley	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	29	3'29.351
2	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	27	3'29.738	0.387
3	Pipo Derani Franck Mailleux Olivier Pla	Glickenhaus 007 LMH	HYPERCAR	26	3'30.112	0.761
4	Andre Negrao Nicolas Lapierre Matthieu Vaxiviere	Alpine A480	HYPERCAR	24	3'30.744	1.393
5	Ryan Briscoe Richard Westbrook Romain Dumas	Glickenhaus 007 LMH	HYPERCAR	26	3'31.109	1.758
6	Roberto Gonzalez Antonio Felix da Costa Anthony Davidson	Oreca 07	LMP2	25	3'32.390	3.039
7	Esteban Garcia Loic Duval Norman Nato	Oreca 07	LMP2	28	3'32.608	3.257
8	Philip Hanson Fabio Scherer Filipe Albuquerque	Oreca 07	LMP2	24	3'33.076	3.725
9	Roman Rusinov Franco Colapinto Nyck de Vries	Aurus 01	LMP2	24	3'33.098	3.747
10	Henrik Hedman Ben Hanley Juan Pablo Montoya	Oreca 07	LMP2	23	3'33.416	4.065
11	Robert Kubica Louis Deletraz Ye Yifei	Oreca 07	LMP2	28	3'33.545	4.194
12	Robin Frijns Ferdinand Habsburg Charles Milesi	Oreca 07	LMP2	18	3'33.557	4.206
13	Jakub Smiechowski Renger van der Zande Alex Brundle	Oreca 07	LMP2	24	3'33.617	4.266
14	Anders Fjordbach Jan Magnussen Kevin Magnussen	Oreca 07	LMP2	21	3'33.725	4.374
15	Dennis Andersen Ricky Taylor Marco Sorensen	Oreca 07	LMP2	27	3'33.867	4.516
16	Nico Jamin Jonathan Aberdein Manuel Maldonado	Oreca 07	LMP2	26	3'33.923	4.572
17	Sean Gelael Stoffel Vandoorne Tom Blomqvist	Oreca 07	LMP2	26	3'34.131	4.780
18	Dwight Merriman Thomas Laurent Ryan Dalziel	Oreca 07	LMP2	17	3'34.171	4.820
19	Paul di Resta Alex Lynn Wayne Boyd	Oreca 07	LMP2	26	3'34.287	4.936
20	Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Job Van Uitert	Oreca 07	LMP2	28	3'34.566	5.215
21	Rene Binder Guillermo Rojas Tristan Gommendy	Oreca 07	LMP2	24	3'34.593	5.242
22	John Falb Roberto Merhi Rui Andrade	Aurus 01	LMP2	28	3'34.779	5.428
23	Julien Canal Will Stevens James Allen	Oreca 07	LMP2	28	3'35.263	5.912
24	Ryan Cullen Oliver Jarvis Felipe Nasr	Oreca 07	LMP2	26	3'35.696	6.345
25	Miro Konopka Oliver Webb Matej Konopka	Oreca 07	LMP2	21	3'36.779	7.428
26	Patrick Kelly Gabriel Aubry Simon Trummer	Oreca 07	LMP2	20	3'36.935	7.584
27	Tatiana Calderon Sophia Flörsch Beitske Visser	Oreca 07	LMP2	25	3'37.248	7.897
28	Takuma Aoki Nigel Bailly Matthieu Lahaye	Oreca 07	INNOVATIVE CAR	22	3'37.708	8.357
29	Paul Lafargue Paul-Loup Chatin Patrick Pilet	Oreca 07	LMP2	5	3'39.361	10.010
30	Vincent Capillaire Arnold Robin Maxime Robin	Oreca 07	LMP2	26	3'40.003	10.652
31	Cooper MacNeil Earl Bamber Laurens Vanthoor	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	22	3'49.018	19.667
32	James Winslow John Corbett Tom Cloet	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	22	3'49.894	20.543
33	Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz Frédéric Makowiecki	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	25	3'49.938	20.587
34	Daniel Serra Miguel Molina Sam Bird	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	10	3'49.993	20.642
35	Kevin Estre Neel Jani Michael Christensen	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	27	3'50.589	21.238
36	Dries Vanthoor Alvaro Parente Maxime Martin	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	18	3'50.877	21.526
37	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado Côme Ledogar	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	15	3'50.972	21.621
38	Julien Andlauer Dominique Bastien Lance Arnold	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	16	3'51.452	22.101
39	Pierre Ehret Christian Hook Jeroen Bleekemolen	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	21	3'51.959	22.608
40	Egidio Perfetti Matteo Cairoli Riccardo Pera	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	26	3'52.206	22.855
41	Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor Nick Catsburg	Chevrolet Corvette C8.R	LMGTE PRO	24	3'52.209	22.858
42	Andrew Haryanto Alessio Picariello Marco Seefried	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	23	3'52.371	23.020
43	Duncan Cameron David Perel Matthew Griffin	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	26	3'52.382	23.031
44	Paul Dalla Lana Nicki Thiim Marcos Gomes	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	26	3'52.385	23.034
45	Matteo Cressoni Rino Mastronardi Callum Ilott	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	26	3'52.448	23.097
46	Christian Ried Jaxon Evans Matt Campbell	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	20	3'52.550	23.199
47	Satoshi Hoshino Tomonobu Fujii Andrew Watson	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	25	3'52.633	23.282
48	Takeshi Kimura Scott Andrews Mikkel Jensen	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	23	3'52.663	23.312
49	Thomas Flohr Giancarlo Fisichella Francesco Castellacci	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	24	3'52.795	23.444
50	Michael Wainwright Benjamin Barker Tom Gamble	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	24	3'52.908	23.557
51	Brendan Iribe Ollie Millroy Ben Barnicoat	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	26	3'52.923	23.572
52	Claudio Schiavoni Paolo Ruberti Raffaele Giammaria	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	22	3'52.938	23.587
53	Ben Keating Dylan Pereira Felipe Fraga	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	24	3'53.021	23.670
54	Harry Tincknell Vuttikhorn Inthraphuvasak Florian Latorre	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	24	3'53.072	23.721
55	Rahel Frey Sarah Bovy Michelle Gatting	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	23	3'53.220	23.869
56	Tommy Milner Nick Tandy Alexander Sims	Chevrolet Corvette C8.R	LMGTE PRO	25	3'53.389	24.038
57	François Perrodo Nicklas Nielsen Alessio Rovera	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	25	3'53.610	24.259
58	Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Antonio Fuoco	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	25	3'54.702	25.351
59	John Hartshorne Ollie Hancock Ross Gunn	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	24	3'55.065	25.714
60	Dennis Olsen Anders Buchardt Robert Foley	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	24	3'55.186	25.835
61	Thomas Neubauer Rodrigo Sales Jody Fannin	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	24	3'59.912	30.561
62	Robert Renauer Ralf Bohn Rolf Ineichen	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	25	4'01.314	31.963