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

Kamui Kobayashi put the #7 Toyota on top in Saturday morning's Le Mans 24 Hours warm-up session, beating the sister car of Sebastien Buemi by a quarter of a second

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.

Results

Pos Class Driver Team Car Time Gap Laps
1 LMP1 M.Conway, K.Kobayashi, J.M.Lopez Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota 3m18.687s - 10
2 LMP1 S.Buemi, K.Nakajima, F.Alonso Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota 3m18.949s 0.262s 9
3 LMP1 H.Hedman, B.Hanley, R.van der Zande DragonSpeed BR Engineering/Gibson 3m23.039s 4.352s 12
4 LMP1 S.Sarrazin, E.Orudzhev, M.Isaakyan SMP Racing BR Engineering/AER 3m23.314s 4.627s 10
5 LMP1 A.Lotterer, N.Jani, B.Senna Rebellion Racing Rebellion/Gibson 3m23.442s 4.755s 9
6 LMP1 V.Petrov, M.Aleshin, J.Button SMP Racing BR Engineering/AER 3m23.549s 4.862s 10
7 LMP1 O.Webb, D.Kraihamer, T.Dillmann ByKOLLES Racing Team ENSO CLM/NISMO 3m26.421s 7.734s 9
8 LMP1 C.Robertson, M.Simpson, L.Roussel CEFC TRSM Racing Ginetta/Mecachrome 3m29.305s 10.618s 4
9 LMP2 R.Taylor, C.Ledogar, D.H.Hansson Jackie Chan DC Racing Ligier/Gibson 3m29.466s 10.779s 8
10 LMP2 N.Lapierre, A.Negrao, P.Thiriet Signatech Alpine Matmut Alpine/Gibson 3m29.868s 11.181s 9
11 LMP2 R.Rusinov, A.Pizzitola, J-E.Vergne G-Drive Racing ORECA/Gibson 3m30.072s 11.385s 4
12 LMP2 R.Lacorte, G.Sernagiotto, F.Nasr Cetilar Villorba Corse Dallara/Gibson 3m30.582s 11.895s 11
13 LMP2 H-Pin Tung, S.Richelmi, G.Aubry Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA/Gibson 3m30.676s 11.989s 10
14 LMP2 J.Allen, J.Gutierrez, E.Guibbert G-Drive Racing ORECA/Gibson 3m30.918s 12.231s 10
15 LMP2 T.Buret, J.Canal, W.Stevens Panis Barthez Competition Ligier/Gibson 3m30.919s 12.232s 10
16 LMP2 V.Shaytar, H.Newey, N.Nato SMP Racing Dallara/Gibson 3m30.942s 12.255s 12
17 LMP2 V.Capillaire, J.Hirschi, T.Gommendy Graff-SO24 ORECA/Gibson 3m31.186s 12.499s 12
18 LMP2 P.Hanson, F.Albuquerque, P.Di Resta United Autosports Ligier/Gibson 3m31.425s 12.738s 6
19 LMP2 F.Perrodo, M.Vaxiviere, L.Duval TDS Racing ORECA/Gibson 3m32.361s 13.674s 11
20 LMP2 H.de Sadeleer, W.Owen, J.P.Montoya United Autosports Ligier/Gibson 3m32.519s 13.832s 4
21 LMP2 R.Gonzalez, P.Maldonado, N.Berthon DragonSpeed ORECA/Gibson 3m33.617s 14.930s 5
22 LMP2 F.van Eerd, G.van der Garde, J.Lammers Racing Team Nederland Dallara/Gibson 3m35.285s 16.598s 10
23 LMP2 A.Bertolini, N.Jonsson, T.Krohn Eurasia Motorsport Ligier/Gibson 3m35.411s 16.724s 11
24 LMP2 J.Jaafar, N.Jeffri, W.Tan Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA/Gibson 3m35.876s 17.189s 9
25 LMP2 E.Creed, R.Ricci, T.Dagoneau Larbre Competition Ligier/Gibson 3m37.436s 18.749s 5
26 LMP2 D.Cheng, N.Boulle, P.Nicolet Jackie Chan DC Racing Ligier/Gibson 3m38.505s 19.818s 10
27 LMP2 M.Patterson, A.D.De Jong, T.Kim Algarve Pro Racing Ligier/Gibson 3m39.966s 21.279s 9
28 GTE Pro R.Briscoe, R.Westbrook, S.Dixon Ford Chip Ganassi Team USA Ford 3m50.533s 31.846s 10
29 GTE Pro A.P.Guidi, J.Calado, D.Serra AF Corse Ferrari 3m50.702s 32.015s 11
30 GTE Pro T.Vilander, A.Giovinazzi, P.Derani AF Corse Ferrari 3m50.931s 32.244s 11
31 GTE Pro D.Rigon, S.Bird, M.Molina AF Corse Ferrari 3m51.010s 32.323s 10
32 GTE Pro J.Hand, D.Muller, S.Bourdais Ford Chip Ganassi Team USA Ford 3m51.320s 32.633s 8
33 GTE Pro P.Pilet, N.Tandy, E.Bamber Porsche GT Team Porsche 3m51.862s 33.175s 10
34 GTE Pro R.Dumas, T.Bernhard, S.Muller Porsche GT Team Porsche 3m51.869s 33.182s 9
35 GTE Pro A.Lynn, M.Martin, J.Adam Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 3m52.169s 33.482s 10
36 GTE Pro M.Christensen, K.Estre, L.Vanthoor Porsche GT Team Porsche 3m52.230s 33.543s 11
37 GTE Pro A.Farfus, A.F.da Costa, A.Sims BMW Team MTEK BMW 3m52.381s 33.694s 8
38 GTE Pro M.Sorensen, N.Thiim, D.Turner Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 3m52.448s 33.761s 11
39 GTE Pro S.Mucke, O.Pla, B.Johnson Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK Ford 3m52.581s 33.894s 10
40 GTE Pro R.Lietz, G.Bruni, F.Makowiecki Porsche GT Team Porsche 3m52.829s 34.142s 11
41 GTE Pro M.Tomczyk, N.Catsburg, P.Eng BMW Team MTEK BMW 3m52.842s 34.155s 8
42 GTE Pro A.Priaulx, H.Tincknell, T.Kanaan Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK Ford 3m52.903s 34.216s 9
43 GTE Am B.Keating, J.Bleekemolen, L.Stolz Keating Motorsports Ferrari 3m53.218s 34.531s 10
44 GTE Pro J.Magnussen, A.Garcia, M.Rockenfeller Corvette Racing - GM Chevrolet 3m53.286s 34.599s 9
45 GTE Pro O.Gavin, T.Milner, M.Fassler Corvette Racing - GM Chevrolet 3m53.688s 35.001s 10
46 GTE Am M.Wainwright, B.Barker, A.Davison Gulf Racing Porsche 3m54.830s 36.143s 9
47 GTE Am T.Flohr, F.Castellacci, G.Fisichella Spirit of Race Ferrari 3m55.209s 36.522s 11
48 GTE Am J.Bergmeister, P.Lindsey, E.Perfetti Team Project 1 Porsche 3m55.289s 36.602s 8
49 GTE Am M.Campbell, C.Ried, J.Andlauer Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 3m55.791s 37.104s 5
50 GTE Am S.Yoluc, E.Hankey, C.Eastwood TF Sport Aston Martin 3m56.517s 37.830s 3
51 GTE Am P.Long, T.Pappas, S.Pumpelly Proton Competition Porsche 3m56.847s 38.160s 11
52 GTE Am P.D.Lana, P.Lamy, M.Lauda Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 3m57.584s 38.897s 9
53 GTE Am M.Ishikawa, O.Beretta, E.Cheever MR Racing Ferrari 3m58.695s 40.008s 9
54 GTE Am Mok W.S., M.Griffin, K.Sawa Clearwater Racing Ferrari 4m01.485s 42.798s 10
55 GTE Am F.Babini, C.Nielsen, E.Maris Ebimotors Porsche 4m02.635s 43.948s 4
56 LMP1 T.Laurent, M.Beche, G.Menezes Rebellion Racing Rebellion/Gibson - - 5
57 LMP1 O.Rowland, A.Brundle, O.Turvey CEFC TRSM Racing Ginetta/Mecachrome - - 0
58 LMP2 P.Lafargue, P-L.Chatin, M.Rojas Idec Sport Racing ORECA/Gibson - - 6
59 GTE Am L.Griffin, C.MacNeil, J.Segal JMW Motorsport Ferrari - - 2
60 GTE Am M.Cairoli, K.Al Qubaisi, G.Roda Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche - - 0

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