Le Mans warm-up: Kobayashi pips Buemi in Toyota LMP1 battle

Kobayashi set the fastest time late-on in a largely uneventful 45-minute session, recording a 3m18.687s in the TS050 HYBRID.

That beat Buemi's previous 3m18.949s benchmark, which in turn was more than four seconds faster than leading LMP1 privateer Ben Hanley.

The #10 DragonSpeed car completed 12 laps, the most of any LMP1 outfit, with Hanley initially setting a fastest time of 3m24.954s.

But the car was investigated for speeding in the pitlane and had that lap removed towards the end of the session, which dropped the BR1 to 13th in the timesheets.

But Hanley improved on his final lap to record a 3m23.039s.

The similar #17 SMP Racing BR1 was fourth and separated from its sister #11 car by the leading #1 Rebellion-Gibson R-13, as half a second covered the leading four privateers.

Tom Dillmann recorded a 3m26.421s in the #4 ByKolles car and ended the session seventh, with Charlie Robertson completing a timed lap in the #5 Manor-Ginetta on his final run, recording a 3m29.305s.

Rebellion's #3 car did five laps but was without a completed timed effort, while the second #6 Manor-Ginetta did not take to the track during the session.

LMP2: Taylor tops the times

Ricky Taylor topped the LMP2 class with a lap almost half a second clear of his rivals aboard the #34 Jackie Chan DC Racing Ligier.

The Penske IMSA SportsCar Championship driver produced a 3m29.466s in the middle of the session to displace the #26 G-Drive Racing ORECA, which had its best lap set by Formula E championship leader Jean-Eric Vergne.

Vergne would drop to third late-on when Nicolas Lapierre took the #36 Signatech-Alpine to second on his final-minute flying lap.

The second Jackie Chan DC Racing Ligier of Gabriel Aubry took fourth in class in the driver's first flying lap of the session.

The sister car driven by Stephane Richelmi was fifth behind a late improvement from ex-Formula 1 racer Felipe Nasr in the Cetilar Villorba Corse Dallara.

All of the LMP2 runners completed the warm-up, although the #48 IDEC Sport ORECA failed to set a laptime after Paul-Loup Chatin went off into the gravel at the Dunlop Chicane.

He was one of several LMP2 drivers to have an off without taking on significant damage, with former Champ Car driver Tristan Gommendy going off at the Esses, as well as Julien Canal in the #23 Panis Barthez Competition Ligier.

GTE: Ford usurps Ferrari at the last

Ford set the pace in GTE Pro thanks to a last-minute effort by IndyCar star Scott Dixon in the #69 Ganassi-run GT.

Dixon's best time of 3m50.533s leapfrogged him ahead of a trio of Ferraris, led by James Calado the #51 488 GTE Evo, by 0.169s.

Toni Vilander was a further two tenths behind in the third-string #52 car, while Sam Bird had made it a top-three lockout for Ferrari in the #71 machine until Dixon's late surge up the order.

Porsche, which along with Ford was hit with a weight penalty in the latest Balance of Performance update, was sixth-fastest courtesy of Nick Tandy's best time in the #93 car, behind the second of the Fords.

Aston Martin set the eighth quickest time after its Vantage GTE was handed a double performance break following its poor qualifying performance, while the best of the BMW M8s was 10th.

Ferrari led the way in GTE Am thanks to a 3m53.218s effort from Jeroen Bleekemolen in the #85 Keating/Risi car, which was enough to beat Ben Barker's time in the #86 Gulf Racing Porsche by 1.6s.

The polesitting #88 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche did not set a lap time.

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