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Le Mans 24 Hours test day: Brendon Hartley leads Porsche sweep

Porsche blocked out the top two positions over the course of a rain-affected Le Mans 24 Hours test day

Brendon Hartley took the top spot in the #17 Porsche 919 with a 3m21.061s lap, which put him nearly nine tenths up on the #18 sister car driven by Neel Jani.

Jani's 3m21.945s was four tenths faster than the best Audi time, set by Marco Bonanomi aboard the #9 R18 e-tron quattro.

Hartley set his time during a brief period when the track was fully dry at the beginning of the second four-hour session after lunch, while Jani and Bonanomi put in their quickest laps in the morning before the rain arrived.

Hartley, who shares his Porsche with Mark Webber and Timo Bernhard, said: "With only three hours of drying running, it was a bit of luck to get the Porsche Curves clear.

"It was good to be fastest on a personal level, but it was also a constructive test for us - we made a big step in terms of performance and balance between session one and session two."

Nick Tandy was fourth fastest in the final Porsche, just two hundredths behind Bonanomi's Audi, while Andre Lotterer was fifth quickest in the #7 Audi.

Best Toyota time of the day was a 3m25.321s set by Kazuki Nakajima in the afternoon, which put the #1 TS040 HYBRID seventh in the times.

The new Nissan GT-R LM MISMO recorded a best time of 3m43.383s in the hands of Olivier Pla, which left it behind the LMP2 frontrunners.

Laurens Vanthoor's morning time stood as the best of the day in LMP2.

The Belgian's fastest time in the OAK Racing Ligier-Honda JSP2 of 3m41.919s was more than half a second clear of Karun Chandhok's afternoon best of a 3m42.405s aboard the Murphy Prototypes ORECA-Nissan 03R.

Darren Turner edged out Oliver Gavin in GTE Pro with an afternoon time of 3m58.069s aboard the lead Aston Martin Vantage GTE.

Gavin's morning best of 3m58.162s for Corvette Racing stood as the second best time of the day in class.

Aston Martin Racing also topped the times in GTE Am with Pedro Lamy.

AFTERNOON TIMES:

Pos Class Driver Team Car Time
1 LMP1-H T.Bernhard, M.Webber, B.Hartley, F.Makowiecki Porsche Team Porsche 3m21.061s
2 LMP1-H N.Hulkenberg, E.Bamber, N.Tandy, F.Makowiecki Porsche Team Porsche 3m22.322s
3 LMP1-H M.Fassler, A.Lotterer, B.Treluyer Audi Sport Team Joest Audi 3m22.556s
4 LMP1-H L.di Grassi, L.Duval, O.Jarvis Audi Sport Team Joest Audi 3m23.002s
5 LMP1-H R.Dumas, N.Jani, M.Lieb, F.Makowiecki Porsche Team Porsche 3m23.179s
6 LMP1-H F.Albuquerque, M.Bonanomi, R.Rast Audi Sport Team Joest Audi 3m23.375s
7 LMP1-H A.Davidson, S.Buemi, K.Nakajima, K.Kobayashi Toyota Racing Toyota 3m25.321s
8 LMP1-H A.Wurz, S.Sarrazin, M.Conway Toyota Racing Toyota 3m30.334s
9 LMP1 N.Prost, M.Beche, N.Heidfeld Rebellion Racing Rebellion/AER 3m33.958s
10 LMP1 A.Imperatori, D.Kraihamer, D.Abt Rebellion Racing Rebellion/AER 3m42.144s
11 LMP2 K.Chandhok, M.Patterson, N.Berthon Murphy Prototypes ORECA/Nissan 3m42.405s
12 LMP2 P.Thiriet, T.Gommendy, L.Badey Thiriet by TDS Racing ORECA/Nissan 3m43.344s
13 LMP2 S.Dolan, M.Evans, O.Turvey JOTA Gibson/Nissan 3m43.359s
14 LMP2 R.Rusinov, J.Canal, S.Bird G-Drive Racing Ligier/Nissan 3m44.452s
15 LMP2 N.Panciatici, P-L.Chatin, V.Capillaire Signatech Alpine Alpine/Nissan 3m44.567s
16 LMP2 N.Leventis, D.Watts, J.Kane Strakka Racing Dome/Nissan 3m45.536s
17 LMP2 L.Roussel, D.Cheng, H-Pin Tung Pegasus Racing Morgan/Nissan 3m46.384s
18 LMP2 M.Howson, R.Bradley, N.Lapierre KCMG ORECA/Nissan 3m47.015s
19 LMP2 G.Yacaman, P.Derani, R.Gonzalez G-Drive Racing Ligier/Nissan 3m47.058s
20 LMP2 P.Ragues, O.Webb, Z.Amberg Team SARD Morand Morgan/SARD 3m47.088s
21 LMP2 G.Hirsch, B.Wirdheim, J.Lancaster, G.Paletou Greaves Motorsport Gibson/Nissan 3m47.130s
22 LMP2 P.Perret, I.Bellarosa, J.Ibanez Ibanez Racing ORECA/Nissan 3m47.198s
23 LMP2 T.Krohn, N.Jonsson Krohn Racing Ligier/Judd 3m47.251s
24 LMP2 M.Mediani, D.Markozov, N.Minassian SMP Racing BR Engineering/Nissan 3m47.827s
25 LMP2 S.Sharp, R.Dalziel, D.H.Hansson Extreme Speed Motorsports Ligier/HPD 3m47.943s
26 LMP2 E.Brown, J.van Overbeek, J.Fogarty Extreme Speed Motorsports Ligier/HPD 3m49.382s
27 LMP1-H H.Tincknell, M.Krumm, A.Buncombe Nissan Motorsports Nissan 3m50.713s
28 LMP2 M.Aleshin, K.Ladygin, A.Ladygin SMP Racing BR Engineering/Nissan 3m55.213s
29 LMP1-H O.Pla, J.Mardenborough, M.Chilton Nissan Motorsports Nissan 3m55.695s
30 LMP1-H T.Matsuda, M.Shulzhitskiy, L.Ordonez Nissan Motorsports Nissan 3m57.567s
31 GTE Pro D.Turner, S.Mucke, R.Bell Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 3m58.069s
32 LMP3 L.Tomlinson, C.Robertson, C.Hoy Team LNT Ginetta/Nissan 3m58.308s
33 GTE Pro O.Gavin, T.Milner, J.Taylor Corvette Racing Chevrolet 3m59.159s
34 GTE Am P.D.Lana, P.Lamy, M.Lauda Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 3m59.338s
35 GTE Pro D.Rigon, J.Calado, O.Beretta AF Corse Ferrari 3m59.420s
36 GTE Pro G.Bruni, T.Vilander, G.Fisichella AF Corse Ferrari 3m59.546s
37 GTE Pro R.Lietz, M.Christensen, J.Bergmeister, S.Muller Porsche Team Manthey Porsche 4m00.272s
38 GTE Pro M.Sorensen, C.Nygaard, N.Thiim Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 4m00.316s
39 GTE Pro F.Rees, A.MacDowall, R.Stanaway Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 4m00.325s
40 GTE Pro P.Pilet, F.Makowiecki, W.Henzler, S.Muller Porsche Team Manthey Porsche 4m01.066s
41 GTE Am M.Wainwright, A.Carroll, P.Keen Gulf Racing UK Porsche 4m01.208s
42 GTE Am D.Cameron, M.Griffin, A.Mortimer AF Corse Ferrari 4m01.221s
43 GTE Am A.Al Faisal, K.Giermaziak, M.Avenatti JMW Motorsport Ferrari 4m02.212s
44 GTE Am V.Shaytar, A.Bertolini, A.Basov SMP Racing Ferrari 4m02.325s
45 GTE Am J.Bleekemolen, B.Keating, M.Miller Riley Motorsports-Ti Auto SRT/Dodge 4m02.499s
46 GTE Am P.Perazzini, M.Cioci AF Corse Ferrari 4m02.732s
47 GTE Am G.Roda, P.Ruberti, K.Poulsen Larbre Competition Chevrolet 4m02.856s
48 GTE Am F.Perrodo, E.Collard, R.Aguas AF Corse Ferrari 4m02.994s
49 GTE Am B.Sweedler, T.Bell, J.Segal Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 4m03.117s
50 GTE Pro J.Magnussen, A.Garcia, R.Briscoe Corvette Racing Chevrolet 4m03.775s
51 GTE Am R.Goethe, S.Hall, F.Castellacci Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 4m04.354s
52 GTE Am H.C.Chen, G.Vannelet, M.Parisy Team AAI Porsche 4m04.491s
53 GTE Am C.Ried, K.Al Qubaisi, K.Bachler Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing Porsche 4m04.756s
54 GTE Am P.Dempsey, P.Long, M.Seefried Dempsey Racing - Proton Porsche 4m05.813s
55 GTE Am J.Laursen, M.Mac, A.Rizzoli Formula Racing Ferrari 4m07.257s
56 GTE Am J.San Chen, A.Kapadia, X.Maassen Team AAI Porsche 4m07.378s
57 LMP3 M.Chilton, T.Matsuda, A.Buncombe Team LNT Ginetta/Nissan 4m08.002s
58 LMP2 Y.Yamagishi, P.Perret, J.Ibanez, S.Raffin Ibanez Racing ORECA/Nissan 4m08.462s
59 GTE Am P.Mann, R.Giammaria, M.Cressoni AF Corse Ferrari 4m12.191s
60 LMP2 T.Fujii, S.Hoshino, C.Klien KCMG ORECA/Judd 4m14.106s
61 GTE Am Y.Mallegol, J-M.Bachelier, H.Blank, E.Mouez AF Corse Ferrari 4m21.492s
62 LMP2 J.Nicolet, J-M.Merlin, E.Maris Oak Racing Ligier/HPD 4m21.842s
63 LMP2 C.Cumming, L.Vanthoor Oak Racing Ligier/HPD 4m26.356s
64 LMP1 S.Trummer, P.Kaffer, T.Monteiro Team ByKolles CLM/AER -


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