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WEC 24 Hours of Le Mans

Le Mans 24 Hours 2015 Wednesday: Practice and qualifying

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The #36 Signatech will lose its first five laps for abuse of the track limits. The car has done eight laps and is currently sixth in LMP2, with Panciatici behind the wheel.
The #21 Nissan is still out in the pitlane, but work seems to be focused inside the cockpit for the moment. The #22 car has posted a time with Krumm at the wheel, putting it 26th overall.
Here are the last 10 pole position winners at Le Mans:

2014 Kazuki Nakajima (Toyota TS040 Hybrid) 3m21.780s
2013 Loic Duval (Audi R18 e-tron quattro), 3m22.346s
2012 Andre Lotterer (Audi R18 e-tron quattro), 3m23.787s
2011 Benoit Treluyer (Audi R18 TDI), 3m21.789s
2010 Sebastien Bourdais (Peugeot 908 HDI FAP), 3m19.711s
2009 Stephane Sarrazin (Peugeot 908 HDI FAP), 3m22.888s
2008 Stephane Sarrazin (Peugeot 908 HDI FAP), 3m18.513s
2007 Stephane Sarrazin (Peugeot 908 HDI FAP), 3m26.344s
2006 Rinaldo Capello (Audi R10 TDI), 3m30.466s
2005 Emmanuel Collard (Pescarolo-Judd C60), 3m23.715s
Free practice pacesetter Webber is ready to go in the Porsche garage, so it would appear that Hartley will be in soon to hand over the #17 919.
Given the relative lack of pace of the Toyotas, there seems little chance of the most successful qualifier in the 2015 field having a shot at another pole position.

Stephane Sarrazin has three Le Mans pole positions to his name, all achieved for Peugeot from 2007-2009.
Gaps between the leading cars from each LMP1 manufacturer:

Porsche (fastest)
Audi +2.9s
Toyota +7.4s
Rebellion +14.3s
Nissan +24.5s
CLM +28.9s
Make that the #71's fourth place – Calado improves to a 3m55.701s, which might well be dismissed because he's overrun the exit of Tertre Rouge.
Calado's been reported to the stewards now for Tertre Rouge track-limits violations. The #71 Ferrari's fifth-place overall in GTE could be under threat.
Gommendy moves up to P4 in the Thiriet by TDS Racing ORECA, as replays show Fogarty in Extreme Speed Motorsports' Ligier skipping the penultimate chicane.
The #21 Nissan is wheeled out into the pitlane for its first appearance in this qualifying session.
Mardenborough is 16th overall in the only Nissan we've seen set a time. The #22 car appeared for a lap, while the #21 remains in the garage at this stage.
GARY WATKINS: The drivers are cycling through the cars. Remember each has to do five laps in the dark to qualify for the race and with rain forecast tomorrow, the teams will want to tick that box tonight.
Driver change at KCMG, Lapierre is getting a shot at these conditions. Only the Murphy Prototypes entry, which is still being repaired, that's yet to set a time in LMP2.
Calado and Makowiecki gets warnings for track limits at Tertre Rouge. That's a hotspot for that offence at the moment.
Tandy exits the battle with the Toyotas and makes it a Porsche 1-2-3 at the front, slotting in two seconds behind the other two 919s.
GARY WATKINS: Porsche is swapping drivers, but there might be another pole shot from the boys from Stuttgart later on. It is understood that another driver in each of the cars could get to go for a time right at the end of the session.

Obviously it is going to be dark, but cooler temperatures and perhaps a quieter circuit could outweigh that disadvantage. Who remembers a couple of last-gasp poles for Tomas Enge in GT1 with Ferrari and then Aston Martin?
Mucke goes fourth in GTE (and third in GTE Pro) aboard the #97 Aston Martin, a fraction shy of Bruni and about the same amount faster than Calado.

Lamy's effort means AMR is on top of both GTE classes at the moment.
And already that leaderboard is out of date. Fassler moves the #7 Audi into 6th, ahead of both Toyotas.
Tandy has got back ahead of the Toyotas in what's becoming a private battle for fifth.

