Le Mans 24 Hours 2014 Thursday: final qualifying
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Yellow flag
There's a yellow at the Porsche Curves.
Wurz brings the #7 Toyota into the pits, jumps out and the car is wheeled back into the garage.
Driver change for the #91 Manthey Porsche as Briton Nick Tandy gets his first lap of the week!
Tandy's had something of a tumultuous season, through no fault of his own. He didn't even fly out to the Prologue test at Paul Ricard after his car written off in a crash, and missed the Test Day because of the same reason.
Even an attempt to take part in a GT Cup round at Brands Hatch back in Britain failed because his co-driver shunted!
Tandy's had something of a tumultuous season, through no fault of his own. He didn't even fly out to the Prologue test at Paul Ricard after his car written off in a crash, and missed the Test Day because of the same reason.
Even an attempt to take part in a GT Cup round at Brands Hatch back in Britain failed because his co-driver shunted!
The '27 AF Corse ORECA has been reported for speeding in the pitlane.
It was Leutwiler who spun the Pegasus car. The French team is back at Le Mans for a second time this year after running a Norma in 2010.
Twitter
Edging closer to a landmark?
@NissanZEODRC: "@SatoshiMotoyama just blasted down the Mulsanne on electric only and topped 300km/h"
However, as GARY WATKINS discovered, the car will not attempt an all-electric lap until during the race:
ZEOD won't try electric lap until race
Yellow flag
The #29 Pegasus Morgan has spun on the approach to Tertre Rouge. He is reversing and trying to get back going.
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Although the #26 OAK car was fastest in LMP2 yesterday, lead driver Olivier Pla was not especially happy.
"Things went pretty well, but I cannot say that I was totally happy because I didn’t do a lap in free practice because of the red flags," said Pla. "Then I went out at 10 in the evening, first to qualify in the night and I could do a decent lap I had traffic, I had a yellow flag, so it was far from what we could do."
"Things went pretty well, but I cannot say that I was totally happy because I didn’t do a lap in free practice because of the red flags," said Pla. "Then I went out at 10 in the evening, first to qualify in the night and I could do a decent lap I had traffic, I had a yellow flag, so it was far from what we could do."
There's been a change at the front in LMP2. Chatin has taken provisional pole in the Signatech-run Alpine-badged ORECA. That relegates the #26 OAK Racing Morgan to second.
Lotterer sets the best first sector of today in the #2 Audi. The Audi has been rapid in that sector throughout practice.
The onboard camera shows that the left-hand door of the #8 Toyota is open. Lapierre is trying to shut it, but failing and must leave it ajar.
Race control has suggested that the #8 Toyota needs to check the left-side door. That car is currently on track in the hands of Lapierre.
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Just past half hour in this session and not to tempt fate but...it's been quite well-behaved so far.
We've had a couple of yellows, sure, but nothing like the pretty chaotic effort of yesterday.
AUTOSPORT got a lot of answers this morning like "it was frustrating" and "it was not ideal", but Bruno Senna's was the best.
“I had a s*** session," said the Brazilian, who went on to say that he was hoping race organisers would be sensible should more incidents occur while teams attempted to make up for lost time today.
"If there are incidents, I hope the ACO understands the problem [with track time],” he added.
We've had a couple of yellows, sure, but nothing like the pretty chaotic effort of yesterday.
AUTOSPORT got a lot of answers this morning like "it was frustrating" and "it was not ideal", but Bruno Senna's was the best.
“I had a s*** session," said the Brazilian, who went on to say that he was hoping race organisers would be sensible should more incidents occur while teams attempted to make up for lost time today.
"If there are incidents, I hope the ACO understands the problem [with track time],” he added.
It's the Race Performance ORECA, driven by Frey.
Yellow flag
Yello flag at the first Mulsanne Chicane.
The #77 Dempsey Porsche has just forced a fire extinguisher into action in the pitlane. Nothing dramatic for Patrick Long, fourth fastest in GTE Am at present.
Di Grassi tells Radio Le Mans that there is no problem with the Audi, just routine checks following the overnight build of the car.
Wurz has improved the #7 Toyota's qualifying time. He's just done a 3m24.420s. Still in fourth place behind the sister car.
The #3 Audi is lapping briskly. Albuquerque is only a few tenths off the car's best time in qualifying of yesterday.
The #7 Toyota is back on track in the hands of Wurz, while the Nissan Zeod is being wheeled along the pit-lane.
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One of the talks of the GTE Pro paddock is the new CR.7, which has been earmarked by rivals Porsche and Aston Martin as one to watch.
That's a big improvement on its predecessor, which toiled here last year and was some away off challenging for the win.
Corvette Racing team manager Gary Pratt told AUTOSPORT that the progress had been good, but qualifying was not their main priority.
"Speed-wise and handling I think we’re on line with where we wanted to be [with the new car]. We had the chance to win at Daytona and Sebring but had problems.
"We probably didn’t do enough track testing but the car will be good at the start and to the end. The team that doesn’t make the mistakes is going to win. Top five we’ll be happy in qualifying because we can race almost as well as we qualify and others don't seem to be able too."
It's the '42 Greaves Zytek, driven by Dyson. Appears simply to have spun.
Yellow flag
Spin at Arnage.
Seems that the newly-built #1 Audi has a problem of some kind, possibly losing fluid of some sort.
The pace is being stepped up in GTE Pro. No changes among the frontunners – though Senna's getting faster – but Magnussen has improved the best time for the #73 Corvette in fourth to 3m55.883s and Griffin's put the #52 Ram Ferrari sixth on a 3m56.642s.
It's the #47 KCMG ORECA-Nissan, driven by Bradley, that has spun.
Yellow flag
Yellow flags out at Mulsanne corner.
Others who weren't on track during a disrupted two-hour qualifying session included some of the GTE Pro frontrunners. Manthey Porsche ace Nick Tandy and Corvette star Richard Westbrook.
Personal fastest laps in GTE Am for the likes of Jeroen Bleekemolen and Spencer Pumpelly, who failed to get laps in yesterday.
And, predictably, the second we write that, it leaves the pits! Di Grassi is driving. This will likely be an installation lap.
The #1 Audi has yet to take to the track.
We're looking at low 4m02s as the quickest GT times at the moment. The quickest time so far, set by Gianmaria Bruni, is a 3m54.754s.
The Nissan ZEOD RC has now completed its first lap of the weekend in the hands of Motoyama. It is 41nd overall on a 3m59.953s. After the setbacks yesterday, the team has confirmed it will not attempt to achieve its target of an all-electric lap tonight.
The #8 Toyota is in the pits having some work done.
Crash
The #60 AF Corse Ferrari has gone of at Mulsanne corner. That's being driven by Case. He went through the gravel, and has continued.
Lapierre sets the #7 Toyota's best time so far. He's just done a 3m23.963s and is third.
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Alex Wurz knows how to win Le Mans, having done so in the Joest Porsche in 1996 and the Peugeot in 2009. He’s not particularly interested in gunning for pole position.
“As always, I'm urging my car crew, my team and engineer to focus on the race distance because that’s where we get the points," said Wurz. "At Peugeot, we split with one car going for glory but I was glad I didn't have to because it always worked out better for the car that did not to have the slightly better race set-up."
“As always, I'm urging my car crew, my team and engineer to focus on the race distance because that’s where we get the points," said Wurz. "At Peugeot, we split with one car going for glory but I was glad I didn't have to because it always worked out better for the car that did not to have the slightly better race set-up."
Of the leading GTE Pro cars (the #99 Aston was sixth after yesterday, for anyone who cares), these are the drivers in the hotseat:
#51 AF Corse Ferrari: Vilander
#97 Aston Martin: Senna
#92 Manthey Porsche: Lietz
#73 Corvette: Magnussen
#91 Manthey Porsche: Bergmeister
Bertolini is aboard the GTE Am pace-setting #72 SMP Ferrari, with Ciocio in the pursuing AF Corse-run 458.
#51 AF Corse Ferrari: Vilander
#97 Aston Martin: Senna
#92 Manthey Porsche: Lietz
#73 Corvette: Magnussen
#91 Manthey Porsche: Bergmeister
Bertolini is aboard the GTE Am pace-setting #72 SMP Ferrari, with Ciocio in the pursuing AF Corse-run 458.
And the #41 is back in after its installation lap.
Then #41 Greaves Zytek-Nissan Z11SN has just headed out onto the track in the hands of Winslow. The car completed just six laps yesterday before being crashed by Michael Munemann. While the damage wasn’t too serious, it was enough to miss first qualifying. Overnight, the transmission has been changed, with the bodywork damage also dealt with.
By: Scott Mitchell, Edd Straw, Glenn Freeman, Gary Watkins
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