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WEC 24 Hours of Le Mans

Le Mans practice and first qualifying

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Buemi is in the #8 Toyota for the first time. In terms of conditions, we reckon he's drawn the short straw there.
Early LMP1 laps are on average around 20 seconds slower than their best efforts in the dry running.
No-one has gone above 30 laps in the first two hours and 40 minutes of running, James Newbold reports that teams were hesitant to head out early on because the other side of the track to the pitlane was wet compared to the dry conditions elsewhere.

The sort of headache you only get at Le Mans.
Egor Orudzhev is heading out in the #17 SMP Racing BRE-AER BR1 for the first time since the session returned to green flag conditions.
The GTE Pro cars are lapping in the 4m20s bracket right now, some 30s off their best times from earlier. Tommy Milner is currently the quickest of those on track in the #64 Corvette.
Just two LMP2s are back out on track right now - the #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing car and Alex Brundle in the #32 United Autosports entry.
Jani and Menezes bring both Rebellions into the pitlane, with both cars returning to the garage.

Gary Watkins is now passing judgement on their liveries, which has become quite the talking point for Team Autosport.
Ruberti, back at Le Mans for the first time since 2015, makes his return to the circuit in the ByKolles.
Nakajima is also out on track to make the LMP1 party a four-car affair.
Kobayashi's Toyota as well as Menezes' and Jani's Rebellions are the only three LMP1 runners to head out early on.
Kobayashi is kicking up a good amount of spray through the Porsche Curves on his out lap.
Intermittent showers expected over the next 10-or-so minutes, the Mulsanne straight is looking fairly dry compared to other sections of the track.
The official Le Mans Twitter account says Krohn is OK following his earlier crash.
There's just over 90 minutes left of running for the field in this session.
And we are back underway - a fair few cars head straight out onto the thoroughly soaked track.
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.
We have an estimated restart time of 18.24 - so in less than a minute.
The rain reminds us of the 2001 Le Mans race - which had its fair share of bad weather.
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.
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.
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
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

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.
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 red flag also offers a good chance for teams to practice their driver changes. Also helps them stay dry we suppose.
Jack Cozens has described the conditions as "raining cats and dogs". He's not wrong.
You know you're in a red flag period when the camera work is mainly close-ups of puddles.
Update from race control, which estimates a restart time of 18:25. That's a good 20 minutes away still.
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.
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 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.
Class leaders under the red flag: LMP1 - #3 Rebellion; LMP2 - #31 DragonSpeed; GTE Pro - #92 Porsche; GTE Am - #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche.
Tracy Krohn was at the wheel of the Porsche at the 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.
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.

By: Matt Beer

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