Current order:

1 #18 Porsche
2 #17 Porsche
3 #8 Audi
4 #9 Audi
5 #19 Porsche
6 #1 Toyota
Duval and Bonanomi bring in the #8 and #9 Audis respectively. Di Grassi and Albuquerque take over.
Buemi and Wurz have moved the Toyotas ahead of Tandy's #19 Porsche, so they are back in 5th and 6th again.
GARY WATKINS: There were four fewer corners on the Circuit de la Sarthe when Stuckie set that record. So that's no Dunlop Chicane, no chicanes on the Mulsanne and no corner between the Dunlop Bridge and the Esses proper.
Vanthoor now goes third in LMP2, with Panciatici up to fourth and Derani fifth. They're all still more than two seconds behind Bradley, though.

Panciatici has been reported to the stewards for exceeding track limits.
Bernhard is already out of the #17 Porsche. It's Hartley's turn. And we've seen Lotterer getting ready in the Audi garage too.
Bruni's improved slightly in the AF Corse Ferrari, but it doesn't change the #51's position – second in class and third overall in GTE.

Calado's only slightly behind in the #71 Ferrari, with Garcia next in the first of the Corvette's (that's the #63).

A fair few PBs lighting up the timing screen though.
Tandy gets the #19 Porsche involved, slotting into P5 with his first attempt. It's eight seconds off the pace set by Jani for now.
There's an interesting record that is only a couple of seconds off - that of the fastest average speed for a qualifying lap. That was set by Hans-Joachim Stuck in 1985 in a Porsche 962C at an average speed of 251.815km/h.

To break that record on the current Le Mans circuit configuration, the laptime would need to be below a 3m14.843s. Realistically, that's probably out of reach, but that record was set on a pre-chicane Mulsanne Straight.
Evans has slotted into third in LMP2 for Jota, ahead of Kane in the Strakka and Derani in the G-Drive OAK.
LMP1 leaders:

1 Jani (#18 Porsche)
2 Bernhard (#17 Porsche)
3 Duval (#8 Audi)
4 Bonanomi (#9 Audi)
5 Buemi (#1 Toyota)
6 Wurz (#2 Toyota)
7 Fassler (#7 Audi)
The #61 AF Corse Ferrari, which is the GTE Am class car being piloted at present by Raffaele Giammaria, is getting too greedy with track limits. A final warning from officials for abusing the rules at Tertre Rouge.
Bonanomi improves in the P4 Audi, but he's still 4.1s adrift of Jani's pole time. Buemi and Wurz are lapping in the 3m25s for Toyota right now, sitting 5th and 6th.
Were Jani's current time of 3m16.887s to stand for pole position (and there is still not far off six hours of qualifying remaining, so there's every chance there's more time to come), it would be sixth-quickest Le Mans pole position lap in history on any of the track's configuration.

The pole-position record was set by Pedro Rodriguez in a Porsche 917 in 1971.
Practice pacesetter Stanaway gets on with the task at hand early on, getting down to a 3m55.063s in the #99 Aston.

Bruni's a fair way off on his first run in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari, 1.4s back. They are split by Pedro Lamy in the #98 Am-class Aston at the moment.
There's 0.8s between the #18 and #17 Porsches at the front. Duval, best of the rest for Audi, is 2.9s back in third after those first attempts.
Practice pacesetter Bradley leads the first round of LMP2 laps in the KCMG entry. His 3m38.032s is almost a second clear of Lancaster or Greaves Motorsport, with Panciatici third in the Signatech Alpine.
Stopwatch
We're in the 3m16s already! Jani blitzes Bernhard, Duval, Bonanomi and the Toyotas to set a 3m16.887s. Remarkable.
These are the drivers running in GTE Pro entries early on:

#51 Ferrari - Bruni
#71 Ferrari - Calado
#63 Corvette – Garcia
#64 Corvette – Milner
#91 Porsche – Bergmeister
#92 Porsche – Makowiecki
#95 Aston Martin – Sorensen
#97 Aston Martin – Mucke
#99 Aston Martin – Stanaway

By: Glenn Freeman, Edd Straw, Scott Mitchell, Mitchell Adam, AUTOSPORT staff, Gary Watkins

Published: