Le Mans practice and first qualifying

01:14 As quickly as that, the first day of Le Mans 2019 is done. Here's our report from a more dramatic than expected first qualifying session, which was topped by the #7 Toyota. Join us again tomorrow from 5:45pm UK time for coverage of Thursday's action.

#7 Toyota on provisional Le Mans pole despite bizarre collision

Kamui Kobayashi put the #7 Toyota TS050 HYBRID on provisional pole position for the Le Mans 24 Hours, before the car went airborne in a collision with an LMP2 runner

01:04 We should point out that after completing an exploratory outlap, Maldonado did return to the track and lap in the low 3m30s in the repaired #31 DragonSpeed, although it's impossible to tell at this stage whether he was running new tyres, or how much fuel he was carrying.

01:03 Here are you end of first qualifying class leaders: LMP1 - #7 Toyota; LMP2 - #DragonSpeed ORECA; GTE Pro - #67 Ford; GTE Am - #88 Dempsey Proton Porsche.

01:02 A good lap right at the end of the session for Ho-Pin Tung in the #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA puts him sixth, and the best of the Dunlop runners. Still, he's 1.9 seconds off the pace of provisional LMP2 pole-sitter Maldonado in the #31 DragonSpeed ORECA, with Nicolas Lapierre one tenth shy for Signatech-Alpine.

01:00 Chequered flag is out for the end of the first qualifying session.

00:58 Alonso improves again - though not his position, this time - and now has a fastest time of 3m19.632s.

00:58 Some last-minute improvements in Pro mean it's now the #67 Ford of Harry Tincknell leading on a 3m49.530s, not quite as quick as Garcia's earlier time in the Corvette but (hopefully!) legal. Tandy has jumped to second now on a 3m49.558s, nearly half a second up on the #97 Aston in third.

00:56 .@alo_oficial was close from going off at Mulsanne corner! 🙉 #LeMans24 #WEC #Superfinale #Motorsport

00:56 Not long after this...

00:56 Alonso has improved the #8 Toyota's position to fourth with a 3m19.837s.

00:55 Van der Zande is also out in the #10 DragonSpeed with five minutes of this first qualifying session left on the clock.

00:50 There's some more movement in Pro - both IMSA Porsches have just posted improvements, with Nick Tandy going second-fastest on a 3m50.109s in the #93 car and Mathieu Jaminet logging a 3m50.278s in the sister #94 machine. That makes it four Porsches in the top five!

00:50 Incredibly, Lopez is back out on track in the #7 Toyota. Five of the eight LMP1s are out there now.

00:44 The #66 Ford has been carried away, so cars are back up to full speed.

00:43 The #31 DragonSpeed ORECA had gone back out on track with Maldonado at the wheel but has now returned to the pits.

00:42 Garcia's had his class-topping time scrubbed for improving under yellow flags. That bumps the #63 Corvette, now with Mike Rockenfeller at the wheel, all the way down to 10th, and puts Aston Martin back on top of the pile.

00:40 That time from Laurent is just over a tenth slower than the 3m19.4s with which he qualified third last year. So SMP has found 1.8s since last year with its BRE, whereas Rebellion is still slower than it was.

The ART-run SMP squad is going to make the bigger gains. Don't forget that last year it had to compromise the aero after Matevos Isaakyan's aerial accident at the Spa series opener. The AER turbo engine in the BRE is also better able to exploit the increase in fuel flow under the Equivalence of Technology than Rebellion's normally-aspirated Gibson V8.

Gary Watkins