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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.

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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 Switzerland Sébastien Buemi
Japan Kazuki Nakajima
New Zealand Brendon Hartley
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 3'29.351
2 7 United Kingdom Mike Conway
Japan Kamui Kobayashi
Argentina Jose Maria Lopez
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 3'29.738 0.387
3 708 Brazil Pipo Derani
France Franck Mailleux
France Olivier Pla
Glickenhaus 007 LMH HYPERCAR 3'30.112 0.761
4 36 Brazil Andre Negrao
France Nicolas Lapierre
France Matthieu Vaxiviere
Alpine A480 HYPERCAR 3'30.744 1.393
5 709 Australia Ryan Briscoe
United Kingdom Richard Westbrook
France Romain Dumas
Glickenhaus 007 LMH HYPERCAR 3'31.109 1.758
6 38 Mexico Roberto Gonzalez
Portugal Antonio Felix da Costa
United Kingdom Anthony Davidson
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'32.390 3.039
7 70 Switzerland Esteban Garcia
France Loic Duval
France Norman Nato
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'32.608 3.257
8 22 United Kingdom Philip Hanson
Switzerland Fabio Scherer
Portugal Filipe Albuquerque
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'33.076 3.725
9 26 Russian Federation Roman Rusinov
Argentina Franco Colapinto
Netherlands Nyck de Vries
Aurus 01 LMP2 3'33.098 3.747
10 21 Sweden Henrik Hedman
United Kingdom Ben Hanley
Colombia Juan Pablo Montoya
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'33.416 4.065
11 41 Poland Robert Kubica
Switzerland Louis Deletraz
China Ye Yifei
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'33.545 4.194
12 31 Netherlands Robin Frijns
Austria Ferdinand Habsburg
France Charles Milesi
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'33.557 4.206
13 34 Poland Jakub Smiechowski
Netherlands Renger van der Zande
United Kingdom Alex Brundle
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'33.617 4.266
14 49 Denmark Anders Fjordbach
Denmark Jan Magnussen
Denmark Kevin Magnussen
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'33.725 4.374
15 20 Denmark Dennis Andersen
United States Ricky Taylor
Denmark Marco Sorensen
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'33.867 4.516
16 32 France Nico Jamin
South Africa Jonathan Aberdein
Venezuela Manuel Maldonado
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'33.923 4.572
17 28 Indonesia Sean Gelael
Belgium Stoffel Vandoorne
United Kingdom Tom Blomqvist
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'34.131 4.780
18 17 United States Dwight Merriman
France Thomas Laurent
United Kingdom Ryan Dalziel
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'34.171 4.820
19 23 United Kingdom Paul di Resta
United Kingdom Alex Lynn
United Kingdom Wayne Boyd
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'34.287 4.936
20 29 Netherlands Frits van Eerd
Netherlands Giedo van der Garde
Netherlands Job Van Uitert
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'34.566 5.215
21 30 Austria Rene Binder
Guillermo Rojas
France Tristan Gommendy
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'34.593 5.242
22 25 United States John Falb
Spain Roberto Merhi
Portugal Rui Andrade
Aurus 01 LMP2 3'34.779 5.428
23 65 France Julien Canal
United Kingdom Will Stevens
Australia James Allen
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'35.263 5.912
24 82 Ireland Ryan Cullen
United Kingdom Oliver Jarvis
Brazil Felipe Nasr
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'35.696 6.345
25 44 Slovakia Miro Konopka
United Kingdom Oliver Webb
Slovakia Matej Konopka
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'36.779 7.428
26 24 United States Patrick Kelly
France Gabriel Aubry
Switzerland Simon Trummer
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'36.935 7.584
27 1 Colombia Tatiana Calderon
Germany Sophia Flörsch
Netherlands Beitske Visser
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'37.248 7.897
28 84 Takuma Aoki
Belgium Nigel Bailly
France Matthieu Lahaye
Oreca 07 INNOVATIVE CAR 3'37.708 8.357
29 48 France Paul Lafargue
France Paul-Loup Chatin
France Patrick Pilet
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'39.361 10.010
30 39 France Vincent Capillaire
Arnold Robin
France Maxime Robin
Oreca 07 LMP2 3'40.003 10.652
31 79 United States Cooper MacNeil
New Zealand Earl Bamber
Belgium Laurens Vanthoor
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE PRO 3'49.018 19.667
32 74 United Kingdom James Winslow
Australia John Corbett
Tom Cloet
