What we've learned at Le Mans so far

PORSCHE UNSTOPPABLE IN QUALIFYING TRIM...

Porsche's qualifying dominance in the regular World Endurance Championship races has transferred across to Le Mans.

Pole for a marque that hasn't been beaten in qualifying since the Austin WEC round last September might not seem like a surprise, but the situation is not quite as simple as it appears.

The benefits of Porsche's eight megajoule hybrid system - two steps above Audi and one above Toyota - aren't as big on the long Circuit de la Sarthe as at other circuits. The amount of hybrid energy the 919 Hybrid is allowed to deploy per kilometre is significantly lower here than on the shorter tracks.

The other advantage of the Porsche's hybrid system is also less significant at Le Mans than at some WEC tracks.

At Fuji, for example, its battery energy-storage system allows for a massive boost out of the final corner before the car crosses the start-finish line, which is a long way down the straight. The line is much closer to the last turn here, which negates the advantage of this so called double-boosting.

That said the 8MJ Porsche still held sway in qualifying. The Stuttgart marque's pace in the first session made for dull second day of qualifying: Porsche knew it couldn't be beaten and its rivals knew they couldn't beat Porsche.

...BUT IT'S NOT TOP OF THE SPEED TRAP

Porsche's speed on the straights is key to its single-lap supremacy. The fastest 919 Hybrid in qualifying in sector two, which runs from the start to the finish of the Mulsanne straight, was 1.939s faster than the best non-Porsche, the Audi R18 e-tron quattro, in the 75-second sector.

Sector 2 - Mulsanne straight
1 Porsche, 1m15.485s
2 Audi, +1.939s
3 Toyota, +2.133s
4 Rebellion, +4,154s
5 Nissan, +6.202s
6 CLM, +7.798s

But this section of track is also a fine example of why top speed doesn't tell the whole story, for while the Porsche was dominant on the Mulsanne it wasn't the fastest in the speed traps.

In fact, not only was the Audi fastest, but the privateer Rebellion R-One was also quicker than the 919.

Speed trap
1 Audi, 212.1mph
2 Rebellion, 210.7mph
3 Porsche, 210.1mph
4 Nissan, 209.4mph
5 Toyota, 208.8mph
6 CLM, 199.460mph

It's not difficult to square these two factors. By definition, top speed is not representative of a car's pace throughout the whole straight and the siting of the speed trap in what has become a lift-and-coast zone in the new era of LMP1 yields inconclusive results.

What is more important is how quickly you are going at any given point on the straights.

NISSAN STILL FIGHTING WITH LMP2

The Nissan GT-R LM NISMO isn't much faster than an LMP2 car, at least for the moment. The significance of that is the promise made by Nissan global motorsport boss Darren Cox.

He was vocal in his dismissal of the suggestion that the radical front-engined LMP1 wouldn't outperform the secondary prototypes when the GT-R LM project appeared to be going off the rails in the spring.

He promised the car would be "significantly faster", and reiterated that vow when the car fell short of the best of P2s at the Le Mans test earlier this month.

Harry Tincknell's best for Nissan - a 3m36.995s - was only a second or so clear of the pole-winning KCMG ORECA 05. Yet Nissan was still trying to take the positives from practice and qualifying, Cox pointing out that the car was "improving every time out".

That improvement, reckons Cox, will allow the Nissan to fulfil his promise. Only he says it's now going to happen some time in the race.

CLOSING SPEEDS IN THE SPOTLIGHT

If the Spiderman storyline was based around the Le Mans 24 Hours, the moral would be this: with great speed comes great responsibility.

The incredible pace of the Porsche LMP1 cars has caused consternation among some of the GTE drivers, particularly the ever-increasing closing speeds the top-class cars have thanks to the powerful punch of acceleration the latest hybrid systems provide.

The GTEs have onboard radar systems to alert them when cars are coming up from behind, but some drivers think the closing speed is such that the system risks becoming useless.

However, the crux of the issue is responsible overtaking.

"It reminds me of the first time we came here with the GT2 and the Peugeot and Audi were here with the diesel battles," says Corvette's Oliver Gavin, who said some drivers were "desperate" to get past as quickly as possible.

"The closing speeds back then were similar to how it is now. They have to use that energy to get to that speed and maintain it. The closing speed is so much the radar can't keep up."

Porsche driver Frederic Makowiecki said the way the GTE and LMP1 cars interacted would not be a problem if the overtaking drivers were sensible.

"Since the new regulation with the hybrid system we need to be more careful," he admitted. "For us it's really easy to manage LMP1s, they overtake so quick.

"There will be no reason we will get a problem with them - except if someone wants to do some crazy overtaking."

WE'RE STILL NOT SURE ABOUT HULKENBERG

Formula 1 driver Nico Hulkenberg's first foray into topline sportscars is one of the big stories of Le Mans this year.

But even though the German has participated in the Spa 6 Hours, the pre-Le Mans test and during the 10 hours of practice and qualifying this week, it's still difficult to say exactly how he stacks up against the rest.

The #19 Porsche has been the slowest of the three entries from the manufacturer, which is to be expected given it's very much the extra entry alongside the two full-season cars.

But the #19 car has had the chance to show its pace. Nick Tandy had a qualifying run during Wednesday's session, with a second attempt on Thursday yielding a marginal improvement.

Hulkenberg also got the chance to do a qualifying run on Wednesday, later in the session. There, he posted a time that was 0.683s slower than Tandy's Thursday time and a quarter-of-a-second off the car's fastest Wednesday lap.

So in that respect, his pace was certainly decent relative to Tandy, who is more experienced in sportscar racing - albeit mainly in GT machinery rather than LMP1.

Below are the fastest laps set by each Porsche driver during qualifying, although it's important to note that most did not have a qualifying shot.

Porsche fastest laps
1 Jani, 3m16.887s
2 Bernhard 3m17.767s
3 Tandy 3m18.862s
4 Hulkenberg 3m19.545s
5 Bamber 3m20.818s
6 Lieb 3m21.222s
7 Dumas 3m21.536s
8 Hartley, 3m21.658s
9 Webber 3m22.399s

A look at Hulkenberg's pace compared to Tandy in the three sectors again shows Tandy had the edge.

Best sector times by car

Sector 1 (start/finish to Tertre Rouge)
#18 Jani, 31.134s
#19 Tandy, 31.585s (Hulkenberg 31.750s)
#17 Bernhard, 31.601s

Sector 2 (Tertre Rouge to Mulsanne Corner)
#18 Jani, 75.485s
#17 Bernhard, 75.641s
#19 Tandy, 75.992s (Hulkenberg, 76.068s)

Sector 3 (Mulsanne Corner to finish)
#18 Jani 90.268s
#17 Bernard 90.525s
#19 Tandy, 91.099s (Hulkenbeg, 91.290s)

Maintaining average pace over stints is far more difficult than delivering single-lap pace, but Hulkenberg has enjoyed dealing with traffic so far so he is relishing that challenge. It will be fascinating to see how he compares to the other Porsche drivers once the 24 Hours gets underway.

HOW THE GTE FIGHT SHAPES UP

The status quo remains in the GTE ranks. Last year the battle between Aston Martin, Ferrari and Corvette was close throughout practice and qualifying and that carried into the race, with the #51 AF Corse 458 Italia's trouble-free run proving the difference.

Porsche was hanging on to the fight by its fingernails last year, and thanks to a technology freeze in GTE and an unchanged Balance of Performance it's the same situation this year.

Star rookie Richie Stanaway led AMR's #99 Vantage to pole position, just under a tenth clear of Ferrari's GT superstar Gianmari Bruni, and while Chevrolet is down to one car after the withdrawal of the crashed #63 C7.R its remaining entry is in the mix.

But Porsche's duo of Manthey-run #911 RSRs spent post of Wednesday and Thursday in the lower reaches in class - and with the slower #92 car behind three GTE Ams on the grid.

Frederic Makowiecki told AUTOSPORT the car's performance did not quite match its simulations, with instability in the braking zone a key issue the team was struggling to identify.

