Le Mans 24 Hours practice and first qualifying
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LMP1
Another round of driver changes completed with ex-Formula 1 driver Vitaly Petrov in the #11 SMP Racing BR1 machine and Matevos Isaakyan climbing aboard the sister car.
Gustavo Menezes is in the #3 Rebellion car and Dominik Kraihamer is in the ByKolles entry.
Gustavo Menezes is in the #3 Rebellion car and Dominik Kraihamer is in the ByKolles entry.
GTE PRO
Oh dear - just as Serra sets that quick lap, he gets the #51 Ferrari beached in the gravel at the first of the Porsche Curves. Slow zone ahoy.
GTE AM
Curious to see the reigning WEC champions #98 Aston Martin right down near the bottom of the timesheets. Paul Dalla Lana is currently aboard that car, ahead only of the #80 EBI Motors Porsche.
GTE PRO
A bit of a scare for Tommy Milner in the #64 Corvette as Frits van Eerd gets it all wrong at the Ford chicane and chops across his nose. Full marks to the Dutchman for air time though.
GTE PRO
Frederic Makowiecki has moved the other retro-liveried Porsche up to second, the Rothmans-inspired #91 car, with a time 0.940s slower than Vanthoor. Ferrari has turned up the wick now as well as Daniel Serra moves up to fifth in the #51 AF Corse car, just behind the leading Ford GT.
LMP1
Van der Zande has been shown the black and white flag for track limits.
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LMP2
The yellow flags have scuppered what had looked to be a quick lap from Matthieu Vaxiviere, who had set a purple first sector. The Frenchman is now aboard the #28 TDS ORECA, having taken over from gentleman driver Francois Perrodo.
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Yellow flag
Yellow flags waving at the first chicane, a fair bit of debris on the racing line exiting onto the Mulsanne.
Stopwatch
We've had the lesser spotted laptime improvement in LMP1 as Lopez brings the best time down to a 3m19.978s - a mammoth 1.392s ahead of Aleshin.
GTE PRO
Couple of changes in GTE Pro as Miguel Molina manages to get among the Fords and put the #71 AF Corse Ferrari up into seventh. The #94 Porsche of Timo Bernhard has also improved, so the Fords are now holding fourth, fifth, eighth and ninth.
Information
And heading into the final two hours, here's a catch-up on the action so far.
LMP1: Toyota still holds the advantage in LMP1 in news that will surprise absolutely no-one, but SMP Racing's Aleshin has split the two Japanese cars late on in the hour. The battle for the best of the rest is closely fought between the SMP Racing, DragonSpeed and Rebellion machines. Both Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button have completed their first stints while the Ginetta-Manors have yet to set a proper laptime.
LMP2: There's been no change at the top in LMP2, as the #48 IDEC Sport ORECA continues to lead the way from the #28 TDS Racing entry. Both teams have taken the chances to run their lesser-heralded drivers in the second hour of the session, with Paul Lafargue taking over the pace-setting IDEC car from Paul-Loup Chatin, and Francois Perrodo in for Loic Duval. The best of the rest is the Cetilar Villorba Corse Dallara in eighth, which trailed back to the pits with a left-rear puncture with Giorgio Sernagiotto at the wheel.
GTE-Pro: In GTE Pro, it’s Porsche domination, with three 911 RSRs locking out the top three. Laurens Vanthoor has just set a new best of 3m50.859s in the ‘Pink Pig’ #92 car, to go 1.5s up on the #93 machine. Fords lockout places fourth through seventh, while the best of the rest is the ninth-placed #63 Corvette. Aston Martin brings up the rear, having been demoted to 16th and 17th in class.
GTE-Am: Porsche continues to lead the GTE-Am class, with the #86 Gulf Racing example leading the best of the Dempsey - Proton Racing cars courtesy of Ben Barker's early effort. Salih Yoluc's TF Sport Aston Martin is third.
LMP1: Toyota still holds the advantage in LMP1 in news that will surprise absolutely no-one, but SMP Racing's Aleshin has split the two Japanese cars late on in the hour. The battle for the best of the rest is closely fought between the SMP Racing, DragonSpeed and Rebellion machines. Both Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button have completed their first stints while the Ginetta-Manors have yet to set a proper laptime.
LMP2: There's been no change at the top in LMP2, as the #48 IDEC Sport ORECA continues to lead the way from the #28 TDS Racing entry. Both teams have taken the chances to run their lesser-heralded drivers in the second hour of the session, with Paul Lafargue taking over the pace-setting IDEC car from Paul-Loup Chatin, and Francois Perrodo in for Loic Duval. The best of the rest is the Cetilar Villorba Corse Dallara in eighth, which trailed back to the pits with a left-rear puncture with Giorgio Sernagiotto at the wheel.
GTE-Pro: In GTE Pro, it’s Porsche domination, with three 911 RSRs locking out the top three. Laurens Vanthoor has just set a new best of 3m50.859s in the ‘Pink Pig’ #92 car, to go 1.5s up on the #93 machine. Fords lockout places fourth through seventh, while the best of the rest is the ninth-placed #63 Corvette. Aston Martin brings up the rear, having been demoted to 16th and 17th in class.
GTE-Am: Porsche continues to lead the GTE-Am class, with the #86 Gulf Racing example leading the best of the Dempsey - Proton Racing cars courtesy of Ben Barker's early effort. Salih Yoluc's TF Sport Aston Martin is third.
