Le Mans practice and first qualifying
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GTE AM
The #88 Porsche, pictured below after its incident, has now been wheeled back to the garage.
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LMP2
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.
Stopwatch
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.
We called the Rebellion liveries 'funky' earlier. We think this picture justifies that claim.
LMP1
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.
Rain
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.
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LMP1
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.
The #57 Car Guy Racing Ferrari had an off moments ago. We're not making that name up. Promise.
LMP2
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.
We've got sunshine again on the pit straight, but James Newbold has just got excited about how gloomy the skies towards the back end of the circuit look from onboards through the first couple of corners.
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Dillmann has put the ByKolles eighth in the order, 6.902s off the overall pace and 2.4s behind the #11 SMP BR1 of Aleshin.
Rain
Race control has confirmed there's a 'light shower level 1' around Mulsanne corner.
LMP1
The #7 was also displaced in the order during that hectic couple of minutes, with Lotterer now second on a 3m21.257s.
GTE AM
New best time in Am as Matt Campbell lowers the bar to a 3m55.304s in the #77 Proton Porsche.
Here's Kobayashi's viewpoint from his earlier off
Apologies - Kobayashi didn't quite go into the barrier. He definitely did keep it going, though, before returning the car to the pits.
There's rain again at the back end of the circuit, and Kobayashi went off at Mulsanne corner, nudging one of the barriers. He has got going again, though, and we're back to normal out on track.
LMP2
Amid that excitement, Pastor Maldonado has gone quickest in LMP2 for DragonSpeed, ahead of the ByKolles in eighth overall. His 3m28.730s puts him just a tenth clear of Jean-Eric Vergne in the #26 TDS Racing ORECA, which is going rather better than it's sister car, still in the garage.
Crash
Kamui Kobayashi is now at the wheel of the #7 Toyota, and goes fastest of all in the middle sector - but then goes off!
LMP1
Alonso has the #8 Toyota on top after just over an hour's running
LMP1
Not for long, though. Ben Hanley puts the DragonSpeed car sixth between the two similar SMP cars on a 3m24.446s.
LMP2
The TDS engineers are now poring over the car, which appears undamaged, and plugged in a laptop. Having only completed one installation lap so far, it's not been a great start to their session.
LMP1
All eight LMP1s have times on the board now - not that they’re all competitive. While we have a Noah’s ark of Toyotas, Rebellions and SMP BR1s occupying the top six, the ByKolles has just jumped up to 14th on a 3m34.807s in the hands of Dillmann, and the DragonSpeed BR1 is 57th on a 4m33s…
LMP2
Meanwhile we've got a slow-moving car on track - its the #28 TDS Racing ORECA with Matthieu Vaxiviere, whose name is causing our correspondent some vexation in the spelling department. The Frenchman brings the car slowly back to the pits, having taken the shortcut through the Porsche Curves.
LMP2
There's been a flurry of changes in LMP2 - the pace-setting #39 Graf ORECA has improved to a 3m28.959s, almost two seconds clear of Aubry in the second-placed #38 DC Racing ORECA. The second Jota Sport run DC car is third, the time set by 2017 IMSA champion Ricky Taylor.
Full Course Yellow
We're back to green after our first full-course yellow of Le Mans week, which was for the stranded #88 Dempsey Proton Porsche of Satoshi Hoshino
We reckon the original cause of the yellow on the exit of the Porsche Curves was for the ARC Bratislava Ligier running wide and pulling up a section of kerb, before Japanese Am Hoshino spun into the gravel in the #88 Dempsey Porsche.
Rain
Race control also says a shower is expected at 1715, so in 15 minutes or so. The clouds look a little bit greyer overhead, but nothing particularly ominous.
GTE PRO
Another improvement for Christensen in the #92 Porsche. It's a 3m52.149s this time around, another two tenths faster than his last effort.
Information
The pit exit had been closed as a result of that yellow but has now been reopened.
Yellow flag
There's a yellow flag out right now at marshal post 30 in the final part of the lap.
GTE PRO
Christensen goes almost a second clear of the field in GTE Pro with a 3m52.395s in the #92 Porsche. Behind Tandy in second, it's Garcia's Corvette, then Harry Tincknell's Ford and da Costa's BMW.
LMP1
Sarrazin put the #17 SMP BR1 fifth before pitting and is 2.192s off the pace - so around two tenths slower than the #3 Rebellion in fourth.
LMP2
Ricky Taylor slots the #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA-Gibson 07 into third in class with a 3m31.416s.
GTE AM
Matt Campbell is now fastest in GTE Am on a 3m56.495s in the #77 Proton Porsche, knocking Francesco Castellacci and the Spirit of Race Ferrari from the top spot.
Nope - no LMP1 improvement for now. Alonso ended up 3.4s down on his lap, and Conway was 2.5s off his personal best.
By: Matt Beer
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