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WEC 24 Hours of Le Mans

Le Mans practice and first qualifying

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More weird issues for the #28 TDS ORECA, which had made it out of the garage to the end of the pitlane, but is now being pushed back by its mechanics. It remains the only car in the field yet to set a representative laptime.
The #57 Car Guy Racing Ferrari had an off moments ago. We're not making that name up. Promise.

The #57 Car Guy Racing Ferrari had an off moments ago. We're not making that name up. Promise.

Alonso's place in the #8 Toyota has been taken by Kazuki Nakajima, who is out on track. Kobayashi is also heading back down the pitlane after his earlier off.
We're not quite at Threat Level Midnight on the rain front, but we've been warned of a light shower in the range of level one to two in around nine minutes at Mulsanne.
Just over 90 minutes into this session, and the LMP1 order is as follows: 1 #8 Toyota; 2 #1 Rebellion; 3 #7 Toyota; 4 #3 Rebellion; 5 #17 SMP; 6 #10 DragonSpeed; 7 #11 SMP; 8 #4 ByKolles.
We called the Rebellion liveries 'funky' earlier. We think this picture justifies that claim.

We called the Rebellion liveries 'funky' earlier. We think this picture justifies that claim.

Funk to the fore! Gustavo Menezes, who's now in the #3 Rebellion, goes fastest with the first sub-3m20s lap of the week. 3m19.960s is his new benchmark.
The #28 TDS ORECA is still the only LMP2 runner yet to set a representative time. Vaxiviere is still twiddling his thumbs for the moment.
The #88 Porsche, pictured below after its incident, has now been wheeled back to the garage.
Wipers on for the #93 Porsche at Mulsanne, which indicates that rain that was scheduled to arrive at 17:38 local time arrived at 17:38 local time.
The #99 Dempsey-Proton Porsche looks to have had a sizeable crash

Yet to see a replay, but looks like it was a front-end collision at the Mulsanne straight on the run to the second chicane.
Tracy Krohn was at the wheel of the Porsche at the time.
Class leaders under the red flag: LMP1 - #3 Rebellion; LMP2 - #31 DragonSpeed; GTE Pro - #92 Porsche; GTE Am - #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche.
The clock continues to tick down with 2 hours 16 minutes remaining - from an onboard shot of all the debris strewn across the road, it looks like it will take a while before we're back underway.
Here's the best view we've had of the incident so far. It doesn't tell us a lot about how Krohn crashed.

Here's the best view we've had of the incident so far. It doesn't tell us a lot about how Krohn crashed.

The length of this delay might well allow the return to return to the front stretch before the session restarts. Grey clouds are now hovering over the circuit, and race control has declared 'intermittent showers increasing level 2' will arrive in the next five minutes and last until 18.05 local time.
Update from race control, which estimates a restart time of 18:25. That's a good 20 minutes away still.
You know you're in a red flag period when the camera work is mainly close-ups of puddles.
Jack Cozens has described the conditions as "raining cats and dogs". He's not wrong.
The red flag also offers a good chance for teams to practice their driver changes. Also helps them stay dry we suppose.
Jack Cozens is now being a pedant and pointing out that it isn't physically raining cats and dogs, it's just very heavy rain.
The revised estimate for the session returning to green flag conditions is 18:15 local time, but it's hard to imagine many teams will be keen to head straight back out now the track is soaked.
Autosport can highly recommend BMW's ice cream machine, and James Newbold demonstrated a creative flair over lunch

Autosport can highly recommend BMW's ice cream machine, and James Newbold demonstrated a creative flair over lunch

If you're wondering how to spend the rain delay, you could do worse than finding out the lay of the land in the LMP2 class, where the European Le Mans Series teams are taking on the WEC regulars. But while G-Drive Racing has reigning Formula E champion Jean-Eric Vergne on its driving strength, it's not going to be a foregone conclusion.
The ex-F1 star seeking
Well, the rain has now eased off. But we've been informed there's set to be another shower in 10 minutes.

So it's unlikely we'll see a return to green flag conditions any time soon.
The restart of the session has been pushed back, with a green flag expected in three minutes.

There's still the threat of rain, but drivers such as Nakajima are suited, booted and behind the wheel ready.
The rain reminds us of the 2001 Le Mans race - which had its fair share of bad weather.
We have an estimated restart time of 18.24 - so in less than a minute.
The ever-excellent Martyn Pass reveals that the #22 United Autosports Ligier had been in the box prior to the red flag, as an engine oil leak required the engine oil pump to be replaced.
And we are back underway - a fair few cars head straight out onto the thoroughly soaked track.
There's just over 90 minutes left of running for the field in this session.
The official Le Mans Twitter account says Krohn is OK following his earlier crash.
Intermittent showers expected over the next 10-or-so minutes, the Mulsanne straight is looking fairly dry compared to other sections of the track.
Kobayashi is kicking up a good amount of spray through the Porsche Curves on his out lap.

By: Matt Beer

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