Ligier JSP 217 LMP2 3'49.894 20.543
33 91 Italy Gianmaria Bruni
Austria Richard Lietz
France Frédéric Makowiecki
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE PRO 3'49.938 20.587
34 52 Brazil Daniel Serra
Spain Miguel Molina
United Kingdom Sam Bird
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 3'49.993 20.642
35 92 France Kevin Estre
Switzerland Neel Jani
Denmark Michael Christensen
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE PRO 3'50.589 21.238
36 72 Belgium Dries Vanthoor
Portugal Alvaro Parente
Belgium Maxime Martin
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE PRO 3'50.877 21.526
37 51 Italy Alessandro Pier Guidi
United Kingdom James Calado
France Côme Ledogar
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 3'50.972 21.621
38 88 France Julien Andlauer
United States Dominique Bastien
Lance Arnold
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 3'51.452 22.101
39 388 Germany Pierre Ehret
Germany Christian Hook
Netherlands Jeroen Bleekemolen
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'51.959 22.608
40 56 Norway Egidio Perfetti
Italy Matteo Cairoli
Italy Riccardo Pera
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 3'52.206 22.855
41 63 Spain Antonio Garcia
United States Jordan Taylor
Netherlands Nick Catsburg
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R LMGTE PRO 3'52.209 22.858
42 18 Indonesia Andrew Haryanto
Belgium Alessio Picariello
Germany Marco Seefried
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 3'52.371 23.020
43 55 United Kingdom Duncan Cameron
South Africa David Perel
Ireland Matthew Griffin
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'52.382 23.031
44 98 Canada Paul Dalla Lana
Denmark Nicki Thiim
Brazil Marcos Gomes
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 3'52.385 23.034
45 80 Italy Matteo Cressoni
Italy Rino Mastronardi
United Kingdom Callum Ilott
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'52.448 23.097
46 77 Germany Christian Ried
Australia Jaxon Evans
Australia Matt Campbell
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 3'52.550 23.199
47 777 Japan Satoshi Hoshino
Japan Tomonobu Fujii
United Kingdom Andrew Watson
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 3'52.633 23.282
48 57 Japan Takeshi Kimura
Australia Scott Andrews
Denmark Mikkel Jensen
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'52.663 23.312
49 54 Switzerland Thomas Flohr
Italy Giancarlo Fisichella
Italy Francesco Castellacci
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'52.795 23.444
50 86 United Kingdom Michael Wainwright
United Kingdom Benjamin Barker
United Kingdom Tom Gamble
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 3'52.908 23.557
51 71 Brendan Iribe
United Kingdom Ollie Millroy
United Kingdom Ben Barnicoat
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'52.923 23.572
52 60 Italy Claudio Schiavoni
Italy Paolo Ruberti
Italy Raffaele Giammaria
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'52.938 23.587
53 33 United States Ben Keating
Dylan Pereira
Brazil Felipe Fraga
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 3'53.021 23.670
54 99 United Kingdom Harry Tincknell
Vuttikhorn Inthraphuvasak
Florian Latorre
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 3'53.072 23.721
55 85 Switzerland Rahel Frey
Belgium Sarah Bovy
Denmark Michelle Gatting
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'53.220 23.869
56 64 United States Tommy Milner
United Kingdom Nick Tandy
United Kingdom Alexander Sims
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R LMGTE PRO 3'53.389 24.038
57 83 France François Perrodo
Denmark Nicklas Nielsen
Italy Alessio Rovera
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'53.610 24.259
58 47 Italy Roberto Lacorte
Italy Giorgio Sernagiotto
Italy Antonio Fuoco
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'54.702 25.351
59 95 United Kingdom John Hartshorne
Ollie Hancock
United Kingdom Ross Gunn
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 3'55.065 25.714
60 46 Norway Dennis Olsen
Norway Anders Buchardt
Robert Foley
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 3'55.186 25.835
61 66 France Thomas Neubauer
United States Rodrigo Sales
United Kingdom Jody Fannin
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'59.912 30.561
62 69 Germany Robert Renauer
Germany Ralf Bohn
Switzerland Rolf Ineichen
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 4'01.314 31.963

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Edition

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