Skip to main content

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe
Live text
WEC 24 Hours of Le Mans

Le Mans 24 Hours 2014 Thursday: final qualifying

Live Text

Sort by
Imperatori goes close to the KCMG ORECA's previous best. He looks to have been trying, but is seven tenths off the car's previous best.
Both of the Porsche 919s have been in the garage for quite a while now. We've just had a shot of the #20 car, which is up on its jacks, minus any wheels, and doesn't seem to have any work being carried out on it.
The Nissan ZEOD pits after Ordonez's quick lap. There's much shaking of the head and the car is taken into the garage.
Roda (driving the #90 GTE Am Ferrari) has been summoned to race control "immediately". Sounds urgent...
Should Gommendy remain top of the P2 times for the TDS squad, it would be the first pole position for a Ligier at a major international event since Jacques Lafitte did the business in qualifying for the 1981 Spanish GP.
Wurz gets it wrong coming into the pits, goes the wrong side of the kerb and kicks up some gravel.
The Nissan ZEOD is logging its first decent mileage of the week. It's up to 13 laps now, and has a best of 3m50.1s.
Talk of how much more action we're going to see in the last hour or so has prompted GARY WATKINS to recall Tomas Enge's banzai GT pole laps of years gone by. He's hoping someone can take that mantle on and give us some excitement in the closing stages.
Prost has been off at Mulsanne corner in the #12 Rebellion, but he appears to have continued.
Very little going on with the big guns at the front. Here's the LMP1 order: #7 Toyota; #14 Porsche; #8 Toyota; #20 Porsche; #3 Audi; #2 Audi; #1 Audi
Garcia improves in the #73 Corvette. He's second in GTE Pro, but has closed to one tenth behind the #81 Am Ferrari that sits between his Chevrolet and the pole-sitting #51 Ferrari.
Doesn't look like Webber will be back in action any time soon - he's swapped his race suit for some team clothing and is at the back of the Porsche garage.
Audi points out on Twitter that it has left Duval's name on the #1 car, despite the Frenchman being withdrawn from racing this weekend after his big accident on Wednesday and replaced by Marc Gene.
Panciatici improves again in the Signatech Alpine ORECA. He finds a tenth, but stays fourth in P2. Frustration!
Mucke proves us wrong, moving the #97 Aston Martin into third in GTE (and second in Pro).
That could be it for the qualifying excitement in all four classes - at the moment nobody is setting any improved sector times.
The engine cover is off the #35 OAK Ligier, which lies third in class. Much peering into the engine bay.
Lamy picks off another GTE Pro car, moving his #98 Am Aston Martin above the #91 Porsche - which will not run again in the session after it stopped on the pit straight and was pushed straight into parc ferme.
Another decentish time from the ZEOD. Motoyama does a 3m51.842s, only a 1.4s off its previous best.
Yellow flag
Roda spins the #90 Ferrari at the Dunlop Chicane. It looks like he might be stuck - and a tractor is on its way to retrieve him.
The top four in P1 are all in the pits. Getting new tyres for a pole shot perhaps?
Panciatici improves to 3m38.179s and is now fourth in P2 aboard the Signatech Alpine ORECA.
Pla has just set a time six thousandths slower than his best lap and remains sixth in P2 in the G-Drive/OAK Morgan.
Lamy has moved the #98 Aston Martin up to second in GTE Am, but 1.8 seconds and six Pro cars sit between him and the #81 Ferrari which leads the Am class.
Vilander has gone straight on at the first chicane on the Mulsanne straight in the #51 Ferrari.
A Rebellion has finally broken the 3m30m mark. Beche has posted a 3m29.763s in the #12 car.
The GTE order at the moment: #51 Ferrari; #81 Ferrari (Am); #73 Corvette; #97 Aston Martin; #74 Corvette; #52 Ferrari; #92 Porsche; #91 Porsche.
Gavin moves the #74 Corvette into fourth in the GTE Pro standings with a 3m55.1s.
Buemi jumps to third in the #8 Toyota with a 3m22.146s, seven tenths off team-mate Nakajima's pole mark at the moment.
Gommendy moves latecomer Turvey off of LMP2 pole, putting the #46 Ligier on top spot by less than a tenth of a second.
We've just passed 10pm here at Le Mans. This is traditionally when the final qualifying session kicks off, with the sun about to set. Let's see if that means we still have more action to come at the top.
Yellow flag
Slick work from the marshals - the car is already being craned out of harm's way.
Crash
Parente has crashed the #52 Ram Ferrari at the Ford Chicane. He lost the car on the way into the first part of the chicane, then had a tank-slapper as he tried to hold onto it, but it eventually got away from him and slammed into the tyres.
The ZEOD's hopes of beating an LMP2 car have just taken a hit, as Ragues improves the #50 Larbre's time to move it up the order. The slowest LMP2 is now the #37 SMP ORECA, which is six seconds clear of the 'Garage 56' ZEOD.
Looks like the #91 car's session is over. The Porsche was originally moved to the right of the pit exit, but it has now been wheeled into parc ferme at the instruction of race control. It currently sits sixth in GTE Pro, and seventh out of the GTE cars thanks to Bird's lap in the #81 Am Ferrari.
Pilet has pulled off in front of the end of the pitwall at the pit exit in the #91 Porsche - having toured down the start/finish straight. His mechanics are running (from the opposite end of the pits) to collect the car, which is being wheeled into a safer place by the marshals.
Buemi improves the #8 Toyota's time by a tenth to 3m23.271s
The #14 Porsche has been reported to the stewards for speeding in the pitlane.

By: Scott Mitchell, Edd Straw, Glenn Freeman, Gary Watkins

Published: