Le Mans 24 Hours 2015 Thursday: final qualifying
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So, there we have it. Porsche's trio of 919 Hybrids will start this weekend's Le Mans 24 Hours from the top three positions of the grid after maintaining their supremacy in final qualifying.
AUTOSPORT Live will return on Saturday an hour before the 83rd edition of the French enduro kicks off at 3pm local time, but remember to visit autosport.com for all the big news and reaction to qualifying.
Until then, here's our full qualifying report, including how the class battles unfolded:
Porsche on pole for 2015 Le Mans
AUTOSPORT Live will return on Saturday an hour before the 83rd edition of the French enduro kicks off at 3pm local time, but remember to visit autosport.com for all the big news and reaction to qualifying.
Until then, here's our full qualifying report, including how the class battles unfolded:
Porsche on pole for 2015 Le Mans
#18 Porsche, Le Mans 2015
Stopwatch
Here are your four class polesitters:
LMP1: #18 Porsche 919 Hybrid (Dumas/Jani/Lieb)
LMP2: #47 KCMG ORECA-Nissan 05 (Howson/Bradley/Lapierre)
GTE Pro: #99 Aston Martin Vantage (Stanaway/Rees/MacDowall)
GTE Am: #98 Aston Martin Vantage (Lamy/dalla Lana/Lauda)
LMP1: #18 Porsche 919 Hybrid (Dumas/Jani/Lieb)
LMP2: #47 KCMG ORECA-Nissan 05 (Howson/Bradley/Lapierre)
GTE Pro: #99 Aston Martin Vantage (Stanaway/Rees/MacDowall)
GTE Am: #98 Aston Martin Vantage (Lamy/dalla Lana/Lauda)
Twitter
Positive thinking from Audi's Albuquerque despite Porsche's dominance.
@AlbuquerqueFil: "We are going to start from 6th. We are happy with the set-up for the race and that is the most important."
@AlbuquerqueFil: "We are going to start from 6th. We are happy with the set-up for the race and that is the most important."
It's no surprise after what we've seen during the last two nights, but now it's official - Porsche locks out the top three spots on the grid for the 2015 Le Mans 24 Hours.
Crash
The #95 Aston Martin's off again, this time at the exit of the Porsche Curves. Nygaard's in the car this time. Could have been worse, as the Vantage pirouettes across the gravel and nudges the tyres.
Checkered flag
The chequered flag is out. High-fives and pats on the back starting in various garages.
Provisional polesitter Jani bungs in the #18 Porsche's best time of today - a 3m21.1s. That's not going to trouble his Wednesday mark of 3m16.8s.
Davidson sets another PB for the #1 Toyota in this session, but it's still 1.2s off of its best qualifying effort - 3m24.999s.
Green flag
The track is clear at the first Mulsanne chicane now, but drivers are being warned of gravel on the circuit.
There's a woman in the Porsche P1 pit wearing a tiara. No one is quite sure why.
Yellow flag
The Ibanez Racing ORECA has stopped at the first Mulsanne chicane. Bellarosa is behind the wheel.
Salvation (of sorts) for the #92 Porsche, which has finally got itself off the bottom of the GTE Pro list - at the expense of the #64 Corvette.
It's gone 11th in GTE, which is eighth in Pro.
It's gone 11th in GTE, which is eighth in Pro.
We're getting some session PBs in in LMP1 now. Davidson and Beche have set their fastest times of the night, although neither have bettered their overall qualifying time yet.
Tincknell puts in the fastest Nissan lap so far with just 10 minutes left on the clock. He moves the #22 machine up to 12th with a 3m36.995s.
That slow zone is now clear, for what will hopefully be a trouble-free final 12 minutes.
Yellow flag
Sorensen has beached the Vantage, currently sixth overall (fifth in GTE Pro) in the gravel. It is being retrieved under a slow zone.
The #95 Aston has stopped at the Dunlop chicane.
The debris has been collected and Hirsch has made it back to the pits.
In an open-cockpit car such as the Greaves Motorsport Gibson, we can only assume that what amounts to the front-left corner of the bodywork detaching itself and flying up into the air - headlight still ablaze - would have captured his attention.
In an open-cockpit car such as the Greaves Motorsport Gibson, we can only assume that what amounts to the front-left corner of the bodywork detaching itself and flying up into the air - headlight still ablaze - would have captured his attention.
Yellow flag
The slow zone has been removed, but we've still got a yellow flag.
