Le Mans 24 Hours: Lapierre puts Toyota on top in warm-up

Three minutes remained when LMP2 driver Tor Graves smashed into the barriers in the #25 G-Drive/Delta-ADR ORECA-Nissan and came to rest in the middle of the circuit.

With the session not restarting and Audi driver Andre Lotterer being unable to complete a lap that had started with the fastest first sector of all, Lapierre's 3m26.227s effort - which was the fastest time set by a TS030 HYBRID all weekend - was enough to keep the #7 car on top.

Follow Live build-up to the 81st Le Mans 24 Hours

Allan McNish put the polesitting #2 Audi R18 e-tron quattro second, 0.503s behind. Co-driver Tom Kristensen had earlier spun at Indianapolis after contact with GTE Am driver Pascal Gibon's Imsa Porsche.

Lotterer's co-driver in the #1 Audi, Marcel Fassler, was third.

John Martin, driving the sister car to Graves' damaged machine, set the LMP2 pace, despite the G-Drive/Delta-ADR squad initially having trouble in getting the car out of the pits.

Brendon Hartley (Murphy ORECA-Nissan) was second fastest while Graves' car was third, its best time having been set by Archie Hamilton.

The battle for GTE Pro honours was a to-and-fro between Porsche and Ferrari as the Aston Martins that set the pace in qualifying were content to focus solely on race preparation.

Romain Dumas (factory Porsche) and Giancarlo Fisichella (AF Corse Ferrari) had traded the top spot in the class several times before Toni Vilander, driving the #71 AF Corse machine with Kamui Kobayashi and Olivier Beretta, went half a second clear late on.

Pat Long was the best of the GTE Am drivers in the Dempsey Del Piero Porsche, the American quicker than all of the Pro cars bar Vilander's.

The session featured several spins and straight-on moments at the two Mulsanne chicanes with Thomas Dagoneau, Ryan Briscoe, Oliver Gavin and Piergiuseppe Perazzini among those caught out.

The only other crasher than Graves was Philippe Dumas, who planted his #70 Larbre Corvette in the tyres at the Dunlop chicane.

Pos Cl  Car           Drivers                        Laps  Time
 1. P1   #7 Toyota    Wurz/Lapierre/Nakajima         10    3m26.227s
 2. P1   #2 Audi      Kristensen/McNish/Duval        10    3m26.730s
 3. P1   #1 Audi      Lotterer/Treluyer/Fassler      12    3m26.963s
 4. P1   #3 Audi      Gene/Jarvis/di Grassi          11    3m27.124s
 5. P1  #12 Lola      Prost/Jani/Heidfeld            10    3m30.391s
 6. P1   #8 Toyota    Davidson/Sarrazin/Buemi        10    3m32.149s
 7. P1  #13 Lola      Beche/Belicchi/Cheng           10    3m34.437s
 8. P1  #21 HPD       Leventis/Kane/Watts            7     3m41.041s
 9. P2  #26 Oreca     Rusinov/Martin/Conway          8     3m43.158s
10. P2  #48 Oreca     Hartley/Chandhok/Patterson     10    3m44.051s
11. P2  #25 Oreca     Graves/Hamilton/Nakano         8     3m44.336s
12. P2  #24 Morgan    Pla/Brundle/H Hansson          9     3m44.807s
13. P2  #49 Oreca     P-Companc/Kaffer/Minassian     9     3m44.854s
14. P2  #38 Zytek     Dolan/Turvey/Luhr              10    3m44.946s
15. P2  #35 Morgan    Baguette/Plowman/Gonzalez      10    3m45.047s
16. P2  #47 Morgan    Imperatori/Howson/Tung         10    3m45.170s
17. P2  #36 Alpine    Ragues/Panciatici/Gommendy     10    3m45.781s
18. P2  #42 Zytek     Krumm/Mardenborough/Ordonez    9     3m45.851s
19. P2  #32 Lotus     Holzer/Kraihamer/Charouz       10    3m48.024s
20. P2  #43 Morgan    Gachnang/Mailleux/Lombard      9     3m48.240s
21. P2  #28 Lola      Giroix/Haezebrouck/Ihara       8     3m48.723s
22. P2  #33 HPD       Tucker/Franchitti/Briscoe      8     3m49.220s
23. P2  #30 Lola      Mowlem/Burgess/Hirschi         9     3m49.580s
24. P2  #46 Oreca     Thiriet/Badey/Martin           10    3m49.694s
25. P2  #34 Oreca     Frey/Niederhauser/Bleekemolen  6     3m49.800s
26. P2  #41 Zytek     Rossi/K-Smith/Lux              10    3m53.803s
27. P2  #31 Lotus     Weeda/Rossiter/Bouchut         4     3m55.335s
28. P2  #45 Morgan    Nicolet/Merlin/Mondolot        8     3m56.644s
29. GTP #71 Ferrari   Beretta/Kobayashi/Vilander     10    3m58.291s
30. GTA #77 Porsche   Dempsey/Foster/Long            8     3m58.358s
31. GTP #92 Porsche   Lieb/Richard Lietz/Dumas       5     3m58.796s
32. GTP #51 Ferrari   Bruni/Fisichella/Malucelli     9     3m59.935s
33. GTP #91 Porsche   Bergmeister/Pilet/Bernhard     7     4m00.593s
34. GTA #95 Aston     Simonsen/Nygaard/Poulsen       8     4m01.401s
35. P2  #39 Lola      Porta/Brandela/Raffin          4     4m02.285s
36. GTA #67 Porsche   Gibon/Milesi/Henzler           7     4m03.312s
37. GTA #61 Ferrari   Gerber/Griffin/Cioci           9     4m03.315s
38. GTP #66 Ferrari   Bertolini/Faisal/Qubaisi       10    4m03.317s
39. GTP #74 Corvette  Gavin/Milner/Westbrook         9     4m03.641s
40. GTA #88 Porsche   Ried/Roda/Ruberti              9     4m03.658s
41. GTP #93 SRT       Wittmer/Kendall/Bomarito       9     4m03.746s
42. GTA #81 Ferrari   Potolicchio/Aguas/Bright       10    4m04.285s
43. GTP #73 Corvette  Garcia/Magnussen/Taylor        8     4m05.213s
44. GTP #53 SRT       Farnbacher/Goossens/Dalziel    8     4m05.700s
45. GTA #57 Ferrari   Krohn/Jonsson/Mediani          10    4m05.848s
46. GTP #98 Aston     Dalla Lana/Lamy/Auberlen       7     4m06.769s
47. GTA #55 Ferrari   Perazzini/O'Young/Case         9     4m07.047s
48. GTA #76 Porsche   Narac/Vernay/Bourret           9     4m07.945s
49. P2  #40 Oreca     Dagoneau/Downs/Younessi        8     4m09.161s
50. GTA #70 Corvette  MacNeil/Rodrigues/Dumas        3     4m09.880s
51. GTA #75 Porsche   Collard/Perrodo/Crubile        9     4m10.378s
52. GTA #50 Corvette  Bornhauser/Canal/Taylor        8     4m11.298s
53. GTA #96 Aston     Goethe/Campbell-Walter/Hall    9     4m18.729s
54. GTA #54 Ferrari   Mallegol/Bachelier/Blank       8     4m28.060s
55. GTP #97 Aston     Mucke/Turner/Dumbreck          5
56. GTP #99 Aston     Makowiecki/Senna/Bell          5