Le Mans 24 Hours 2014 Wednesday: Practice and qualifying
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Bird twice improves the #81 AF Ferrari's best time to move into (and then consolidate) GTE-Am top spot.
That class benchmark is now 3m59.497s – the first sub-4m lap of the session for any GT car – and so Bird's back above Pro pacesetter Tandy.
That class benchmark is now 3m59.497s – the first sub-4m lap of the session for any GT car – and so Bird's back above Pro pacesetter Tandy.
Breaking news
The top seven positions are occupied by the works Toyotas, Audis and Porsches. The other two top-class cars, the Rebellion R-Ones running in the LMP1-L class, have not set flying laps but have each completed an installation lap.
Rebellion has been given a series of performance breaks to allow it to be more competitive, giving it a 40kg weight break and an increase in fuel allowance and capacity.
Rebellion has been given a series of performance breaks to allow it to be more competitive, giving it a 40kg weight break and an increase in fuel allowance and capacity.
Davidson heads into the pits in the Toyota after completing a seven-lap opening run for the #7 car. So far, 33 cars have posted laptimes.
P2 is now topped by the #34 Race Performance ORECA-Judd/BMW, which Franck Mailleux has just wrestled a 3m44.021s out of.
Tandy has improved to a 4m02.053s, meaning he has jumped clear of the leading GTE Am cars.
Stopwatch
Davidson improves again. He's put in a 3m25.767s.
Single-seater convert Sam Bird jumps to second quickest in GTE-Am, 0.02s slower than Mowlem. It's now a Ferrari 1-2-3-4-5!
Tandy currently sets the GTE Pro pace in the #91 Manthey Porsche on a 4m02.793s.
Mowlem improves to a 4m02.757s, leading a Ferrari 1-2-3 in GTE-Am with Al Faisal (JMW) and Giammaria (AF Corse) behind.
Incidentally, Mowlem's time is quicker than any of the GTE-Pro drivers' early attempts. Mind you, that's a touch irrelevant at this stage.
Incidentally, Mowlem's time is quicker than any of the GTE-Pro drivers' early attempts. Mind you, that's a touch irrelevant at this stage.
The #14 Porsche of Marc Lieb returns to the pits and is wheeled back into the garage. The #92 Manthey Porsche has also finally made it back to the pits.
Matt Howson goes almost a second clear at the top of the P2 times, the #47 KCMG ORECA lapping in 3m47.485s.
Marco Holzer is still trying to get the #92 Manthey Porsche back to the pits. It's not fast, but he's getting there.
Ludovic Badey brings the quickest P2 time down to 3m48.287s in the Thiriet by TDS Ligier-Nissan.
Stopwatch
Davidson improves his fastest lap to a 3m26.063s. He currently 1.759s faster than Toyota team-mate Sarrazin.
Johnny Mowlem's the early GTE-Am benchmark in the Ram Racing Ferrari 458 Italian. The Briton's time is a 4m03.600s.
The Nissan Zeod RC is being pushed to safety after stopping on its outlap. Looks like it's at the second chicane on the Mulsanne Straight. We've also got the #92 Manthey Porsche 911 RSR crawling slowly around the circuit.
Salo's the first to set a time in P2, but it's an unrepresentative 3m56.029s – to put that in perspective, the fastest Test Day time was 3m37.795s (#26 OAK Morgan-Nissan).
Yellow flag
The distinctive Nissan Zeod already seems to be in trouble. It has stopped on track and is being attended to by marshals.
And Sarrazin makes it a Toyota one-two, putting in a 3m29.014s in the #7 car.
Stopwatch
Davidson, piloting the #8 Toyota TS040, becomes the first driver to complete a flying lap, putting in a 3m26.417s. That's around 3.4s slower than the car's fastest lap on the test day. Still a quick start on a dirty track.
There are a number of LMP2 cars on track, with the likes of Mika Salo (SMP ORECA), and OAK Ligier duo Ho-Pin Tung (OAK Ligier) and Jann Mardenborough among 12 of the 18-strong field on early flying laps.
AUTOSPORT's media centre vantage point is perfectly positioned to scrutinise AF Corse's pitstop efforts.
The #20 Porsche 919 Hybrid is behind Davidson on track, with Le Mans returnee Mark Webber at the wheel.
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@Audi__Sport: "Starting drivers: No.1 Tom Kristensen, No.2 Benoît @BenoitTreluyer, No.3 @Marco@MarcoBonanomi"
Green flag
And the 2014 Le Mans 24 Hours weekend is go. Anthony Davidson leads a queue of cars onto the track for free practice.
With a couple of minutes to go before this four-hour free practice session, there's already a queue forming at the pitlane exit. One of the Toyotas is at the front of the line.
Plenty of the cars have been pushed out of the garages and onto the pit apron already, including two Audis, one Porsche, and one Toyota.
Air temperature is 24C with five minutes to go until the session kicks off.
Breaking news
Toyota, Le Mans test day
Toyota set the pace when the cars were in action earlier this month for the test, but the best of the Audis was within one second of the pace set by Sebastien Buemi.
All seven of the factory LMP1 cars from Toyota, Audi and Porsche were covered by less than two seconds.
Engines have been running in the pitlane for the last 20 minutes or so, as the teams get ready to roll out for the first time since the test day on June 1.
Welcome to the start of AUTOSPORT's live coverage of the 2014 Le Mans 24 Hours.
Four hours of free practice are about to begin at a warm Circuit de la Sarthe, before the first qualifying session (and night running) is held later on.
Four hours of free practice are about to begin at a warm Circuit de la Sarthe, before the first qualifying session (and night running) is held later on.
2014 Le Mans 24 Hours driver photo
By: Glenn Freeman, Edd Straw, Scott Mitchell, Gary Watkins
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