LMP1 order, which seems unlikely to change:
1 #18 Porsche
2 #17 Porsche (+0.8s)
3 #19 Porsche
4 #8 Audi (+2.9s)
5 #7 Audi
6 #9 Audi
7 #2 Toyota (+6.6s)
8 #1 Toyota
9 #12 Rebellion (+9.9s)
10 #13 Rebellion
11 #4 CLM (+19.9s)
12 #23 Nissan (+20.4s)
14 #21 Nissan
15 #22 Nissan
1 #18 Porsche
2 #17 Porsche (+0.8s)
3 #19 Porsche
4 #8 Audi (+2.9s)
5 #7 Audi
6 #9 Audi
7 #2 Toyota (+6.6s)
8 #1 Toyota
9 #12 Rebellion (+9.9s)
10 #13 Rebellion
11 #4 CLM (+19.9s)
12 #23 Nissan (+20.4s)
14 #21 Nissan
15 #22 Nissan
Yellow flag
We've got a slow zone to allow that debris to be collected.
There's not been much excitement at the sharp end in this session. Simply put, Porsche knows it doesn't need to try another qualifying run, and Audi knows there's no point having a go.
Throw some red flags into the mix, disrupting everyone's plans, and you have a recipe for a qualifying session dedicated to race preparation.
Throw some red flags into the mix, disrupting everyone's plans, and you have a recipe for a qualifying session dedicated to race preparation.
The Greaves LMP2 entry has shed some front-left bodywork on the first lap back out of the pits. There's a yellow flag in the Esses for the debris, Hirsch is bringing the car back to the garage.
Race control reports powder on the track on the straight before the first Mulsanne chicane.
Let's hope the #67 AAI entry is okay. That ProSpeed-owned car has been built up around a new shell after its shunt in qualifying for last year's Le Mans. If you remember it managed to make the race after the 2012-spec car was built into another loaned shell.
Green flag
30 minutes to go and the track is green again. A very busy pitlane heads out onto the track.
Twitter
@KevinMagnussen: "Dad is ok. Car took a big hit though, but the @CorvetteRacing guys are awesome so fingers crossed they can fix it! #hopeful"
With just over half an hour left on the clock, this is the top five in GTE:
1 #99 Aston Martin Racing Vantage 3m54.298s
2 #51 AF Corse Ferrari 458 3m55.025s
3 #98 Aston Martin Racing Vantage 3m55.102s*
4 #97 Aston Martin Racing Vantage 3m55.466s
5 #71 AF Corse Ferrari 458 3m55.582s
*top GTE Am car
1 #99 Aston Martin Racing Vantage 3m54.298s
2 #51 AF Corse Ferrari 458 3m55.025s
3 #98 Aston Martin Racing Vantage 3m55.102s*
4 #97 Aston Martin Racing Vantage 3m55.466s
5 #71 AF Corse Ferrari 458 3m55.582s
*top GTE Am car
Breaking news
We're due for a restart at 23:30 local time, about five minutes away.
So with a little under 40 minutes remaining, here's how the current LMP2 top end looks:
1 #47 KCMG ORECA, 3m38.032s
2 #26 G-Drive Racing (OAK) Ligier, 3m38.939s
3 #41 Greaves Motorsport Gibson, 3m38.958s
4 #38 Jota Sport Gibson, 3m39.004s
5 #46 Signatech Alpine ORECA, 3m39.699s
1 #47 KCMG ORECA, 3m38.032s
2 #26 G-Drive Racing (OAK) Ligier, 3m38.939s
3 #41 Greaves Motorsport Gibson, 3m38.958s
4 #38 Jota Sport Gibson, 3m39.004s
5 #46 Signatech Alpine ORECA, 3m39.699s
Marshals are working to clear the smouldering Porsche. Still under the red flag.
From an onboard, we've seen a GT car ablaze on Mulsanne. Looks like it is the #67 AAI car driven by Kapadia. That was the car that was coasting with smoke coming from under it.
Red flag
And now it's a red flag. It's not clear what the problem was, although the #67 AAI Porsche was seen coasting in that part of the track with a lot of smoke trailing from it. So possibly related to that.
Yellow flag
We've got double-waved yellows on the approach to the first Mulsanne chicane.
Bird has taken G-Drive Racing (OAK)'s #26 up to second place in LMP2, with a 3m38.939s. It's still almost a second shy of KCMG, but the conditions are good and there's still plenty of time for more gains to be found.
With 56 minutes of qualifying remaining, there doesn't appear to be any chance of the Porsche top-three lockout being threatened. We haven't seen the top-two Porsches going particularly rapidly today, although Tandy did make a small improvement in the #19 car that's in third place in the earlier Thursday session.
Twitter
@NISMO: "Setup changes on No.21 & small clutch issue on No.22. Both will be back out soon."
Yellow flag
The #71 Ferrari is on tow, so the slow zone shouldn't have to in place for too much longer.
Yellow flag
There's a slow zone at Indianapolis to allow the Ferrari to be recovered.
The #68 AAI Porsche has also looped it into the gravel on the run out of Dunlop. Han Chen Chen is at the wheel.
By: Scott Mitchell, AUTOSPORT staff, Edd Straw, Glenn Freeman, Mitchell Adam, Gary Watkins
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