Toyota changed #7 car's monocoque after Le Mans qualifying crash

Halfway through Wednesday night's opening qualifying, Toyota's Mike Conway made heavy contact in the Ford chicane with the Dragonspeed LMP2 ORECA of Roberto Gonzalez.

After spinning, Gonzalez had rejoined the track on the racing line just as Conway's Toyota was coming past.

Conway flew across the nose of the ORECA and had to pit with heavy bodywork damage.

Toyota managed to get the car back out after a 20-minute repair, and the car remained on provisional pole, but further checks revealed damage to the monocoque of the TS050.

Technical director Pascal Vasselon said "several pieces of bodywork [and the monocoque as well" had sustained damage.

"It was possible to run afterwards, but inspecting the monocoque is alway a longer job," he added.

"It's a second deeper check which has revealed a crack. It was not reasonable to race with that, so we went for a change.

"It was good training for the team. For sure they are training for that, but they have been quite quick."

According to Vasselon, Gonzalez and Conway "shared responsibility" for the accident, but the FIA stewards blamed Conway for the crash.

They ruled that he had failed to slow down sufficiently for the double yellow flag at the scene of Gonzalez's spin.

Conway, who shares the #7 car with Jose Maria Lopez and Kamui Kobayashi, was hit with a suspended three-minute stop and hold penalty in case of a similar infringement during the rest of the weekend.

Earlier in the session, Kobayashi had taken provisional pole with a best effort of 3m17.161s.