Live text
WEC
24 Hours of Le Mans
Le Mans 24 Hours 2015 Wednesday: Practice and qualifying
Live Standings
presented by
Stopped
Summary
Live Text
Sort by
Looks like Duncan Cameron has come to grief at Mulsanne Corner in the #55 AF Ferrari.
Cameron gets his Ferrari moving again so the yellows at Mulsanne Corner are removed.
Matsuda completes a timed lap in the #21 Nissan, but a 4m12.481s is not enough to move the car up from 55th - ahead of only the Murphy car that is yet to appear following its crash in practice.
Krumm has improved slightly in the #22, but he's still 25th. And the #23 is still agonisingly close to beating the leading LMP2 car, which sits ahead of it in 11th overall.
Krumm has improved slightly in the #22, but he's still 25th. And the #23 is still agonisingly close to beating the leading LMP2 car, which sits ahead of it in 11th overall.
Signatech Alpine's team manager has been summoned to see the stewards "immediately".
Cameron is crawling back to the pits after that spin, which appears to be the result of a puncture.
Yellow flag
Treluyer has spun the #7 Audi at the first Mulsanne chicane.
Red flag
Red flag - seems there's also a car off somewhere in the vicinity of Mulsanne Corner.
Pretty straightforward spin for the Audi in the middle of the chicane, and after some awkward moves back and forth, he eventually rejoins without drama.
Matsuda moved the #21 Nissan up to 43rd overall, and with that he was being called in even before the red flag to hand over to Ordonez.
Twitter
@Toyota_Hybrid: "Nearly halfway through two-hour session. @Mikeconway26 currently on track."
Word coming through that the red flag is for the Greaves LMP2 entry, with Paletou at the wheel, in the barriers at Mulsanne.
Red flag
The clock has stopped during this red flag, so the teams aren't losing out on night time running.
Just before the stoppage, Beche moved the #12 Rebellion to within three seconds of the eighth-placed #2 Toyota.
Bizarrely, we've just had the #9 Audi spin in the hands of Rast. It's not quite clear what happened there, and if that was definitely under red flag conditions.
Twitter
@toni_vilander: "What is happening @FIAWEC ??? So many penalties for track limits, now red flag and everybody 80km/h. I mean the whole lap!!?? #idontlikethis"
Here's how LMP2 looks, halfway into the session.
1. #47 KCMG - 3m38.032s
2. #41 Greaves Motorsport - 3m38.958s
3. #38 Jota Sport - 3m39.679s
4. #46 Thiriet by TDS Racing - 3m39.923s
5. #34 OAK Racing - 3m40.058s
6. #28 G-Drive Racing (OAK) - 3m40.967s
7. #36 Signatech Alpine - 3m41.115s
8. #29 Pegasus Racing - 3m42.023s
No sign yet of the Murphy Prototypes entry, team indicated we'd see it after 11pm, and we're now eight minutes past the hour.
1. #47 KCMG - 3m38.032s
2. #41 Greaves Motorsport - 3m38.958s
3. #38 Jota Sport - 3m39.679s
4. #46 Thiriet by TDS Racing - 3m39.923s
5. #34 OAK Racing - 3m40.058s
6. #28 G-Drive Racing (OAK) - 3m40.967s
7. #36 Signatech Alpine - 3m41.115s
8. #29 Pegasus Racing - 3m42.023s
No sign yet of the Murphy Prototypes entry, team indicated we'd see it after 11pm, and we're now eight minutes past the hour.
GARY WATKINS: Beche's time is quicker than the Rebellion managed with Toyota power in qualifying last year, but still not as fast as Heidfeld managed in the race. The AER-engined car is half a tenth slower than the ultimate best set by its predecessor.
Red flag
Still under a red flag here.
Gommendy, who set the time in the Thiriet by TDS Racing entry, has been summoned to the stewards. That should keep him occupied during the stoppage.
Ah - even though the clock has stopped, we've now had a message from race control saying the session must end at midnight "due to local law".
The clock has now been reset, so 47 minutes remaining. As you were.
The clock has now been reset, so 47 minutes remaining. As you were.
Red flag
We're being delayed by barrier repairs for the second time today. Marshals are at work rebuilding the tyre wall at Mulsanne corner.
Race control says we've got at least another 15 minutes of work required, and it will update the teams again at 23:30 local time.