LMP2
Meanwhile we've got another spinner in the LMP2 ranks as Niclas Jonsson finds himself facing the traffic at the second chicane. The timing screens reveal the experienced Swede was on his outlap, which suggests cold tyres could be to blame.
LMP2
Andrea Pizzitola is now aboard the #26 G-Drive Racing ORECA, which won the opening round of the WEC at Spa and leads the ELMS standings after a victory at Monza. The Frenchman returns to Le Mans this year for his second Le Mans, after sharing the Algarve Pro car with Chris Hoy in 2016.
GTE PRO
New best time in GTE Pro from Laurens Vanthoor - he improves to a 3m50.859s in the #92 machine to go a second and a half clear of the other Porsches.
GTE AM
It's been a good start to the session for the Gulf Racing crew, but Bronze-rated Mike Wainwright has just backed it into the barriers at the Ford Chicane. We await to see if the pace-setting Porsche has any rear damage.
LMP1
IMSA SportsCar Championship star Renger van der Zande is now in the #10 DragonSpeed car, but we're not seeing any movement in laptimes in LMP1.
LMP2
The Cetilar Vilorba Corse car is making its way slowly back to the pits, left-rear tyre flailing on the rim. The Italian has done a good job to bring that back without further damaging it.
GTE AM
Very strong session so far for Porsche, whose cars fill four of the top five spots in class. The #86 Gulf Racing machine is currently top, courtesy of the time set earlier by Ben Barker, with the #77 Dempsey-Proton Racing car just behind, team boss Christian Reid currently at the wheel. Salih Yoluc's #90 TF Sport Aston Martin is third, then the #56 Project 1 Porsche of Jorg Bergmeister and #88 Dempsey - Proton Racing Porsche of Giorgio Roda.
Slow Zone
Marshals are taking advantage of the Slow Zones to retrieve some debris from Tertre Rouge.
Yellow flag
LMP2 cars are currently littering the circuit - it looks like the #25 Algarve Pro Ligier has spun off backwards into the gravel at the first chicane. Dutchman Ate De Jong is the culprit.
Radio Comms
Harry Tincknell's shunt earlier has been explained by team-mate Andy Priaulx: “Harry had a braking issue, locked up or maybe a soft pedal, so we’re bleeding the brakes.
"It just ran into the gravel, no damage. Obviously that would be a raceday-ending incident. It’s very unusual, Harry doesn’t really make mistakes, so just one of those things.”
"It just ran into the gravel, no damage. Obviously that would be a raceday-ending incident. It’s very unusual, Harry doesn’t really make mistakes, so just one of those things.”
Yellow flag
We've got another car stopped on track after the second chicane, this time it's the #47 Cetilar Villorba Corse of Giorgio Sernagiotto. Felipe Nasr had put that car eighth fastest in LMP2.
GTE PRO
An improvement from the #94 Porsche - two-time outright winner Timo Bernhard at the wheel - moves up to eighth in GTE Pro, so the top eight is now all Fords and Porsches.
LMP1
We've still yet to see the Manor-Ginettas turn a lap in anger yet, meaning that the other eight LMP1 runners lock out the top slots of the timesheets.
Here's a shot of the #67 Ford of Tincknell being recovered at Mulsanne earlier (pic: @Motorsport_FR)
GTE PRO
We've another GTE Pro car off at Mulsanne - this time it's the #97 Aston Martin. Another slow zone is called.
LMP1
Jose Maria Lopez is now in the #7 Toyota.
Yellow flag
We have another yellow flag.
GTE PRO
There's a new GTE Pro 'best of the rest' behind the Porsches (first to third) and Ford (fourth to seventh), as Jan Magnussen moves up to eighth in the #63 Corvette C7.R.
LMP1
Conway's time is still the benchmark in LMP1 with an unbeaten 3m20.723s lap.
No-one else has breached the 3m20s, Alonso has been closest with his 3m21.437s attempt.
No-one else has breached the 3m20s, Alonso has been closest with his 3m21.437s attempt.
LMP2
Edoardo Freitas has finger on the trigger in race control, this time it's Pierre Nicolet - son of Onroak owner Jacques - in the #33 DC Racing Ligier who gets a black and white flag for constant abuse of track limits.
GTE PRO
The #67 Ford is safely back in its garage after Harry Tincknell's off at Mulsanne.
Here's your current leading car, the #7 Toyota of Mike Conway, in action (pic: Jakob Ebrey Photography/LAT)
GTE PRO
Amid that drama, there's a new GTE Pro leader, the #92 Porsche of Laurens Vanthoor. The Belgian sets a 3m52.372s in the 'Pink Pig'-liveried car, just 0.004s up on the #93 car. Porsches now lock out the top three, with the remaining car down in 11th.
Slow Zone
The #67 Ford has gone off at Mulsanne and is currently being taken out of the gravel. A slow zone is in place to recover the car.
LMP1
Nakajima is in the #8 Toyota, ending Alonso's stint.
LMP2
Although it may be a familiar picture of ORECA domination in LMP2 thus far, the tyre situation may be one to keep an eye on. Michelin only has five cars in the class - including the Am line-up in the Larbre Ligier - with Dunlop supplying the rest, but the French manufacturer has two of the top four places at present, with the pace-setting IDEC #48 of Chatin and Maldonado fourth in the #31 DragonSpeed.
By: Matt Beer
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