Le Mans 24h: Toyota dominates first qualifying session
Toyota has upped the pace in Thursday’s first qualifying session for the Le Mans 24 Hours, as the leading cars in each class qualified for Friday’s grid-deciding Hyperpole.
Toyota came out of the gates flying in Thursday’s 45-minute qualifying session, which decided on the six cars from each of the four classes advancing to the Hyperpole session, while setting the grid for the remaining positions.
Kamui Kobayashi set a time of 3m17.089s in the #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid, one tenth clear of teammate Kazuki Nakajima in the #8 sister car. Rebellion’s #1 car was 4.5 seconds behind courtesy of Bruno Senna’s 3m21.598s lap. With only five cars entered in the category, all entrants will proceed to tomorrow’s Hyperpole.
In LMP2 Will Stevens led early doors with a 3m27.097 in the #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca, narrowly beating Paul di Resta’s time in the #22 United Autosports Oreca.
Stevens was then topped by Nyck de Vries' effort in the #29 Racing Team Nederland Oreca, the Dutchman setting a 3m26.648s.
Jean-Eric Vergne secured a Hyperpole spot for the #26 G-Drive Oreca, joined by Alex Brundle’s #32 United Autosports entry and the #33 High Class Racing Oreca driven by Toyota protegé Kenta Yamashita.
Formula E champion Antonio Felix da Costa narrowly missed out in seventh in the #38 JOTA Sport entry and will start the race from that position.
In GTE Pro the Aston Martins demonstrated their raw speed by dominating the session. Marco Sorensen put the #95 Aston Martin Vantage on top with a 3m50.872, half a tenth quicker than Alex Lynn in the #97 sister car.
Alessandro Pier Guidi took third in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari, a full second behind the Aston duo, followed by Davide Rigon in the remaining AF Corse Ferrari of Davide Rigon.
Porsche pair Gianmaria Bruni and Michael Christensen secured fifth and sixth, knocking out the customer Ferraris of WeatherTech Racing and Risi Competizione.
Augusto Farfus topped GTE Am in the #98 Aston, following by Charlie Eastwood in the TF Sport Aston, Ben Barker in the #88 Gulf Racing Porsche and Come Ledogar in the #81 Luzich Ferrari. The #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche and the #98 Project 1 Porsche will join them in Friday’s Hyperpole.
Qualifying results:
| Pos. | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Time | Gap | Interval |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7 |  Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez | Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 3'17.089 | ||
| 2 | 8 |  Sebastien Buemi Kazuki Nakajima Brendon Hartley | Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 3'17.336 | 0.247 | 0.247 |
| 3 | 1 |  Bruno Senna Norman Nato Gustavo Menezes | Rebellion R13 | LMP1 | 3'21.598 | 4.509 | 4.262 |
| 4 | 4 | Tom Dillmann Bruno Spengler Oliver Webb | ENSO CLM P1/01 | LMP1 | 3'24.468 | 7.379 | 2.870 |
| 5 | 3 | Romain Dumas Nathanael Berthon Louis Deletraz | Rebellion R13 | LMP1 | 3'24.632 | 7.543 | 0.164 |
| 6 | 29 |  Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Nyck de Vries | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'26.648 | 9.559 | 2.016 |
| 7 | 37 |  Ho-Pin Tung Gabriel Aubry Will Stevens | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'27.097 | 10.008 | 0.449 |
| 8 | 22 | Philip Hanson Filipe Albuquerque Paul di Resta | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'27.148 | 10.059 | 0.051 |
| 9 | 26 |  Roman Rusinov Jean-Eric Vergne Mikkel Jensen | Aurus 01 | LMP2 | 3'27.366 | 10.277 | 0.218 |
| 10 | 32 | William Owen Alex Brundle Job Van Uitert | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'27.598 | 10.509 | 0.232 |
| 11 | 33 | Kenta Yamashita Mark Patterson Anders Fjordbach | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'27.611 | 10.522 | 0.013 |
| 12 | 38 | Anthony Davidson Antonio Felix da Costa Roberto Gonzalez | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'27.728 | 10.639 | 0.117 |
| 13 | 16 |  Ryan Cullen Oliver Jarvis Nick Tandy | Aurus 01 | LMP2 | 3'27.767 | 10.678 | 0.039 |
| 14 | 31 | Nico Jamin Julien Canal Matthieu Vaxiviere | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'27.791 | 10.702 | 0.024 |
| 15 | 36 | Andre Negrao Pierre Ragues Thomas Laurent | Alpine A470 | LMP2 | 3'27.794 | 10.705 | 0.003 |
| 16 | 27 |  Henrik Hedman Ben Hanley Renger van der Zande | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'27.913 | 10.824 | 0.119 |
| 17 | 42 | Nicolas Lapierre Antonin Borga Alexandre Coigny | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'28.509 | 11.420 | 0.596 |
| 18 | 39 |  James Allen Vincent Capillaire Charles Milesi | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'28.574 | 11.485 | 0.065 |
| 19 | 30 | Jonathan Hirschi Konstantin Tereshchenko Tristan Gommendy | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'29.091 | 12.002 | 0.517 |
| 20 | 25 | John Falb Simon Trummer Matt McMurry | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'29.402 | 12.313 | 0.311 |
| 21 | 21 |  Juan Pablo Montoya Timothe Buret Memo Rojas | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'29.741 | 12.652 | 0.339 |