That's bad news for the handful of cars that must have thought we were getting going soon and are sat in a queue at the end of the pits, including the #19 Porsche.
Race control says we've got at least another 15 minutes of work required, and it will update the teams again at 23:30 local time.
That's bad news for the handful of cars that must have thought we were getting going soon and are sat in a queue at the end of the pits, including the #19 Porsche.
Porsche has sent some mechanics down to the end of the pits to push the #19 car back to the garage. And the #17, which was also in the queue. It looks like the other teams are doing the same.
Race control seems to have gained some time back - we're on course for a 23:25 restart. Three minutes to wait.
There are some very experienced Le Mans campaigners in the field this year. Emmanuel Collard is set to start his 21st Le Mans in 2015, Olivier Beretta his 20th and Nicolas Minassian and Pedro Lamy their 16th.
And everyone starts heading to the end of the pits (again).
Twitter
@Audi__Sport: "Marshals much quicker than expected: restart of the first qualifying in a few minutes. Great job out there!"
Green flag
Here we go, the pits are open.
The #12 Rebellion and #27 #BRE are under investigation for overtaking under the red flag.
For those checking-in late with us, the provisional order at the front is a Porsche 1-2-3, with Jani's early lap in this session aboard the #18 Porsche holding firm - a stunning 3m16.887s.
Improvements lower down the LMP1 order: Trelyuer, Nakajima, Sarrazin and Beche have all improved, but their cars continue to occupy positions 6-9.
Twitter
@JeffSegal: "Confirmed: no bigger rush in the world than Qualifying at Le Mans in the dark. P7 at the moment, but still learning!"
GARY WATKINS: A 3m26.8s from Beche in the Rebellion goes a long way to justifying the Anglo-Swiss team's decision to swap from Toyota to AER engines. That time is 1.6s quicker than the best lap the car managed last year, and it was set in the dark.
Sarrazin moves the #2 Toyota ahead of its sister car, taking seventh.
A shot on circuit TV confirms front-end damage for the Greaves Motorsport Gibson-Nissan, following the crash that caused the earlier red flag. It still sits second in the LMP2 standings, though.
Chatin in the Signatech Alpine has improved by half a second since the restart and moved up from seventh to sixth in the class.
Chatin in the Signatech Alpine has improved by half a second since the restart and moved up from seventh to sixth in the class.
Ordonez improves the #21 Nissan's best - it's up to 31st overall now.
The #23 remains 12th, while the #22 is 25th.
The #23 remains 12th, while the #22 is 25th.
With 22 minutes remaining, the Murphy entry has just entered the fray. Chandhok is behind the wheel.
Formation flying at the front. The top 10 is Porsche, Porsche, Porsche - Audi, Audi, Audi - Toyota, Toyota - Rebellion, Rebellion.
Ordonez gets the slowest Nissan into the top 30 with a 3m45.8s.
Nothing in the way of improvements of any kind in GTE. The order as it stands:
1. #99 Aston 3m54.928s (Stanaway)
2. #98 Aston 3m55.102s (Lamy)*
3. #51 Ferrari 3m55.306s (Vilander)
4. #63 Corvette 3m55.963s (Garcia)
5. #97 Aston 3m56.364s (Mucke)
* GTE Am provisional pole
The #71 Ferrari currently lies 19th in GTE, and a distant last of the Pros. Calado's track-limits offence(s) proving costly at this stage. AF Corse will hope for dry running tomorrow.
1. #99 Aston 3m54.928s (Stanaway)
2. #98 Aston 3m55.102s (Lamy)*
3. #51 Ferrari 3m55.306s (Vilander)
4. #63 Corvette 3m55.963s (Garcia)
5. #97 Aston 3m56.364s (Mucke)
* GTE Am provisional pole
The #71 Ferrari currently lies 19th in GTE, and a distant last of the Pros. Calado's track-limits offence(s) proving costly at this stage. AF Corse will hope for dry running tomorrow.
Clash between the Signatech Alpine and one of the GT Ferraris. The right-rear of the LMP2 car clipped the front-left of the Ferrari as they went under the Dunlop bridge. Both seem to be continuing, without a lot of trouble.
By: Glenn Freeman, Edd Straw, Scott Mitchell, Mitchell Adam, AUTOSPORT staff, Gary Watkins
Published:
Page:
