Le Mans 24h: Buemi leads Toyota 1-2 in second practice
Toyota’s Sebastien Buemi set the fastest time in the first night-time running ahead of this weekend’s Le Mans 24 Hours, while Porsche and Ferrari dueled over top spot in GTE Pro.
Watch: Le Mans 24h: Qualifying Results
The two-hour FP2 session was run in darkness throughout, with all drivers required to complete at least five laps at night ahead of Saturday’s race.
Jose Maria Lopez set the early pace in the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid, which he shares with Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi, with a time of 3m29.810s, while Kazuki Nakajima worked down to 3m30.705s in the #8, which he shares with Buemi and Brendon Hartley.
Buemi took over the #8 and immediately improved to 3m30.176s and then lowered his best time to 3m29.351s, over four tenths up on the sister car. Meanwhile, Conway locked up and went off into the gravel at Mulsanne on his first dark flying lap in #7 but was able to bring the car back to the pits.
On his final run, Kobayashi got to within 0.387s of P1, setting some demon sector times, but was unable to wrest away the top spot.
After a red flag to recover a GTE Pro Ferrari, there was a fierce competition for best-of-the-rest spot between Glickenhaus and Alpine.
Pipo Derani unleashed a lap of 3m30.112s in his #708 Glickenhaus 007 with 30 minutes remaining, 0.761s off the quickest Toyota time. Nicolas Lapierre lapped in 3m30.744s in the Alpine-Gibson A480 to place fourth, with Ryan Briscoe fifth in the #709 Glickenhaus on 3m31.109s.
In LMP2, Anthony Davidson set the quickest time in JOTA’s #38 Oreca at 3m32.390s, ahead of recent Berlin E-Prix winner Norman Nato’s Realteam Racing #70 example at 3m32.608s.
United Autosports USA’s #22 car was next up, ahead of G-Drive’s #26 and the #21 DragonSpeed USA car in Ben Hanley’s hands. However, Hanley fenced the car at Indianapolis on the very next lap.
The only incident of note besides that was the PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports #24 car, which stopped on track in Patrick Kelly’s hands, causing a slow zone while it was towed away.
Porsche beats Ferrari in GT classes
In GTE Pro, Sam Bird was the first to dip under the 3m50s barrier, producing a lap of 3m49.993s in the #52 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE that he shares with Daniel Serra and Miguel Molina. Fred Makowiecki then topped that in his #91 Porsche 911 RSR-19 with 3m49.938s.
Serra hit trouble just before the halfway point of the session when he suffered a huge lockup at Mulsanne Corner and had to crawl along as the tyre blew, wrecking its front-right bodywork and ultimately forcing him to a halt. That led to a red flag to get a recovery truck on track and to clear up the debris.
After the red flag, Laurens Vanthoor grabbed P1 in the WeatherTech Racing Porsche with an impressive lap of 3m49.018s, topping the class by nine tenths of a second.
Neel Jani was fourth fastest in the #92 Manthey-run Porsche on 3m50.589s, ahead of the #51 Ferrari of James Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Come Ledogar.
In GTE Am, the #88 Dempsey-Proton Porsche of Julien Andlauer, Dominique Bastien and Lance David Arnold set the pace at 3m51.452s to top Riccardo Pera’s early 3m52.206s that had kept the #56 Team Project 1 Porsche at the head of the times for the majority of the session.
Jeroen Bleekemolen further demoted Pera late on in his #388 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari to take P2. The #39 Spirit of Race Ferrari and #98 Northwest AMR Aston Martin were fourth and fifth.
The #46 Team Project 1 Porsche of Robby Foley crashed at Tertre Rouge late on, which caused a red flag that curtailed the session three minutes early.
The next session is Free Practice 3 at 2pm local time on Thursday.
Le Mans 24 Hours - FP2 results:
Cla | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 8 |
Sébastien Buemi
Kazuki Nakajima Brendon Hartley |
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 3'29.351 | |
2 | 7 |
Mike Conway
Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez |
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 3'29.738 | 0.387 |
3 | 708 |
Pipo Derani
Franck Mailleux Olivier Pla |
Glickenhaus 007 LMH | HYPERCAR | 3'30.112 | 0.761 |
4 | 36 |
Andre Negrao
Nicolas Lapierre Matthieu Vaxiviere |
Alpine A480 | HYPERCAR | 3'30.744 | 1.393 |
5 | 709 |
Ryan Briscoe
Richard Westbrook Romain Dumas |
Glickenhaus 007 LMH | HYPERCAR | 3'31.109 | 1.758 |
6 | 38 |
Roberto Gonzalez
Antonio Felix da Costa Anthony Davidson |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'32.390 | 3.039 |
7 | 70 |
Esteban Garcia
Loic Duval Norman Nato |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'32.608 | 3.257 |
8 | 22 |
Philip Hanson
Fabio Scherer Filipe Albuquerque |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'33.076 | 3.725 |
9 | 26 |
Roman Rusinov
Franco Colapinto Nyck de Vries |
Aurus 01 | LMP2 | 3'33.098 | 3.747 |
10 | 21 |
Henrik Hedman
Ben Hanley Juan Pablo Montoya |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'33.416 | 4.065 |
11 | 41 |
Robert Kubica
Louis Deletraz Ye Yifei |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'33.545 | 4.194 |
12 | 31 |
Robin Frijns
Ferdinand Habsburg Charles Milesi |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'33.557 | 4.206 |
13 | 34 |
Jakub Smiechowski
Renger van der Zande Alex Brundle |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'33.617 | 4.266 |
14 | 49 |
Anders Fjordbach
Jan Magnussen Kevin Magnussen |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'33.725 | 4.374 |
15 | 20 |
Dennis Andersen
Ricky Taylor Marco Sorensen |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'33.867 | 4.516 |
16 | 32 |
Nico Jamin
Jonathan Aberdein Manuel Maldonado |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'33.923 | 4.572 |
17 | 28 |
Sean Gelael
Stoffel Vandoorne Tom Blomqvist |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'34.131 | 4.780 |
18 | 17 |
Dwight Merriman
Thomas Laurent Ryan Dalziel |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'34.171 | 4.820 |
19 | 23 |
Paul di Resta
Alex Lynn Wayne Boyd |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'34.287 | 4.936 |
20 | 29 |
Frits van Eerd
Giedo van der Garde Job Van Uitert |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'34.566 | 5.215 |
21 | 30 |
Rene Binder
Guillermo Rojas Tristan Gommendy |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'34.593 | 5.242 |
22 | 25 |
John Falb
Roberto Merhi Rui Andrade |
Aurus 01 | LMP2 | 3'34.779 | 5.428 |
23 | 65 |
Julien Canal
Will Stevens James Allen |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'35.263 | 5.912 |
24 | 82 |
Ryan Cullen
Oliver Jarvis Felipe Nasr |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'35.696 | 6.345 |
25 | 44 |
Miro Konopka
Oliver Webb Matej Konopka |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'36.779 | 7.428 |
26 | 24 |
Patrick Kelly
Gabriel Aubry Simon Trummer |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'36.935 | 7.584 |
27 | 1 |
Tatiana Calderon
Sophia Flörsch Beitske Visser |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'37.248 | 7.897 |
28 | 84 |
Takuma Aoki
Nigel Bailly Matthieu Lahaye |
Oreca 07 | INNOVATIVE CAR | 3'37.708 | 8.357 |
29 | 48 |
Paul Lafargue
Paul-Loup Chatin Patrick Pilet |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'39.361 | 10.010 |
30 | 39 |
Vincent Capillaire
Arnold Robin Maxime Robin |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'40.003 | 10.652 |
31 | 79 |
Cooper MacNeil
Earl Bamber Laurens Vanthoor |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 3'49.018 | 19.667 |
32 | 74 |
James Winslow
John Corbett Tom Cloet |
Ligier JSP 217 | LMP2 | 3'49.894 | 20.543 |
33 | 91 |
Gianmaria Bruni
Richard Lietz Frédéric Makowiecki |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 3'49.938 | 20.587 |
34 | 52 |
Daniel Serra
Miguel Molina Sam Bird |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 3'49.993 | 20.642 |
35 | 92 |
Kevin Estre
Neel Jani Michael Christensen |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 3'50.589 | 21.238 |
36 | 72 |
Dries Vanthoor
Alvaro Parente Maxime Martin |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 3'50.877 | 21.526 |
37 | 51 |
Alessandro Pier Guidi
James Calado Côme Ledogar |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 3'50.972 | 21.621 |
38 | 88 |
Julien Andlauer
Dominique Bastien Lance Arnold |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'51.452 | 22.101 |
39 | 388 |
Pierre Ehret
Christian Hook Jeroen Bleekemolen |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'51.959 | 22.608 |
40 | 56 |
Egidio Perfetti
Matteo Cairoli Riccardo Pera |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'52.206 | 22.855 |
41 | 63 |
Antonio Garcia
Jordan Taylor Nick Catsburg |
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R | LMGTE PRO | 3'52.209 | 22.858 |
42 | 18 |
Andrew Haryanto
Alessio Picariello Marco Seefried |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'52.371 | 23.020 |
43 | 55 |
Duncan Cameron
David Perel Matthew Griffin |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'52.382 | 23.031 |
44 | 98 |
Paul Dalla Lana
Nicki Thiim Marcos Gomes |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 3'52.385 | 23.034 |
45 | 80 |
Matteo Cressoni
Rino Mastronardi Callum Ilott |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'52.448 | 23.097 |
46 | 77 |
Christian Ried
Jaxon Evans Matt Campbell |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'52.550 | 23.199 |
47 | 777 |
Satoshi Hoshino
Tomonobu Fujii Andrew Watson |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 3'52.633 | 23.282 |
48 | 57 |
Takeshi Kimura
Scott Andrews Mikkel Jensen |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'52.663 | 23.312 |
49 | 54 |
Thomas Flohr
Giancarlo Fisichella Francesco Castellacci |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'52.795 | 23.444 |
50 | 86 |
Michael Wainwright
Benjamin Barker Tom Gamble |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'52.908 | 23.557 |
51 | 71 |
Brendan Iribe
Ollie Millroy Ben Barnicoat |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'52.923 | 23.572 |
52 | 60 |
Claudio Schiavoni
Paolo Ruberti Raffaele Giammaria |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'52.938 | 23.587 |
53 | 33 |
Ben Keating
Dylan Pereira Felipe Fraga |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 3'53.021 | 23.670 |
54 | 99 |
Harry Tincknell
Vuttikhorn Inthraphuvasak Florian Latorre |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'53.072 | 23.721 |
55 | 85 |
Rahel Frey
Sarah Bovy Michelle Gatting |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'53.220 | 23.869 |
56 | 64 |
Tommy Milner
Nick Tandy Alexander Sims |
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R | LMGTE PRO | 3'53.389 | 24.038 |
57 | 83 |
François Perrodo
Nicklas Nielsen Alessio Rovera |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'53.610 | 24.259 |
58 | 47 |
Roberto Lacorte
Giorgio Sernagiotto Antonio Fuoco |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'54.702 | 25.351 |
59 | 95 |
John Hartshorne
Ollie Hancock Ross Gunn |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 3'55.065 | 25.714 |
60 | 46 |
Dennis Olsen
Anders Buchardt Robert Foley |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'55.186 | 25.835 |
61 | 66 |
Thomas Neubauer
Rodrigo Sales Jody Fannin |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'59.912 | 30.561 |
62 | 69 |
Robert Renauer
Ralf Bohn Rolf Ineichen |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 4'01.314 | 31.963 |
View full results |
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