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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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