Le Mans 24 Hours: Toyota fastest in rain-hit first qualifying
Toyota driver Kamui Kobayashi topped the times in first qualifying for the Le Mans 24 Hours.
The Japanese driver posted a 3m27.247s lap early in the one-hour qualifying period from which the fastest six cars in each class go through to Thursday evening’s Hyperpole session ahead of this weekend’s double-points round of the World Endurance Championship.
Kobayashi’s time aboard the #7 Toyota GR010 HYBRID gave him a margin of almost exactly one tenth over the best of the two Glickenhaus-Pipo 007 LMHs.
Olivier Pla posted a 3m27.355s in the #708 entry to beat Ryan Briscoe in the sister car, which ended up six tenths behind on a 3m27.978s.
The Alpine-Gibson A480 grandfathered LMP1 car ended up fourth in the hands of Nicolas Lapierre on a 3m29.656s.
The #8 Toyota was in the pits receiving attention to its rear suspension early in the session when the quick times were posted and only made it out on track after a brief red-flag period after half an hour.
Light rain was already falling when Brendon Hartley began his lap, the New Zealander ending up with an unrepresentative 3m40.842s on an increasingly wet track.
With only five cars in the Hypercar class, the #8 car will still take part in the Hyperpole shoot-out on Thursday.
Kobayashi’s time compared with the 3m26.279s he posted in the initial qualifying session for last year’s 24 Hours.
Robin Frijns was fastest in LMP2 in the lead WRT ORECA-Gibson 07 with a 3m29.898s.
#31 WRT Oreca 07 - Gibson LMP2 of Sean Gelael, Robin Frijns, René Rast
Photo by: Nikolaz Godet
That gave him a margin of two tenths over Antonio Felix da Costa, who managed a 3m30.124s in the best of the Jota ORECAs.
WRT’s second full-season WEC car, fielded in conjunction with Swiss entrant Realteam, took third position with Norman Nato on a 3m30.440s.
The two United Autosports entries took fourth and fifth positions, Alex Lynn edging out Filipe Albuquerque by less than a tenth.
The final LMP2 car to make it through to Hyperpole was the Prema ORECA thanks to a late improvement from Louis Deletraz shortly before the red flag.
Vector Sport was unable to set a time after an engine change, while accident damage sustained by Steven Thomas in FP1 meant the #45 Algarve Pro Racing entry was also unable to post a time while undergoing repairs.
Laurens Vanthoor led the way in GTE Porsche in the #92 Porsche 911 RSR with a 3m50.999s.
Antonio Garcia took second spot with a 3m51.132s in the best of the Chevrolet Corvette C8.Rs, while Frederic Makowiecki ended up third in the second of the two Manthey-run factory Porsches.
Nick Tandy was fourth in the second Chevy, while the two works AF Corse Ferrari took the final spots for Hyperpole in fifth and sixth positions.
James Calado ended up half a second off the pace in the #51 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo on a 3m51.502s, while Antonio Fuoco was just over a tenth behind in the #52 sister car.
The only car not to make it through in GTE Pro was the privateer Ferrari run by Riley Motorsports.
#98 Northwest AMR Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE Am of Paul Dalla Lana, David Pittard, Nicki Thiim
Photo by: Rainier Ehrhardt
The NorthWest AMR Aston Martin Vantage GTE ended up quickest in GTE Am courtesy of a 3m52.599s from Nicki Thiim.
That was nearly a second up on second-place Mikkel Jensen in the Kessel Racing Ferrari.
The other cars to make the cut for Hyperpole were the #54 AF Corse Ferrari, the #85 Iron Dames Ferrari, the #77 Dempsey-Proton Porsche and the #61 AF Ferrari.
Marco Sorensen lost a time good enough to make it through to a track limits violation in the TF Sport Aston.
The session was red flagged for approximately 12 minutes at the halfway point when actor Michael Fassbender crashed his Proton Porsche at the first chicane on the Mulsanne Straight.
The 30-minute Hyperpole session begins at 20:00 on Thursday.
The remainder of the grid in LMP2, GTE Pro and GTE Am is decided on the basis of Wednesday’s times.
