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24 Hours of Le Mans
Le Mans 24 Hours practice and first qualifying
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GTE PRO
Dirk Muller has hauled the #68 Ford up to fifth in the GTE Pro rankings with a lap 2.5s off the pace. That means it's Porsche-Porsche-Ford-Ferrari-Ford in the top five now.
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ALONSO ALERT. The two-time F1 world champion steps into the #8 Toyota as he prepares to head out for his first qualifying run.
LMP1
And out he goes - Alonso takes to the track for his first qualifying run in the #8 Toyota.
LMP2
We mentioned there being few movers, but ex-Caterham and Manor F1 driver Will Stevens has just crept in at the tail end of the top 10 with the #23 Panis-Barthez Ligier. That makes four non-ORECAs in the top 10, although they still have a stranglehold on the leading five positions, with Paul-Loup Chatin's IDEC Sport car sitting pretty on top.
LMP1
Did we overhype that process? There's not loads going on at the moment, but it is Fernando Alonso. Qualifying. At Le Mans.
LMP1
Having completed five laps, Simpson has returned the #5 Manor to the pits and handed over to Charlie Robertson.
LMP1
Robertson stops just after exiting the pits! He can't have made it more than 50 metres before coming to a standstill, although he has managed to get going again.
GTE PRO
Dirk Muller moves up a place in the #68 Ford, giving us a Noah's Ark formation of Porsches and Fords at the head of the GTE Pro table.
LMP1
Alonso's on his first flying lap and two seconds down on Nakajima's benchmark through the first sector.
GTE AM
Still no change in GTE Am, with most teams now focused on giving night-time running to their silver or bronze-rated drivers. Dempsey-Proton continues to lock out the top two spots.
LMP1
Bad news for the ByKolles team, which has had its third and fourth laps deleted for excessive fuel consumption. That drops it to eighth and five seconds off the pace, having been around 3.6s down before those times were removed.
LMP1
Alonso's first lap was a 3m25.547s.
Yellow flag
The #10 DragonSpeed car has stopped just before the Dunlop Chicane with Renger van der Zande at the wheel. There's a yellow out at the moment to cover it, but looks like we're heading for a slow zone.
GTE PRO
Brief spin for Tony Kanaan's Ford at Arnage, but he's made it back to the pits unscathed.
Slow Zone
Sure enough, a slow zone is thrown for the first time in half an hour or so.
LMP1
Previously unrecorded, Rowland has dragged the second Manor-Ginetta up to 23rd, and is exactly four tenths slower than the sister #5 car one place further up the order. He's completed four laps now in the #6.
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Green flag
With the DragonSpeed car recovered, the slow zone has been removed.
Radio Comms
Alonso gives similar feedback to Buemi in the #8 Toyota, saying: “[The feeling is] better than free practice. Maybe only higher speed is OK, but low and medium speed, [there is still] too much oversteer.”
LMP2
Times remain unchanged at the top in LMP2 - but we could have a late flourish in store. Just three tenths separate Chatin's #48 IDEC Sport ORECA from Duval's #28 TDS ORECA in second, but from third placed Jean-Eric Vergne (#26 G-Drive Racing ORECA) down to eighth placed Giedo van der Garde (#29 Racing Team Netherland Dallara), none have improved on their very first flyer of the session, set on lap two.
GTE PRO
A rare improvement in GTE Pro, as Antonio Felix da Costa sets the best time yet for the BMW M8, three seconds off the pace. The two Bavarian cars are eighth and 10th in class as things stand.
LMP2
Wobbly moment for Andrea Pizzitola in the #26 G-Drive ORECA through traffic at the Dunlop Curve - he's forced off-line and has to take to the run-off, but no damage done.
Quote
Porsche may be in control of GTE Pro, but it's not all plain sailing for the 911 RSRs - the #93 car is down in 14th in class after a spin for Romain Dumas at Mulsanne.
“We have a really unstable rear. In the Mulsanne corner it is a little bit bumpy, that doesn’t help us. It was a good slide! We tried different things on the rear damper, it’s our main issue: rear stability under braking. For the rest, the car is great.”
“We have a really unstable rear. In the Mulsanne corner it is a little bit bumpy, that doesn’t help us. It was a good slide! We tried different things on the rear damper, it’s our main issue: rear stability under braking. For the rest, the car is great.”
LMP2
There could be trouble ahead for Eurasia Motorsport's Niclas Jonsson - the Swede has been reported to the stewards for not stopping at the pit entry scrutineering lights.
LMP1
Little in the way of updates to bring you in LMP1. The #5 Ginetta has improved slightly to 21st with a fastest time of 3m29.925s. Leo Roussel is currently at the wheel.
LMP1
Alonso is still chugging around in the leading #8 Toyota, while Conway is back out for a second stint in the #7 car. Sarrazin has also returned to the track in the #17 SMP car with the third place he achieved still intact.
GTE AM
Porsche are still sitting pretty in Pro courtesy of Bruni's first-lap effort, and could be on for double celebrations tonight with the top three spots in Am. Matteo Cairoli's early flier in the #88 Proton car has him ahead of both GTE Pro Corvettes, while both he and the second-placed #77 Proton Porsche of Julien Andlauer are ahead of the works #93 Porsche, currently being driven by Patrick Pilet.
LMP1
Night qualifying laps? Complete. Alonso returns to the pits and hands the #8 back over to Nakajima.
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GTE AM
Couple of fastest laptimes have been scrubbed in GTE Am, the #84 JMW Ferrari and the #70 MR Racing Ferrari both attracting the wrath of the stewards.
GTE PRO
Movement in GTE Pro: Patrick Pilet gets the #94 Porsche up to seventh in class with a time 2.899s slower than Bruni.
LMP1
Just under 15 minutes to go. It looks unlikely we're going to get any meaningful improvements at the front of the field.
Conway pits the #7 to hand it back over to Kobayashi.
Conway pits the #7 to hand it back over to Kobayashi.
LMP1
Big improvement for the #5 Manor, which rockets up to 15th. Roussel drags a 3m26.883s out of the Ginetta. That's still the best part of 10s off the pace and there are six LMP2 cars to clear before it reaches the tail of the LMP1 pack, but that's at least a sign of progress now its drivers have completed their mandatory laps.
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Looks like the #8 Toyota's had a number of its laps chalked off for exceeding its allotted fuel consumption, although none of those affect its place at the top of the pile.
LMP2
Juan-Pablo Montoya is now aboard the #32 United Autosports Ligier and sets that the quickest time of the session for that car, but the Colombian is still down in 14th, some 5.3 seconds off the pace.
LMP1
Roussel's got the bit between his teeth and shaves another second off the #5's best time to jump up to 11th. He's still 3.7s off the eighth-placed ByKolles, mind.
LMP2
Paul di Resta's #22 United Autosports car is reported as being slow on track - looks like he's had an off at Mulsanne Corner. He certainly wouldn't be the first one today!
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The #5 Ginetta has been reported to the stewards for speeding in the pitlane.
Checkered flag
That's it. Chequered flag is out, qualifying (session one) is complete.
By: Matt Beer
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