| 22 | 47 |  Roberto Lacorte Andrea Belicchi Giorgio Sernagiotto | Dallara P217 | LMP2 | 3'29.880 | 12.791 | 0.139 |
| 23 | 35 | Nobuya Yamanaka Nick Foster Roberto Merhi | Ligier JSP 217 | LMP2 | 3'30.497 | 13.408 | 0.617 |
| 24 | 24 | Garett Grist Alex Kapadia Anthony Wells | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'30.897 | 13.808 | 0.400 |
| 25 | 50 | Tatiana Calderón Sophia Floersch Beitske Visser | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'31.020 | 13.931 | 0.123 |
| 26 | 34 |  Jakub Smiechowski Rene Binder Matevos Isaakyan | Ligier JSP 217 | LMP2 | 3'31.393 | 14.304 | 0.373 |
| 27 | 11 | Adrien Tambay Erik Maris Christophe d'Ansembourg | Ligier JSP 217 | LMP2 | 3'33.747 | 16.658 | 2.354 |
| 28 | 95 | Nicki Thiim Marco Sorensen Richard Westbrook | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE PRO | 3'50.872 | 33.783 | 17.125 |
| 29 | 97 | Maxime Martin Alex Lynn Harry Tincknell | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE PRO | 3'50.925 | 33.836 | 0.053 |
| 30 | 51 | Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado Daniel Serra | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 3'51.244 | 34.155 | 0.319 |
| 31 | 71 | Davide Rigon Miguel Molina Sam Bird | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 3'51.988 | 34.899 | 0.744 |
| 32 | 91 | Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz Frederic Makowiecki | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 3'52.036 | 34.947 | 0.048 |
| 33 | 92 | Michael Christensen Kevin Estre Laurens Vanthoor | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 3'52.142 | 35.053 | 0.106 |
| 34 | 63 | Cooper MacNeil Toni Vilander Jeff Segal | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 3'52.508 | 35.419 | 0.366 |
| 35 | 82 | Olivier Pla Sebastien Bourdais Jules Gounon | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 3'52.749 | 35.660 | 0.241 |
| 36 | 98 | Paul Dalla Lana Ross Gunn Augusto Farfus | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 3'52.778 | 35.689 | 0.029 |
| 37 | 90 |  Salih Yoluc Charlie Eastwood Jonathan Adam | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 3'52.961 | 35.872 | 0.183 |
| 38 | 86 | Michael Wainwright Ben Barker Andrew Watson | Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'52.970 | 35.881 | 0.009 |
| 39 | 61 | Francesco Piovanetti Oswaldo Negri Jr Come Ledogar | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'53.292 | 36.203 | 0.322 |
| 40 | 77 | Christian Ried Riccardo Pera Matt Campbell | Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'53.334 | 36.245 | 0.042 |
| 41 | 56 |  Egidio Perfetti Larry ten Voorde Matteo Cairoli | Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'53.598 | 36.509 | 0.264 |
| 42 | 83 | Francois Perrodo Emmanuel Collard Nicklas Nielsen | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'53.621 | 36.532 | 0.023 |
| 43 | 99 |  Vutthikorn Inthraphuvasak Lucas Legeret Julien Andlauer | Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'53.670 | 36.581 | 0.049 |
| 44 | 57 | Ben Keating Felipe Fraga Jeroen Bleekemolen | Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'53.838 | 36.749 | 0.168 |
| 45 | 54 | Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Giancarlo Fisichella | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'54.144 | 37.055 | 0.306 |
| 46 | 88 | Thomas Preining Dominique Bastien Adrien de Leener | Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'54.281 | 37.192 | 0.137 |
| 47 | 70 | Takeshi Kimura Vincent Abril Kei Cozzolino | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'54.628 | 37.539 | 0.347 |
| 48 | 72 |  Morris Chen Tom Blomqvist Marcos Gomes | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'55.308 | 38.219 | 0.680 |
| 49 | 55 | Duncan Cameron Aaron Scott Matt Griffin | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'55.772 | 38.683 | 0.464 |
| 50 | 75 | Rino Mastronardi Matteo Cressoni Andrea Piccini | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'56.141 | 39.052 | 0.369 |
| 51 | 66 | Richard Heistand Max Root Jan Magnussen | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'56.383 | 39.294 | 0.242 |
| 52 | 78 | Horst Felbermayr Jr. Michele Beretta Max van Splunteren | Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'56.475 | 39.386 | 0.092 |
| 53 | 85 | Manuela Gostner Rahel Frey Michelle Gatting | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'56.833 | 39.744 | 0.358 |
| 54 | 60 | Claudio Schiavoni Sergio Pianezzola Paolo Ruberti | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'57.876 | 40.787 | 1.043 |
| 55 | 62 | Bonamy Grimes Johnny Mowlem Charles Hollings | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 4'00.084 | 42.995 | 2.208 |
| 56 | 89 | Philippe Haezebrouck Julien Piguet Andreas Laskaratos | Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 4'00.691 | 43.602 | 0.607 |
| 57 | 52 | Christoph Ulrich Steffen Gorig Alexander West | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 4'01.217 | 44.128 | 0.526 |
| 58 | 17 | Dwight Merriman Kyle Tilley John Kennard | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | no time | ||
| 59 | 28 | Paul Lafargue Paul Loup Chatin Richard Bradley | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | no time |
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