Le Mans 24 Hours final qualifying day
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The ambulance is out on track.
Crash
A double yellow was put in place initially, but the red flag has now been shown. Looks like a big shunt at the first chicane from CCTV footage.
Red flag
Red flag again.
Green flag
The slow zone has now been removed.
Slow Zone
Drivers do appear to be slowing appropriately now at the Ford Chicane. All cars have been told by race direction to bear left at the chicane as marshals are still on track clearing the gravel from Lapierre's moment with blowers.
LMP1
Most convincing lap of the weekend so far from any of the Manor-Ginettas. Brundle has taken the #6 up to ninth, and clear of all the LMP2 runners, with a 3m24.343s. He's now 1.8s slower than the ByKolles in eighth and 7.073s off the ultimate pace.
Information
Good thing there's a slow zone in place. Cars are approaching the Ford chicane at full pelt as marshal sweep gravel off the circuit. Bit of a worrying sight.
LMP2
The debris trails shows it was the #47 Cetilar Villorba Corse Dallara with Giorgio Sernagiotto on-board. Thankfully, the Italian appears to have exited the cockpit unaided.
LMP2
The trail of debris shows it was the No. 47 Cetilar Villorba Corse Dallara with Giorgio Sernagiotto on-board. It's hit the barrier on the inside approaching the corner and then had a secondary impact against the outside wall. Thankfully the Italian appears to have exited the cockpit unaided.
LMP2
Replays show Lapierre's right-rear suspension was broken on impact with the kerb through the first right-hander at the chicane, which meant he had no chance when he took the second-right to exit onto the pit straight. He's touring slowly back to the pits, but looks like a lengthy repair for the 2016 class-winning Signatech-Alpine.
Slow Zone
All that gravel on track at the Ford Chicane has brought out a slow zone.
LMP2
Woops, Nicolas Lapierre spins his #36 Signatech-Alpine at the Ford chicane, throwing a beach's worth of gravel all over the racing line. Looks like it wasn't completely down to driver error though, as he struggles along the pit-straight with smoke coming from the rear suspension.
LMP1
It's Buemi, incidentally, who has replaced Alonso in the #8 Toyota. Lopez is out now in the #7 having taken over from Conway.
LMP1
Robertson has now brought the #5 Ginetta back to the pits.
LMP2
It's looking good for ORECA in LMP2, with a lockout of the top five positions at present. One man who doesn't think that will change is ex-Sauber Formula 1 driver Felipe Nasr, who sits 10th in the Cetilar Villorba Corse Dallara, three seconds off the pace of the #48 IDEC Sport of Paul-Loup Chatin.
"The ORECAs are out of reach and the Ligiers are clearly one to two seconds faster than us," Nasr told Autosport.
"Right now we are struggling especially in the medium-high speed corners, because as soon as we try to bring some speed into the corner, we just don’t have enough front downforce to make the corner happen."
"The ORECAs are out of reach and the Ligiers are clearly one to two seconds faster than us," Nasr told Autosport.
"Right now we are struggling especially in the medium-high speed corners, because as soon as we try to bring some speed into the corner, we just don’t have enough front downforce to make the corner happen."
Green flag
CCTV shows a tractor putting the Manor back down on the asphalt before Robertson gets the car going again. Slow zone removed.
Slow Zone
Robertson has crashed the Manor-Ginetta on the exit of Indianapolis, beaching it in the gravel.
Radio Comms
Lotterer looked a bit fed up in the #1 Rebellion a few moments ago, and his frustration is with his latest set-up change.
“It’s not what we need, it’s completely the opposite actually," he says. "It made the rear simply worse, the car is lifting up a lot on the rear, [I have] no confidence to go into the corners, I can’t actually turn in because the rear is lifting. The car is searching a lot, or very pointy all the time, I lost a lot of confidence.”
“It’s not what we need, it’s completely the opposite actually," he says. "It made the rear simply worse, the car is lifting up a lot on the rear, [I have] no confidence to go into the corners, I can’t actually turn in because the rear is lifting. The car is searching a lot, or very pointy all the time, I lost a lot of confidence.”
GTE AM
Wainwright's Aston is recovered (Photo: LAT)
LMP1
Alonso's brought his stint to an end after eight, mostly disrupted, laps. His last flyer was his best, and that 3m18.021s effort is still the fastest of the session so far.
Slow Zone
Jeff Segal managed to sneak in an improvement in the JMW Ferrari before a Wainwright-induced slow zone was deployed.
LMP2
A bit of a lairy moment for Jazeman Jaafar on the grass at Tetre Rouge, but the Malaysian avoids a repeat of Priaulx's accident and continues on. His mechanics on the #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA will have taken a big sigh of relief at that, after they had to repair the wishbones and upright yesterday when Nabil Jeffri went off at Indianapolis.
Stopwatch
Great lap from Alonso that time round. A 3m18.021s is the fastest time in this session by some stretch, and within eight tenths of the polesetting time.
GTE AM
Bit of a misunderstanding at the Ford Chicane between the #99 Porsche and one of the Pro class BMWs - and now Michael Wainwright has put the #86 Porsche in the gravel at the Dunlop Chicane.
LMP1
Big leap from the #5 Ginetta as well now. Simpson sets a 3m25.268s, which is not the fastest time the car has set so far this weekend but is better than the 3m26.246s Roussel managed yesterday before his times were scrubbed.
GTE PRO
Still no improvements to speak of in GTE Pro since that earlier Pilet time. Nick Tandy is now aboard the #93 Porsche.
GTE AM
Yet another spinner, this time it's the Aston Martin of Salih Yoluc. (Photo:LAT)
GTE AM
Giancarlo Fisichella has done a new best in the #54 Spirit of Race Ferrari, 1.228s off the pace set by Matteo Cairoli in the Dempsey-Proton Porsche last night. That moves him up to third in GTE Am. Long has done another improvement to grab another two spots in the #99 Porsche, meanwhile.
LMP1
Timely zoom in from the cameras on the grey skies above. The fastest LMP1 times we're seeing at the moment are around three to four seconds off what the cars were achieving in yesterday's first qualifying session.
LMP1
Rowland has improved the #6 Manor-Ginetta's fastest lap time. He's got the car up to 17th overall with a 3m21.498s.
GTE AM
We have our first GTE Am improvement of the night as Pat Long sets a 3m55.505s in the distinctive metallic green #99 Proton Competition Porsche. That moves the car up from last to 11th in class.
Porsche driver Nick Tandy talks about the benefits of pinching a little bit of extra kerb on the entry to Tertre Rouge in Autosport's Le Mans preview. Looks like Priaulx tried to pinch a bit too much
LMP1
Alonso's improved his best time in the session to 3m19.401s, that's quicker than the benchmark Conway set on his first flyer.
LMP2
The #26 G-Drive Racing ORECA is fancied to do well here and has Andrea Pizzitola out to try and move it higher up the grid than it's current third-place berth. The Frenchman has a time of 3m24.956s to beat, set by yesterday's pace-setter Paul-Loup Chatin in the #48 IDEC Sport ORECA which is currently being driven by reigning European Le Mans Series champion Memo Rojas.
Information
The slow zone that had been out under the red flag has been removed.
There is an explanation for its use on the restart. The race director left it in place because barrier repairs were continuing but he wanted people to be able to do some laps.
There is an explanation for its use on the restart. The race director left it in place because barrier repairs were continuing but he wanted people to be able to do some laps.
...before Conway gets going again (Photo: LAT)
Our photographers capture Conway's spin at the Dunlop arch (Photo: LAT)
By: Matt Beer
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