"For sure our competitors are very strong," said Makowiecki. "The disappointing point is the car was frozen this year and in this case FIA had time to analyse the data from the 24 Hours from four manufacturers and try to do something really clear.

"We can see from this moment it's far to be optimised. Now we have one thing to do, it's to try to do our race. If we do our job maybe we could be there at the end."

FORMULA E EXPERIENCE HELPS AT LE MANS

Half of last weekend's Moscow Formula E field came straight to Le Mans, and the technique required in the all-electric series translates to fuel savings around La Sarthe.

Audi's Lucas di Grassi and Loic Duval, Toyota pair Sebastien Buemi and Stephane Sarrazin, and Rebellion team-mates Nick Heidfeld, Nicolas Prost and Daniel Abt will all line up in LMP1, Sam Bird and Karun Chandhok are in LMP2 and Antonio Garcia would have raced the withdrawn Chevrolet.

Managing battery life is paramount in Formula E, and Chandhok says driving with that in mind helps in more conventional machinery.

"I think I've learned a lot about energy saving and driving efficiently," the Murphy Prototypes driver said.

"I came here, and without really thinking about it, my natural style means that I'm now five per cent more efficient on fuel than I was last year in the same car, and that's purely from driving in Formula E."

LMP2 LEADER FAST BUT FRAGILE?

KCMG has led the way in the 19-strong LMP2 field, with laps from Richard Bradley topping practice by 1.414 seconds and qualifying by 0.907s.

Its new ORECA 05 has also stopped on track each day, though, with a fuel pressure problem on Wednesday and rear suspension concern on Thursday.

The 05 was designed with the incoming 2017 regulations in mind, and is narrower than its predecessor, helping straightline speed without appearing to sacrifice cornering performance.

Bradley downplayed the stoppages, saying the amount of track time let the team take a cautious approach, and if it can stay out of trouble in the race, KCMG is well-placed with Nicolas Lapierre and Matt Howson completing a strong driver line-up.

But they're not out of touch by any stretch. A little over one second covers G-Drive Racing (OAK), Greaves Motorsport, Jota Sport, Signatech Alpine, TDS Racing and OAK Racing in second through seventh.

TRACK LIMITS HAVING AN INFLUENCE

Several drivers were rapped up on the knuckles for track-limits offences in practice and qualifying for running over the run-off at Tertre Rouge.

The stewards have been clamping down hard on track limits at that corner, with GTE cars in particular feeling the wrath of the officials.

While many escaped with warnings, there were cases of cars losing their best times - including both GTE Pro AF Corse Ferraris - even if the offences occurred on other laps.

Toni Vilander, who won the GTE Pro race last year alongside Gianmari Bruni and Giancarlo Fisichella, tweeted his frustration with the number of track-limits warnings and AF team manager Battistino Pregliasco said common sense should overrule the letter of the law in qualifying.

"If you improve the time [by abusing track limits] you can remove it," he argued. "That's OK. I don't understand [why people were being punished] if you don't improve the sector."

ROOKIES MAKING WAVES

Richie Stanaway's stock is already quite high, as someone who has won in GP2 and GP3 should be. And he's been part of the Aston Martin Racing family in the World Endurance Championship since 2013.

This is his first Le Mans 24 Hours appearance though, and he was comfortably on top in practice in the #99 Aston Martin Vantage before beating Ferrari's Gianmari Bruni - arguably the benchmark GTE driver - to pole, despite not performing a qualifying effort in the final session.

That is as good a start to your debut as you can hope for, especially as his times when the car switched to race set-up work compared favourably with someone of Stefan Mucke's ilk in the sister #97 car.

Another New Zealander, Mitch Evans is impressing in LMP2, having made his sportscar debut at Spa last month. While Oliver Turvey set Jota's fastest time in qualifying, it was only marginally faster than GP2 race winner Evans' best, which would have also put it third on the grid.

GT ace Laurens Vanthoor was quick at the test day in his maiden prototype outing and is continuing that form in race week.