Le Mans 2013 Thursday qualifying
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Kristensen's spell at the top doesn't last long as Marcel Fassler in the #1 car pops in a 3m37.4s lap.
Sebastien Buemi splits the two R18 e-tron quattros immediatley with a 3m38.6s effort.
Sebastien Buemi splits the two R18 e-tron quattros immediatley with a 3m38.6s effort.
The #32 Lotus T128 sets its first competitive time of this year's Le Mans, a 3m56.503s - enough to go 34th overall, and 19th in class. Jan Charouz is at the wheel.
Stopwatch
The times are really tumbling among the factory LMP1s now. Fassler knocks another two seconds from the session best to net a 3m35.2s. Buemi is matching him blow-for-blow in 3m35.8s.
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Toyota WEC Le Mans 2013
Stonking time from Buemi as the Swiss ex-F1 man pumps in a 3m33.0s lap. We might yet see some improvers tonight.
Peter Dumbreck in the #97 Aston Martin and Manuel Rodrigues in the #70 Larbre Chevrolet run straight on at the second Mulsanne Chicane. Yellow flags are briefly aired.
As they do, Lucas Ordonez gets down to a 3m50.111s - that's less than one second slower than his yesterday best.
Crash
Nick Heidfeld is in the gravel at the second Mulsanne chicane. The #12 Rebellion has got itself free and continued.
Ooh. A bit of a close call at Mulsanne corner between one of the Toyotas, Heidfeld's Rebellion Lola and a slow Porsche.
Stopwatch
A new pace-setter emerges in the shape of Fassler's Audi. His 3m32.2s is 0.8s faster than Buemi.
We have an Aston off at Mulsanne Corner.
That's the #96 GTE Am car of Jamie Campbell-Walter, Stuart Hall - who was driving - and Roald Goethe. The car is currently being towed from the gravel, while yellow flags are covering the incident.
A very close call through Tertre Rouge between Nelson Panciatici's #36 Signatech Alpine ORECA-Nissan and one of the Lotus-Pragas.
The LMP2 pair get a little close on the exit of the turn and avoid contact by inches.
The LMP2 pair get a little close on the exit of the turn and avoid contact by inches.
And now we have yellows at the Porsche Curves, for a slow GTE Am Chevrolet Corvette...
It's the #50 Larbre car raced by Le Mans regulars Julien Canal, Patrick Bornhauser and Ricky Taylor - son of two-time Daytona 24 Hours winner Wayne.
It's the #50 Larbre car raced by Le Mans regulars Julien Canal, Patrick Bornhauser and Ricky Taylor - son of two-time Daytona 24 Hours winner Wayne.
Stuart Hall rejoins in the #96 Aston Martin, while Brendon Hartley runs straight on at the second Mulsanne chicane in the #48 Murphy Prototypes ORECA-Nissan.
Both Rebellion Lola-Toyotas have now taken a trip through the gravel recently. This time it's the #13 with Andrea Belicchi at the wheel. He continues.
On a total side note, a man with the most perfectly-coiffured side hair (he's bald in the middle) has just walked past. If AUTOSPORT can grab a picture without detection, we'll publish it right here.
Good news for the Caterham-supported #41 Greaves car - Tom Kimber-Smith has just set his best time of the session to vault the car into 18th overall, and 10th in class. He now tops the LMP2 class of this session, incidentally.
That car, in case you missed it, didn't compete in the dry first qualifying session following Eric Lux's off in practice.
Red flag
Le Mans 2013
Red flags for a car in the gravel at the first Mulsanne chicane. It's the GTE Am #76 Imsa Porsche with Christophe Bourret at the wheel.
Crash
The car looks pretty totalled. The right-rear wheel is missing, and the machine is being towed away already by the fantastically efficient marshals. The big problem is the debris in the middle of the track.
With any luck the barriers will be OK and we'll be set to resume shortly.
With any luck the barriers will be OK and we'll be set to resume shortly.
Session will restart at 2305 local time. That's four minutes from now.
Stopwatch
Prior to the stoppage we had a change at the top of the GTE Am standings in the session as Pat Long produced a 4m16.9s lap in the Dempsey-Del Piero Porsche. That's still 18 seconds off the class pole held by the #96 Aston Martin.
Green flag
We're underway again.
The #39 DKR Lola-Judd spins exiting the Ford chicane, grabbing a bit of gravel on the exit kerb and dragging it across the track. Mercifully, Romain Brandela did not collect the wall.
Stopwatch
Oliver Jarvis heads to the top of the timesheets; the Brit taking the #3 Audi around in 3m27.2. That's just 3s off that car's overall best from Q1.
The Toyotas are on the move too. And this one's even more significant as Stephane Sarrazin in the #8 car sets his overall best qualifying time and moves ahead of the #12 Rebellion Lola-Toyota into fifth place overall.
This is it then; We're going to see some seriously quick laps from now on. And we still have 43 minutes to go!
This is it then; We're going to see some seriously quick laps from now on. And we still have 43 minutes to go!
Times tumbling in LMP2 now, as Brendon Hartley, Oliver Turvey, Michel Frey, Alexandre Imperatori and Michael Krumm all set personal bests for third qualifying. The latter's time, a 3m46.243s, is a new overall best for the #42 Greaves Motorsport car.
Yellow flag
Jonny Kane has had an incident at the second Mulsanne chicane and dumped a load of debris on the track. It's being covered by waved yellows at the moment.
Red flag
Red flag for that incident.
Stopwatch
Just before the Strakka HPD had that incident, Jarvis went around in 3m24.341s, the fastest lap the #3 Audi has done all week and the fastest time of all in this particular qualifying session.
Jarvis stays second, but is now only 2s off Duval's provisional pole of yesterday.
Jarvis stays second, but is now only 2s off Duval's provisional pole of yesterday.
All these red flags are beginning to get rather tedious. AUTOSPORT sportscar oracle Gary Watkins has decided to fight said tedium by making a cup of Earl Grey.
Breaking news
The session will restart on a "short call" - which means the teams will get a quick notice on the resumption of the session and they'll be off again - rather than a specific time.
That's good news for Krohn Racing, which has already got its #57 Ferrari, the one car without a qualifying time against its name, at the end pf the pitlane and ready to go.
Green flag
We're off again for a final 29 minutes and 29 seconds of Le Mans 24 Hours qualifying.
Get ready. This one could be pretty interesting.
Get ready. This one could be pretty interesting.
The provisional order of the GTE Pro class has stayed the same, with Aston Martin and Ferrari very much on top. That's bad news for the two Chevrolets. They're four seconds behind the pace-setting #99 Vantage, not sandbagging, and appear to be struggling for straightline speed.
A quick bit of math from Jamie O'Leary just now suggests that if that pace disadvantage continued throughout the race, they'd be six laps slower...
A quick bit of math from Jamie O'Leary just now suggests that if that pace disadvantage continued throughout the race, they'd be six laps slower...
We did warn you this could get interesting. Lotterer's just gone purple in sector one in the #1 Audi.
Crash
Franchitti is in the gravel at Indianapolis and the #33 Level 5 HPD is beached. Yellow flags are out from Mulsanne Corner while Franchitti has rejoined.
Lotterer loses a little time in the remainder of the lap, but is still fast enough to haul the #1 Audi into second on the grid, ahead of Jarvis' #3 car. He is 1.3s off pole.
Alexandre Imperatori spins the KCMG Morgan-Nissan at the Dunlop chicane. It's a neat little number and the #47 car is on its way again.
We've had our first improver of the entire session in GTE Am; Rui Aguas having improved to 11th in class in the #81 8 Star Ferrari. Whether he can improve a spot or not depends on whether he can find a further two seconds.
By: Jamie O'Leary, Scott Mitchell, Gary Watkins, Sam Tremayne
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