Le Mans 24 Hours 2015 Wednesday: Practice and qualifying

The #19 Porsche has been given the black and orange flag, meaning it's being called into the pits for a mechanical reason.

Times are going to tumble at this rate, the skies are still relatively bright and the track is going to dry with every lap completed.

Mike Conway is currently on track in the #2 Toyota. While it's his first visit as a factory driver, it's actually his second time at Le Mans. He raced an OAK-run G-Drive ORECA here in the LMP2 class in 2013, but failed to finish.

As Lotterer's Audi passes the Nissan of Matsuda, the radical front-engined racer is spitting out plenty of sparks down the Mulsanne straight.

It was over 90 minutes into free practice before we saw the first red flag during the Le Mans 24 Hours event last year. This year, it came after just five minutes. Coincidentally, the car that stopped on track in 2014, the IMSA GTE Am Porsche of Erik Maris, parked up at the same corner as the KCMG car did this year.

Given that most of the LMP1 cars have only just been pushed back into their garages and taken apart for checks, there's not quite the same rush from the major players to head straight back out. So far we've got one Porsche, one Audi and one Nissan in action.

Replays show Buemi went straight on in the #1 Toyota at Arnage, briefly running down the escape road and bringing out the yellow flags before the session was stopped for the stranded KCMG car.

Prior to that red flag, nobody managed to set a laptime.

The LMP1 cars are making their way through the final part of the lap, and they're kicking up a decent amount of spray through the Porsche Curves in particular.

The #23 Nissan was at the head of the queue, but it was slow away, so marshals ushered the cars behind in the pits to pull around it and head out on track.

Cars are heading to the end of the pits for the start of practice.

EDD STRAW: "It will be interesting to see how Tincknell gets on in the Nissan. His pace in the Jota car that won LMP2 at Le Mans last year was massively impressive, and he's continued to fly in the team's Gibson-Nissan this year in both the ELMS and on the car's appearance in the Spa 6 Hours. A high-quality performer in prototypes."

Weather watch - it's been drizzling all afternoon, although the sky is starting to brighten. The track is going to be damp to begin with, but if we don't get any more rain it should dry quickly.

At the Le Mans 24 Hours test day two weeks ago, the pace was set by Hartley in the #17 Porsche 919 Hybrid on a 3m21.061s, nine-tenths faster than the #18 sister car of Jani. For full story, click here

Porsche, Le Mans test 2015

Leading times
1 Hartley (#17 Porsche), 3m21.061s
2 Jani (#18 Porsche), 3m21.945s
3 Bonanomi (#9 Audi), 3m22.307s
4 Tandy (#19 Porsche), 3m22.322s
5 Treluyer (#7 Audi), 3m22.556s
6 Duval (#8 Audi), 3m23.002s
7 Nakajima (#1 Toyota), 3m25.321s
8 Sarrazin (#2 Toyota), 3m26.929s
9 Beche (#12 Rebellion), 3m30.508s
10 Kafer (#4 CLM), 3m38.904s

LMP2 top times
1 Vanthoor (#34 Ligier), 3m41.919s
2 Chatin (#36 Chatin), 3m42.273s
3 Chandhok (#48 ORECA), 3m42.405s
4 Howson (#47 ORECA), 3m42.453s
5 Evans (#38 Gibson), 3m42.547s
6 Gommendy (#46 ORECA), 3m43.344s

GTE Pro top times
1 Turner (#97 Aston Martin), 3m58.069s
2 Gavin (#64 Corvette), 3m58.162s
3 Bruni (#51 Ferrari), 3m58.616s
4 Makowiecki (#92 Porsche), 3m59.043s
5 Calado (#71 Ferrari), 3m59.420s
6 Lietz (#91 Porsche), 4m00.272s

GTE Am top times
1 Lamy (#98 Aston Martin), 3m59.338s
2 Giammaria (#61 Ferrari), 4m00.677s
3 Carroll (#86 Porsche), 4m01.208s (reserve entry)
4 Griffin (#55 Ferrari), 4m01.221s
5 Bertolini (#72 Ferrari), 4m01.303s
6 Giermaziak (#66 Ferrari), 4m02.212s

We've got less than 15 minutes until free practice kicks off race week in La Sarthe. So that's four hours of track action, followed by the first qualifying session of the week at 22:00 local time.

Welcome to AUTOSPORT's live coverage of the 2015 Le Mans 24 Hours.