Le Mans 24 Hours: Toyota's Buemi heads morning warm-up session
Toyota's Sebastien Buemi has topped a damp Saturday morning warm-up session for the Le Mans 24 Hours
After overnight rain the Circuit de la Sarthe was in tricky conditions at the start of the 15-minute warm-up session, which meant that most teams were reluctant to go out on track.
Although most teams decided to complete one or more reconnaissance laps, just 33 of the 59 participants set some sort of laptime.
Mike Conway initially clocked a best time of 3m39.375 in the #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid, with teammate Buemi in the #8 sister car going quicker after the chequered flag dropped to post a 3m36.693s, still over 15 seconds slower than Toyota's dry-weather pace.
Neither the two Rebellion cars or the lone ByKolles entry decided to set a laptime.
Giedo van der Garde was therefore third overall as the quickest LMP2 runner in his #29 Racing Team Nederland ORECA, setting a 3m43.022.
That was over six seconds quicker than Matthieu Vaxiviere in the Panis ORECA and eight seconds ahead of Nick Foster in the Eurasia Motorsport machine.
Polesitter United Autosports was one of the many teams to not set a laptime.
James Calado set a 4m12.476 to head GTE Pro in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo, three seconds clear of Richard Lietz in the #91 Porsche 911 RSR-19.
The third-fastest GTE entrant was the leading GTE Am car of Giancarlo Fisichella, the #54 AF Corse Ferrari. The former F1 driver put a 4m17.393s on the board.
The short damp session preludes the 88th running of the Le Mans 24 Hours, which is also expected to be affected by rain.
Many weather forecasts are predicting heavy rain on Saturday night and in the early hours of Sunday, with further wet spells expected during the final hours of the event.
The mixed conditions will be particularly challenging for the many amateur drivers and the 40-odd Le Mans rookies at the start of the race, with track time limited on a condensed race week schedule.
The French endurance classic will start and finish slightly earlier than usual at 2:30pm local time.
Le Mans 24 Hours Saturday warm-up session
Pos | Class | Driver | Team | Car | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | LMP1 | S.Buemi, K.Nakajima, B.Hartley | Toyota Gazoo Racing | Toyota | 3m36.693s |
2 | LMP1 | M.Conway, K.Kobayashi, J.M.Lopez | Toyota Gazoo Racing | Toyota | 2.682s |
3 | LMP2 | F.van Eerd, G.van der Garde, N.de Vries | Racing Team Nederland | ORECA/Gibson | 6.329s |
4 | LMP2 | N.Jamin, J.Canal, M.Vaxiviere | Panis Racing | ORECA/Gibson | 12.875s |
5 | LMP2 | N.Yamanaka, N.Foster, R.Merhi | Eurasia Motorsport | Ligier/Gibson | 14.521s |
6 | LMP2 | G.Grist, A.Kapadia, T.Wells | Nielsen Racing | ORECA/Gibson | 15.095s |
7 | LMP2 | R.Cullen, O.Jarvis, N.Tandy | G-Drive Racing by Algarve | Aurus/Gibson | 15.609s |
8 | LMP2 | J.Smiechowski, R.Binder, M.Isaakyan | Inter Europol Competition | Ligier/Gibson | 16.531s |
9 | LMP2 | P.Lafargue, P-L.Chatin, R.Bradley | Idec Sport Racing | ORECA/Gibson | 20.142s |
10 | LMP2 | J.Hirschi, K.Tereschenko, T.Gommendy | Duqueine Team | ORECA/Gibson | 23.693s |
11 | LMP2 | R.Lacorte, A.Belicchi, G.Sernagiotto | Cetilar Racing | Dallara/Gibson | 29.472s |
12 | LMP2 | K.Yamashita, M.Patterson, A.Fjordbach | High Class Racing | ORECA/Gibson | 31.390s |
13 | LMP2 | R.Rusinov, J-E.Vergne, M.Jensen | G-Drive Racing | Aurus/Gibson | 31.486s |
14 | GTE Pro | A.P.Guidi, J.Calado, D.Serra | AF Corse | Ferrari | 35.783s |
15 | GTE Pro | G.Bruni, R.Lietz, F.Makowiecki | Porsche GT Team | Porsche | 38.855s |
16 | GTE Am | T.Flohr, F.Castellacci, G.Fisichella | AF Corse | Ferrari | 40.700s |
