Le Mans 24 Hours: Lapierre puts Toyota on top in warm-up
Toyota headed warm-up for the Le Mans 24 Hours with Nicolas Lapierre setting the pace in a Saturday morning session that was shortened due to a late red flag
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.
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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
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