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WEC 24 Hours of Le Mans

Final qualifying

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LMP1
One of the curses of Autosport Live is that you can type something and be proved wrong seconds later. We told you only Toyota was going out from the LMP1 factory cars, and as soon as we posted that, the #7 Audi emerged from the pits with Lotterer at the wheel.
LMP1
Of the factory LMP1 cars, only Toyota is keen - as was the case earlier this evening when it completed the most laps in qualifying two. Conway and Nakajima head straight out.
Green flag
We have a restart! 45 minutes left on the clock for this session.
Cars are heading down the pits for the restart.
Crash
Session restart now confirmed for 23:15.
Information
Session estimated to resume at 23:15, but still "to be confirmed".
Happy birthday Jake! Here's a snap of another big day in his young life, when he won the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award in 2012

Happy birthday Jake! Here's a snap of another big day in his young life, when he won the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award in 2012

Another Jakob Ebrey pic, this time the polesitting Porsche splashing around

Another Jakob Ebrey pic, this time the polesitting Porsche splashing around

Jakob Ebrey captured the conditions for us

Jakob Ebrey captured the conditions for us

In the boredom of this red flag, talk has turned to Merzario Formula 1 cars!

In the boredom of this red flag, talk has turned to Merzario Formula 1 cars!

Radio Comms
Here's the latest from the race director, who's leaving the safety car out for a few more laps: "Its still not good to go out there. I'm leaving the car out there to do a few more laps. The weather forecast is not that good - although the rain is clearing in some places, other areas are being hit hard by rain."
Still raining - so here's a trackside puddle to enjoy

Still raining - so here's a trackside puddle to enjoy

Autosport
Here's our report from that session, which won't be classed as 'eventful', if we're being honest. Still, there were a few incidents, and some changes further down the field, so make sure you didn't miss anything:

Le Mans 24 Hours: Porsche still on top after rain hits qualifying

Porsche maintained its front row lockout for the Le Mans 24 Hours during a second qualifying session that was predominantly held in wet conditions on Thursday

Le Mans 24 Hours: Porsche still on top after rain hits qualifying
Rain
Heavy rain still falling in the early part of the lap, but the far end of the circuit, including the last part of the Mulsanne Straight all the way round to the start of the Porsche Curves, remains reasonably dry.
LMP2
A bit more activity now from the LMP2 runners. Minassian is out in the #27 SMP Racing BR-01, Senna RGR Sport by Morand and Gommendy for Eurasia Motorsport. The latter's ORECA was damaged late last night by Pu, and has been rebuilt since.
GTE PRO
A brace of Fords head out on track - Franchitti and Johnson back aboard the #67 and #66 GTs respectively.
LMP1
Both Audis head back out, as does the #6 Toyota of Sarrazin. We'd love to tell you something else other than reporting cars leaving and entering the pits, but there's really not much else to tell at the moment.
GTE PRO
Jan Magnussen's heading out on the #63 Corvette. The ex-Formula 1 driver has won Le Mans four times in class – but didn’t even make the start last year after heavily damaging his Corvette in qualifying.

The Dane, who shares his Pratt & Miller-run Chevy C7.R with Antonio Garcia and Ricky Taylor, crashed at the Porsche Curves in the final qualifying session for the 2015 race.

A small stone, which was caught up in the throttle assembly, caused the C7.R’s throttle to stick open and triggered a large crash through the fastest corners of the circuit.

Corvette wasn’t able to repair the car and that meant sidelining Magnussen, Garcia and then-third driver Ryan Briscoe for the race.
LMP2
Munemann is out as well in the Algarve Pro Racing Ligier.
LMP1
Webber brings the #1 Porsche in, and it is wheeled into the garage. Prost's #12 Rebellion is now the only LMP1 car in action.
LMP2
Matsuda for KCMG and Nakano for Race Performance have headed out to sample the conditions.
LMP1
Almost every car is in the pits at the moment. Two of those proving the exception to the rule are the front row-occupying Porsches, which continue to tentatively circulate. As we say that, Lieb brings the #2 into the pits.
Gary Watkins
There's not much happening out on track, so here's a random fact from the annals of Le Mans history.

Back in 1969, the year of Ford's final victory with Jacky Ickx and Jackie Olivier, the race start was brought forward to 2pm courtesy of the presidential elections. Sounds very civilised to me.
From a quick scan, four LMP2 entries improved on their Wednesday times. Pegasus is now 15th in the class, two spot ahead of the #37 SMP Racing BR-01 - Petrov set that time - while Algarve Pro Racing and SO24! by Lombard are 18th and 22nd.

By: Geoff Creighton

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