17 | GTE Pro | M.Christensen, K.Estre, L.Vanthoor | Porsche GT Team | Porsche | 40.784s |
18 | GTE Am | T.Kimura, V.Abril, K.Cozzolino | MR Racing | Ferrari | 41.106s |
19 | GTE Am | F.Perrodo, E.Collard, N.Nielsen | AF Corse | Ferrari | 41.286s |
20 | GTE Am | R.Heistand, M.Root, J.Magnussen | JMW Motorsport | Ferrari | 42.335s |
21 | GTE Am | C.Schiavoni, S.Pianezzola, P.Ruberti | Iron Lynx | Ferrari | 44.014s |
22 | GTE Am | T.Preining, D.Bastien, A.De Leener | Dempsey-Proton Racing | Porsche | 44.460s |
23 | GTE Am | D.Cameron, A.Scott, M.Griffin | Spirit of Race | Ferrari | 44.833s |
24 | GTE Am | F.Piovanetti, O.Negri, C.Ledogar | Luzich Racing | Ferrari | 45.617s |
25 | GTE Am | M.Wainwright, B.Barker, A.Watson | Gulf Racing | Porsche | 45.876s |
26 | GTE Am | R.Mastronardi, M.Cressoni, A.Piccini | Iron Lynx | Ferrari | 47.023s |
27 | GTE Am | B.Keating, F.Fraga, J.Bleekemolen | Team Project 1 | Porsche | 47.884s |
28 | GTE Am | P.D.Lana, R.Gunn, A.Farfus | Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin | 50.260s |
29 | GTE Am | C.Ulrich, S.Gorig, A.West | AF Corse | Ferrari | 50.699s |
30 | GTE Am | B.Grimes, J.Mowlem, C.Hollings | Red River Sport | Ferrari | 51.061s |
31 | GTE Am | H.Felbermayr Jr., M.Beretta, M.van Splunteren | Proton Competition | Porsche | 51.515s |
32 | GTE Pro | N.Thiim, M.Sorensen, R.Westbrook | Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin | 1m04.449s |
33 | LMP2 | J.P.Montoya, T.Buret, M.Rojas | Dragonspeed USA | ORECA/Gibson | 1m21.669s |
34 | LMP1 | B.Senna, N.Nato, G.Menezes | Rebellion Racing | Rebellion/Gibson | - |
35 | LMP1 | R.Dumas, N.Berthon, L.Deletraz | Rebellion Racing | Rebellion/Gibson | - |
36 | LMP1 | T.Dillmann, B.Spengler, O.Webb | ByKOLLES Racing Team | ENSO CLM/Gibson | - |
37 | LMP2 | A.Tambay, E.Maris, C.d'Ansembourg | EuroInternational | Ligier/Gibson | - |
38 | LMP2 | P.Pilet, K.Tilley, J.Kennard | Idec Sport Racing | ORECA/Gibson | - |
39 | LMP2 | P.Hanson, F.Albuquerque, P.Di Resta | United Autosports | ORECA/Gibson | - |
40 | LMP2 | J.Falb, S.Trummer, M.McMurry | Algarve Pro Racing | ORECA/Gibson | - |
41 | LMP2 | H.Hedman, B.Hanley, R.van der Zande | Dragonspeed USA | ORECA/Gibson | - |
42 | LMP2 | W.Owen, A.Brundle, J.van Uitert | United Autosports | ORECA/Gibson | - |
43 | LMP2 | A.Negrao, P.Ragues, T.Laurent | Signatech Alpine Elf | Alpine/Gibson | - |
44 | LMP2 | H-Pin Tung, G.Aubry, W.Stevens | Jackie Chan DC Racing | ORECA/Gibson | - |
45 | LMP2 | A.Davidson, A.F.da Costa, R.Gonzalez | JOTA | ORECA/Gibson | - |
46 | LMP2 | J.Allen, V.Capillaire, C.Milesi | Graff-SO24 | ORECA/Gibson | - |
47 | LMP2 | N.Lapierre, A.Borga, A.Coigny | COOL Racing | ORECA/Gibson | - |
48 | LMP2 | T.Calderon, S.Florsch, B.Visser | Richard Mille Racing Team | ORECA/Gibson | - |
49 | GTE Am | E.Perfetti, L.ten Voorde, M.Cairoli | Team Project 1 | Porsche | - |
50 | GTE Pro | C.MacNeil, T.Vilander, J.Segal | WeatherTech Racing | Ferrari | - |
51 | GTE Pro | D.Rigon, M.Molina, S.Bird | AF Corse | Ferrari | - |
52 | GTE Am | H.C.Chen, T.Blomqvist, M.Gomes | Hub Auto Racing | Ferrari | - |
53 | GTE Am | C.Ried, R.Pera, M.Campbell | Dempsey-Proton Racing | Porsche | - |
54 | GTE Pro | O.Pla, S.Bourdais, J.Gounon | Risi Competizione | Ferrari | - |
55 | GTE Am | M.Gostner, R.Frey, M.Gatting | Iron Lynx | Ferrari | - |
56 | GTE Am | P.Haezebrouck, J.Piguet, A.Laskaratos | Team Project 1 | Porsche | - |
57 | GTE Am | S.Yoluc, C.Eastwood, J.Adam | TF Sport | Aston Martin | - |
58 | GTE Pro | M.Martin, A.Lynn, H.Tincknell | Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin | - |
59 | GTE Am | I.Vutthikorn, L.Legeret, J.Andlauer | Dempsey-Proton Racing | Porsche | - |
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