Le Mans 24h: Kobayashi grabs pole for #7 Toyota ahead of sister car

In the 30-minute session, featuring the fastest six cars from each class, Kobayashi drew first blood by setting a lap of 3m23.900s on his first attempt, over a second quicker than stablemate Hartley in the #8 Toyota.

Olivier Pla was third fastest in the #708 Glickenhaus, a full 2.5 seconds in arrears but two seconds ahead of Nicolas Lapierre, who struggled on his first lap in the #36 Alpine A480.

However, the red flag soon came out when Kevin Estre, the fastest man in GTE all week, spun off and went into the wall at Indianapolis in his #92 Porsche 911 RSR-19.

After a brief interruption Kobayashi stayed just marginally above his benchmark, while Hartley moved within three tenths with laps of 3m24.230s and then 3m24.195s. Lapierre improved to move third with a 3m26.015s, which he followed up with a 3m25.574s.

Lapierre's lap was nearly four tenths faster than Pla's 3m25.996s, while Dumas was a distant fifth in the second #709 Glickenhaus entry.

#38 JOTA Oreca 07 - Gibson LMP2, Roberto Gonzalez, Antonio Felix Da Costa, Anthony Davidson

Photo by: Nick Dungan / Motorsport Images

In LMP2, Antonio Felix da Costa and Louis Deletraz initially traded the top spot, before Da Costa secured pole with a 3m27.950s lap in the #38 Jota ORECA 07 Gibson, half a second up on Deletraz's #41 WRT example.

Will Stevens was third in the #65 Panis Racing ORECA, just one tenth behind Deletraz, followed by G-Drive's Nyck de Vries and United Autosports pair Nico Jamin and Paul Di Resta.

In GTE Pro, the timing of Estre's off meant the remaining five cars had to wait until after the restart for their first flying laps, but it also meant the clear favourite for pole was out of contention.

Dries Vanthoor went fastest on the first run in the #72 HubAuto Porsche 911 RSR-19, his 3m46.882s two tenths quicker than Daniel Serra in the #52 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo and Nick Tandy in the #64 Corvette C8.R.

The Belgian's lap held up until the end, taking pole for the Asian team's privately entered car.

James Calado was fourth in the second #51 AF Corse Ferrari, four tenths removed from pole, with Gianmaria Bruni settling for fifth in the sole remaining factory Porsche.

#88 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE Am, Julien Andlauer, Dominique Bastien, Lance Arnold

Photo by: Porsche

Porsche secured a clean sweep of the top three in GTE Am, with Julien Andlauer taking pole in the #88 Dempsey Proton Porsche with a 3m47.987s effort.

Andlauer stayed over five tenths clear of the #86 GR Racing Porsche of Ben Barker and put nine tenths on the third-placed #56 Team Project 1 Porsche of Matteo Cairoli.

Le Mans 24 Hours - Hyperpole results

Cla	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Avg Time	Gap
1	7	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	3'23.900
2	8	Sébastien Buemi Kazuki Nakajima Brendon Hartley	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	3'24.195	0.295
3	36	Andre Negrao Nicolas Lapierre Matthieu Vaxiviere	Alpine A480	HYPERCAR	3'25.574	1.674
4	708	Pipo Derani Franck Mailleux Olivier Pla	Glickenhaus 007 LMH	HYPERCAR	3'25.639	1.739
5	709	Ryan Briscoe Richard Westbrook Romain Dumas	Glickenhaus 007 LMH	HYPERCAR	3'26.931	3.031
6	38	Roberto Gonzalez Antonio Felix da Costa Anthony Davidson	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'27.950	4.050
7	41	Robert Kubica Louis Deletraz Ye Yifei	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'28.470	4.570
8	65	Julien Canal Will Stevens James Allen	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'28.586	4.686
9	26	Roman Rusinov Franco Colapinto Nyck de Vries	Aurus 01	LMP2	3'28.943	5.043
10	32	Nico Jamin Jonathan Aberdein Manuel Maldonado	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'29.078	5.178
11	23	Paul di Resta Alex Lynn Wayne Boyd	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'30.027	6.127
12	72	Dries Vanthoor Alvaro Parente Maxime Martin	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	3'46.882	22.982
13	52	Daniel Serra Miguel Molina Sam Bird	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	3'47.063	23.163
14	64	Tommy Milner Nick Tandy Alexander Sims	Chevrolet Corvette C8.R	LMGTE PRO	3'47.093	23.193
15	51	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado Côme Ledogar	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	3'47.247	23.347
16	91	Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz Frédéric Makowiecki	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	3'47.696	23.796
17	88	Julien Andlauer Dominique Bastien Lance David Arnold	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'47.987	24.087
18	86	Michael Wainwright Benjamin Barker Tom Gamble	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'48.560	24.660
19	56	Egidio Perfetti Matteo Cairoli Riccardo Pera	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'48.876	24.976
20	47	Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Antonio Fuoco	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'49.387	25.487
21	71	Brendan Iribe Ollie Millroy Ben Barnicoat	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	3'49.477	25.577
22	33	Ben Keating Dylan Pereira Felipe Fraga	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	3'49.676	25.776
23	92	Kevin Estre Neel Jani Michael Christensen	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO
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