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WEC 24 Hours of Le Mans

Le Mans practice and first qualifying

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LMP1
Laurent's new best time for the #3 before that off also included the fastest first sector of all.
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.
Slow Zone
That incident has led to a slow zone through that section of the track.
Crash
And that's because Laurent is into the gravel!
Yellow flag
There's a yellow at the Mulsanne's second chicane.
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.
LMP1
LMP1 times are currently around five to six seconds off the early-session fast times.
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.
Driver Change
Bruno Senna's just taken over from Jani after the Swiss driver set the #1 Rebellion's best time.
GTE PRO
Jarvis has now found some time, improving to a 3m53.426s, jumping to 14th in the process.
GTE AM
In fact, there are six GTE Am cars faster than the Pro class Risi Ferrari. The quickest, still the #88 Dempsey-Proton Porsche, is up in 10th overall among the GTEs.
LMP1
A suspected gearbox issue was the cause of Hedman's stoppage on track. That car is reading as still stranded on track.
LMP1
Jani's set the #1 Rebellion's best time with a 3m20.327s that's moved it up to fourth in LMP1.
GTE PRO
Shout-out for Risi Competizione, the one and only non-factory car in the GTE Pro ranks this year. Oliver Jarvis just set the #89 Ferrari's best time, a 3m54.496s, but that's only good enough for dead last right now. The next-slowest car, the #66 Ford, is 0.7s up the road.
Driver Change
Thomas Laurent, Toyota's new reserve driver is also out on track now.

He's in the #3 Rebellion that's currently seventh.
Driver Change
And it's Stephane Sarrazin who's taken over from Sirotkin now.
LMP1
Speaking of Sirotkin, he's called an end to that brisk night-time stroll and headed into the pits.
LMP1
Sirotkin's put in a fairly quick lap considering the current LMP1 pace - touring in 3m23.416s. That's still about six seconds off the car's best time, mind.
LMP1
Mike Conway's taken over the #7 Toyota as well.
LMP1
Actually, there's a correction to be made there. Buemi is in the #8 Toyota now.
LMP2
WEC championship outsider DragonSpeed is currently on provisional pole courtesy of one-time grand prix winner Pastor Maldonado, with Signatech Alpine's Nicolas Lapierre second and the #22 United Autosports Ligier currently being driven by Paul di Resta third, thanks to the early lap by Filipe Albuquerque. The #48 IDEC Sport ORECA is fourth with Paul-Loup Chatin, then Romain Dumas fifth in the #30 Duqueine ORECA and Loic Duval sixth in the #28 TDS Racing ORECA.
LMP1
Nakajima heads into the pits after that improvement and has a change of front bodywork and a bit of a window clean. He's off out again.

Even though it's dark, that Toyota should climb up the order from fifth.
LMP2
Loic Duval had the provisional pole last year, but was subsequently docked his best time for failing to stop at the scrutineer's light. He's currently storming around in the #28 TDS Racing ORECA that was disrupted by throttle-related issues earlier, and has moved up to sixth in class, albeit two seconds off current pace-setters DragonSpeed.
LMP1
A lesser-spotted improvement in LMP1. Nakajima improves the #8 Toyota's best time to a 3m21.287s. That's still only good enough for fifth.
LMP1
Jani's in the #1 Rebellion now.

Looking across LMP1, the good lap times are around eight seconds off the early flurry of fast times.
LMP1
Petrov is now in the #11 SMP Racing BRE-AER BR1 - try saying that car name after a few pints.
LMP1
Not a lot of representative times going on here in LMP1, it looks like some exploratory running early in the stints.
GTE PRO
Just a summary of GTE Pro so far - it's Lynn's Aston ahead now on a 3m50.037s, narrowly clear of the Porsches of Bruni and Christensen. Nick Tandy has the #93 Porsche - the best of the Brumos-coloured IMSA entries - in fourth, followed by the second Aston. Then it's the top cars from Ferrari, BMW and Corvette respectively next up, so that's all the manufacturers inside the top 10 except Ford.
LMP1
Webb is now in the ByKolles and he leaves the pitlane.
Timing screen is now suggesting Sirotkin has stopped on track, but that's been quickly updated on the monitors.

Hedman still isn't moving.
Green flag
And that full-course yellow has come to an end, we're back underway.
Well this has been quite an eventful first 30 minutes hasn't it?
Full Course Yellow
And we have a full-course yellow caused by the spate of incidents.
LMP1
Sirotkin's heading out now in the #17 SMP Racing machine, having taken over from Orudzhev.
LMP1
The onboard from the #7 Toyota shows Hedman has pulled off to the left at the chicane, so we've got that right.

Good work Team Autosport.
LMP2
The best non-Michelin is now Jean-Eric Vergne's Dunlop-shod G-Drive ORECA, but the reigning Formula E champion is still 2.3 seconds off the pace in P7, narrowly ahead of Ho-Pin Tung in the #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA.
LMP1
Looks like he's stopped at the second chicane on the Mulsanne, but we've not seen pictures yet.

By: Matt Beer

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