Cars advancing to Hyperpole
Hypercar
#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing (Kobayashi/Conway/Lopez)
#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing (Buemi/Hartley/Hirakawa)
#36 Alpine Elf Team (Lapierre/Vaxiviere/Negrao)
#708 Glickenhaus Racing (Pla/Dumas/Derani)
#709 Glickenhaus Racing (Briscoe/Westbrook/Mailleux)
LMP2
#9 Prema Orlen Team (Kubica/Deletraz/Colombo)
#22 United Autosports USA (Hanson/Albuquerque/Owen)
#23 United Autosports USA (Jarvis/Lynn/Pierson)
#31 WRT (Gelael/Frijns/Rast)
#38 JOTA (Da Costa/Gonzalez/Stevens)
#41 Realteam by WRT (Nato/Habsburg/Andrade)
GTE Pro
#51 AF Corse (Pier Guidi/Calado/Serra)
#52 AF Corse (Molina/Fuoco/Rigon)
#63 Corvette Racing (Catsburg/Garcia/Taylor)
#64 Corvette Racing (Sims/Milner/Tandy)
#91 Porsche GT Team (Bruni/Lietz/Makowiecki)
#92 Porsche GT Team (Estre/Christensen/Vanthoor)
GTE Am
#54 AF Corse (Flohr/Castellacci/Cassidy)
#57 Kessel Racing (Kimura/Schandorff/Jensen)
#61 AF Corse (Prette/Grunewald/Abril)
#77 Dempsey-Proton Racing (Ried/Tincknell/Priaulx)
#85 Iron Dames (Frey/Gatting/Bovy)
#98 Northwest AMR (Thiim/Dalla Lana/Pittard)
Le Mans 24 Hours - Qualifying results
| Cla | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7 |  Mike Conway  Kamui Kobayashi  Jose Maria Lopez | Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 3'27.247 | |
| 2 | 708 |  Olivier Pla Romain Dumas  Pipo Derani | Glickenhaus 007 LMH | HYPERCAR | 3'27.355 | 0.108 |
| 3 | 709 |  Ryan Briscoe Richard Westbrook Franck Mailleux | Glickenhaus 007 LMH | HYPERCAR | 3'27.978 | 0.731 |
| 4 | 36 | Andre Negrao Nicolas Lapierre Matthieu Vaxiviere | Alpine A480 | HYPERCAR | 3'29.656 | 2.409 |
| 5 | 31 |  Sean Gelael  Robin Frijns  René Rast | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'29.898 | 2.651 |
| 6 | 38 |  Roberto Gonzalez  Antonio Felix da Costa Will Stevens | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'30.124 | 2.877 |
| 7 | 41 | Rui Andrade  Ferdinand Habsburg Norman Nato | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'30.440 | 3.193 |
| 8 | 23 | Alex Lynn Oliver Jarvis  Josh Pierson | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'30.568 | 3.321 |
| 9 | 22 | Philip Hanson Filipe Albuquerque Will Owen | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'30.639 | 3.392 |
| 10 | 9 |  Robert Kubica  Louis Deletraz  Lorenzo Colombo | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'30.651 | 3.404 |
| 11 | 1 | Lilou Wadoux Sébastien Ogier Charles Milesi | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'31.368 | 4.121 |
| 12 | 65 | Julien Canal Nico Jamin Job Van Uitert | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'31.382 | 4.135 |
| 13 | 5 | Dane Cameron Emmanuel Collard Felipe Nasr | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'31.462 | 4.215 |
| 14 | 32 | Rolf Ineichen Mirko Bortolotti  Dries Vanthoor | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'31.808 | 4.561 |
| 15 | 30 | Richard Bradley Guillermo Rojas Reshad de Gerus | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'32.000 | 4.753 |
| 16 | 37 |  Ye Yifei Ricky Taylor Niklas Krütten | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'32.008 | 4.761 |
| 17 | 28 |  Oliver Rasmussen Edward Jones  Jonathan Aberdein | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'32.138 | 4.891 |
| 18 | 48 | Paul Lafargue Paul-Loup Chatin Patrick Pilet | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'32.285 | 5.038 |
| 19 | 34 | Jakub Smiechowski Alex Brundle Esteban Gutierrez | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'32.549 | 5.302 |
| 20 | 24 | Rodrigo Sales Matthew Bell Ben Hanley | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'32.956 | 5.709 |
| 21 | 35 | Jean Baptiste Lahaye Matthieu Lahaye François Heriau | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'33.463 | 6.216 |
| 22 | 44 |  Miro Konopka Bent Viscaal Tristan Vautier | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'33.480 | 6.233 |
| 23 | 39 | Eric Trouillet Sébastien Page David Droux | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'33.483 | 6.236 |
| 24 | 3 | Laurents Hörr Jean Glorieux Alexandre Cougnaud | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'34.524 | 7.277 |
| 25 | 47 | Sophia Flörsch John Falb Jack Aitken | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'36.371 | 9.124 |
| 26 | 83 | François Perrodo Nicklas Nielsen Alessio Rovera | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'36.548 | 9.301 |
| 27 | 27 | Cresp Christophe Michael Jensen Steven Palette | Ligier JSP 217 | LMP2 | 3'38.136 | 10.889 |
| 28 | 43 | David Heinemeier Hansson Fabio Scherer Pietro Fittipaldi | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'38.491 | 11.244 |
| 29 | 8 | Sébastien Buemi  Brendon Hartley Ryo Hirakawa | Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 3'40.842 | 13.595 |
| 30 | 92 | Michael Christensen Kevin Estre Laurens Vanthoor | Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 3'50.999 | 23.752 |
| 31 | 63 |  Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor Nick Catsburg | Chevrolet Corvette C8.R | LMGTE PRO | 3'51.132 | 23.885 |
| 32 | 91 | Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz Frédéric Makowiecki | Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 3'51.382 | 24.135 |
| 33 | 64 | Tommy Milner Nick Tandy Alexander Sims | Chevrolet Corvette C8.R | LMGTE PRO | 3'51.491 | 24.244 |
| 34 | 51 | Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado Daniel Serra | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 3'51.502 | 24.255 |
| 35 | 52 | Miguel Molina Antonio Fuoco Davide Rigon | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 3'51.614 | 24.367 |
| 36 | 98 |  Paul Dalla Lana David Pittard Nicki Thiim | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 3'52.559 | 25.312 |
| 37 | 57 | Takeshi Kimura Frederik Schandorff Mikkel Jensen | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'53.489 | 26.242 |
| 38 | 54 | Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Nick Cassidy | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'53.690 | 26.443 |
| 39 | 85 | Rahel Frey Michelle Gatting Sarah Bovy | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'54.081 | 26.834 |
| 40 | 77 | Christian Ried Sebastian Priaulx Harry Tincknell | Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'54.224 | 26.977 |
| 41 | 61 |  Louis Prette Conrad Grunewald Vincent Abril | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'54.316 | 27.069 |
| 42 | 86 | Michael Wainwright Riccardo Pera Benjamin Barker | Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'54.323 | 27.076 |
| 43 | 56 | Brendan Iribe Ollie Millroy Ben Barnicoat | Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'54.510 | 27.263 |
| 44 | 46 | Matteo Cairoli Mikkel Pedersen Nicolas Leutwiler | Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'54.533 | 27.286 |
| 45 | 79 | Cooper MacNeil Julien Andlauer Thomas Merrill | Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'54.912 | 27.665 |
| 46 | 99 | Andrew Haryanto Alessio Picariello  Martin Rump | Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'55.076 | 27.829 |
| 47 | 59 |  Alexander West Côme Ledogar Marvin Klein | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'55.162 | 27.915 |
| 48 | 21 | Simon Mann Christoph Ulrich  Toni Vilander | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'55.308 | 28.061 |
| 49 | 55 | Duncan Cameron  Matthew Griffin David Perel | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'55.617 | 28.370 |
| 50 | 75 | Pierre Ehret Christian Hook Nicolas Varrone | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'55.672 | 28.425 |
| 51 | 66 | Renger van der Zande Mark Kvamme Jason Hart | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'56.008 | 28.761 |
| 52 | 777 | Satoshi Hoshino Tomonobu Fujii Charlie Fagg | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 3'56.437 | 29.190 |
| 53 | 88 | Fred Poordad Maxwell Root Jan Heylen | Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'56.516 | 29.269 |
| 54 | 33 | Ben Keating Henrique Chaves Jr. Marco Sorensen | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 3'57.044 | 29.797 |
| 55 | 74 | Felipe Fraga Sam Bird Shane van Gisbergen | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 4'03.311 | 36.064 |
| 56 | 60 | Claudio Schiavoni Alessandro Balzan Raffaele Giammaria | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 4'05.633 | 38.386 |
| 57 | 93 | Michael Fassbender Matt Campbell Zacharie Robichon | Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 4'07.907 | 40.660 |
| 58 | 80 | Matteo Cressoni Giancarlo Fisichella Richard Heistand | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 4'23.223 | 55.976 |
| 59 | 10 | Nico Müller Ryan Cullen Sébastien Bourdais | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | ||
| 60 | 13 | Philippe Cimadomo Mathias Beche Tijmen van der Helm | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | ||
| 61 | 45 | Thomas Steven James Allen Rene Binder | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | ||
| 62 | 71 | Franck Dezoteux Pierre Ragues Gabriel Aubry | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | ||
| View full results | ||||||
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