Le Mans practice and first qualifying
Live Text
Sort by
Oldest first
GTE PRO
Jarvis has now found some time, improving to a 3m53.426s, jumping to 14th in the process.
Driver Change
Bruno Senna's just taken over from Jani after the Swiss driver set the #1 Rebellion's best time.
Twitter
GTE AM
Those following the GTE-Am class will be interested to note that the quickest Ferrari, that of two-time Le Mans class winner Giancarlo Fisichella, is 1.3 seconds off the pace of the leading Porsche, the #88 Dempsey Proton entry of Matteo Cairoli. Fisichella's car, currently being driven by Thomas Flohr, is fourth, one place behind the best of the previous generation Astons. The Aston Martin Racing #98 of Pedro Lamy is 1s adrift of Cairoli.
LMP1
LMP1 times are currently around five to six seconds off the early-session fast times.
LMP1
Right on cue, there's an LMP1 improvement. Laurent moves the #3 Rebellion up several places - past the sister car too - with a 3m20.205s.
That puts it fourth behind the #7 Toyota, the #17 SMP Racing car and the stricken #10 DragonSpeed.
That puts it fourth behind the #7 Toyota, the #17 SMP Racing car and the stricken #10 DragonSpeed.
Yellow flag
There's a yellow at the Mulsanne's second chicane.
Crash
And that's because Laurent is into the gravel!
Slow Zone
That incident has led to a slow zone through that section of the track.
Information
That slow zone stretches back to marshal post 11 - at the start of the first Mulsanne chicane - and ends just after the scene of Laurent's off, which we're still yet to see.
LMP1
Laurent's new best time for the #3 before that off also included the fastest first sector of all.
Green flag
Slow zone over, the track is green once again.
LMP1
Conway pitted the provisional polesitting #7 Toyota while that slow zone was in place but has headed back out again, rather than handing back to either Kobayashi or Lopez.
Pit stop
It's so blooming dark out that we couldn't make out the #3 Rebellion (even in it's high-vis paint), but the timing screen suggests it has now been recovered to the pits.
LMP1
Sure enough, there's a shot of the predominantly yellow #3 car up on its stands.
LMP1
A reminder of the LMP1 order: 1 #7 Toyota; 2 #17 SMP; 3 #10 DragonSpeed; 4 #3 Rebellion; 5 #1 Rebellion; 6 #8 Toyota; 7 #11 SMP; 8 #4 ByKolles
Crash
Wow! Huge hit for Conway.
GTE PRO
It's all been pretty static in GTE Pro for the last half-hour or so: it's still Aston #97 (Alex Lynn set the benchmark 3m50.037s) leading Porsches #91, #92 and #93, Aston #95 and Ferrari #71.
GTE PRO
The #64 Corvette is back out with Milner at the wheel after a protracted stay in the pits of just over 30 minutes following its earlier puncture.
Crash
A slow zone is being readied as a result of that crash.
The class-leading cars in LMP1 and LMP2 come together in a bizarre incident at the Ford Chicane - Roberto Gonzalez spun and drove against traffic into Mike Conway, who had absolutely no chance to avoid the accident. Major front-end damage on the DragonSpeed ORECA, and on the left-front corner of the #7 Toyota, both of which are back in the garage.
Full Course Yellow
The slow zone is in place now, and the incident is also under investigation. Plenty of debris for the marshals at the Ford chicane to clear away.
LMP1
Replays show that Conway got four wheels off the ground in the collision. A nasty incident.
Information
Both drivers involved are OK and back in their pit garages.
Toyota - and Conway - are lucky there's no more substantial damage (LAT Images)
We had all eight LMP1s back in the pits for a bit, but the seven still capable of lapping are now on track.
Here's our best attempt to capture that Gonzalez-Conway impact
LMP1
We have a change of position in LMP1, as Laurent - back out in the #3 Rebellion - jumps up to third on a 3m19.603s.
JAMES NEWBOLD has scampered down to the pits and captured this image of the damaged DragonSpeed nose. "Big damage". Yeah.
Slow Zone
Olivier Pla's #66 Ford GT is off into the barriers at the Porsche Curves! That'll be a slow zone, then.
GTE PRO
New fastest time in GTE Pro - the first improvement of any kind in a good while in the class. Antonio Garcia has pumped in a 3m49.467s in the #63 Corvette C7.R, which is seriously rapid. It's a full 0.570s up on Alex Lynn's Aston Martin, which had been sitting atop the class standings since the early stages.
Twitter
Pla's Ford sporting a revised rear end after that biff with the barriers
GTE PRO
Garcia's had his class-topping time scrubbed for improving under yellow flags. That bumps the #63 Corvette, now with Mike Rockenfeller at the wheel, all the way down to 10th, and puts Aston Martin back on top of the pile.
LMP2
The #31 DragonSpeed ORECA had gone back out on track with Maldonado at the wheel but has now returned to the pits.
Green flag
The #66 Ford has been carried away, so cars are back up to full speed.
LMP1
Incredibly, Lopez is back out on track in the #7 Toyota. Five of the eight LMP1s are out there now.
There's some more movement in Pro - both IMSA Porsches have just posted improvements, with Nick Tandy going second-fastest on a 3m50.109s in the #93 car and Mathieu Jaminet logging a 3m50.278s in the sister #94 machine. That makes it four Porsches in the top five!
By: Matt Beer
Published:
Page:
