Fernando Alonso set the fastest time in the session, although neither of the leading Toyota TS050 Hybrids improved their laptimes from Wednesday's first qualifying.

Alonso began the session in the #8 Toyota and completed eight heavily disrupted laps caused by many incidents suffered by LMP2 and GTE machinery. 

That meant he had just two clean flying laps and he set a 3m18.021s best time on his second run, after Sven Muller put the #94 Porsche 911 RSR into the barriers on the approach at Indianapolis and caused a red flag when he hit the tyre barrier.

That meant Alonso's best lap was almost eight tenths slower than teammate Kazuki Nakajima's provisional pole time from Wednesday night.

Sebastien Buemi also lapped close to Alonso's best time, as did Jose Maria Lopez in the #7 Toyota, which went off twice in the hands of Mike Conway.

There were few improvements elsewhere LMP1, meaning that the best placed non-hybrid LMP1 car is still the #17 SMP Racing BR1 shared by Stephane Sarrazin, Egor Orudzhev and Matevos Isaakyan.

The only LMP1 contenders to improve their positions was the two Manor Ginettas, with Alex Brundle taking the #6 G60-LT-P1 up to ninth, clear of all the LMP2 runners, with a 3m24.343s lap.

Brundle's time meant he was now 1.8s slower than the ByKolles ENSO CLM P1/01 in eighth and 7.073s off the ultimate pace set by the leading Toyota.

The session was red-flagged with over half an hour remaining when Giorgio Sernagiotto crashed the #47 Villorba Corse Dallara on the approach to the first chicane, which the team attributed to a front-right puncture. The Italian emerged from the wreckage unaided.

#47 Cetilar Villorba Corse Dallara P217 Gibson: Roberto Lacorte, Giorgio Sernagiotto, Felipe Nasr

Photo by: LAT Images

Status quo in LMP2

The order at the top in LMP2 was unchanged prior to the stoppage, with only one change in the minor placings deposing the fastest Ligier to seventh. 

Paul-Loup Chatin's bechmark time from Wednesday night in the #48 IDEC Sport Oreca remained unchallenged, ahead of the #28 TDS Racing Oreca of Loic Duval.

The only major improvement was from Tristan Gommendy in the Graff-SO24 Oreca, which moved into sixth place in an incident-filled session.

Prior to Sernagiotto's accident, single-seater convert Norman Nato was fortunate to escape without damage from a high-speed spin at the Porsche Curves in the #35 SMP Dallara.

Two-time class-winner Nicolas Lapierre also broke the suspension on his #36 Signatech-Alpine at the Ford chicane and spun into the gravel, bringing out a slow zone.

Porsche still in command in GTE

Porsche maintained control of GTE Pro, as just one of the 17 cars in the class managed to improve its best time from Wednesday’s first qualifying.

That was the #93 CORE autosport-run 911 RSR, which had been seventh overnight but rose to fifth with a lap of 3m49.621s by Patrick Pilet – 2.117s slower than Gianmaria Bruni’s benchmark in the #91 Manthey Porsche.

#93 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR: Patrick Pilet, Nick Tandy, Earl Bamber

Photo by: LAT Images

The Weissach marque continues to hold a 1-2 with its two retro-liveried cars, the #91 and the #92, while Ford’s top two cars, the #66 and #68, remain on the second row.

Ferrari’s lead 488 GTE Evo, the #51 AF Corse car, has dropped to sixth as a result of Pilet’s improvement, ahead of the remaining #94 Porsche.

Ford’s eighth-placed #67 car was damaged when Andy Priaulx dipped a wheel on the grass entering Tertre Rouge, spun and hit the barriers backwards. The three-time WTCC champion was able to get back to the pits unaided despite losing a chunk of rear bodywork.

The rest of the order hasn’t changed from Wednesday, with BMW’s top car in ninth, Corvette’s best runner in 13th and Aston Martin propping up the field with its two brand-new Vantage GTEs.

In GTE Am, the two Dempsey-Proton Porsches remain first and second, but a 3m51.956s lap by Giancarlo Fisichella moved up the #54 Spirit of Race Ferrari to third place. 

The #84 JMW Motorsport Ferrari of Jeff Segal and the #99 Proton Porsche of Pat Long were the only two others to improve of the 13 runners in class.

Additional reporting by James Newbold

Full results (combined):

Pos.	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Time	Gap
1	8	Fernando Alonso   Kazuki Nakajima   Sébastien Buemi	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	16	3'17.270
2	7	Kamui Kobayashi   Mike Conway   Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	14	3'17.377	0.107
3	17	Stéphane Sarrazin   Matevos Isaakyan   Egor Orudzhev	BR Engineering BR1	LMP1	4	3'19.483	2.213
4	1	Andre Lotterer   Bruno Senna   Neel Jani	Rebellion R13	LMP1	12	3'19.662	2.392
5	3	Mathias Beche   Thomas Laurent   Gustavo Menezes	Rebellion R13	LMP1	6	3'19.945	2.675
6	10	Henrik Hedman   Renger van der Zande   Ben Hanley	BR Engineering BR1	LMP1	6	3'21.110	3.840
7	11	Jenson Button   Vitaly Petrov   Mikhail Aleshin	BR Engineering BR1	LMP1	3	3'21.408	4.138
8	4	Oliver Webb   Dominik Kraihamer   Tom Dillmann	ENSO CLM P1/01	LMP1	8	3'22.505	5.235
9	6	Oliver Turvey   Alex Brundle   Oliver Rowland	Ginetta G60-LT-P1	LMP1	13	3'24.343	7.073
10	48	Paul-Loup Chatin   Memo Rojas   Paul Lafargue	Oreca 07	LMP2	12	3'24.956	7.686
11	28	Loic Duval   François Perrodo   Matthieu Vaxiviere	Oreca 07	LMP2	11	3'25.240	7.970
12	5	Leo Roussel   Mike Simpson   Charlie Robertson	Ginetta G60-LT-P1	LMP1	8	3'25.268	7.998
13	26	Jean-Eric Vergne   Roman Rusinov   Andrea Pizzitola	Oreca 07	LMP2	15	3'26.447	9.177
14	31	Pastor Maldonado   Nathanael Berthon   Roberto Gonzalez	Oreca 07	LMP2	8	3'26.508	9.238
15	36	Nicolas Lapierre   Pierre Thiriet   Andre Negrao	Alpine A470	LMP2	10	3'26.681	9.411
16	39	Vincent Capillaire   Tristan Gommendy   Jonathan Hirschi	Oreca 07	LMP2	13	3'26.701	9.431
17	22	Paul di Resta   Filipe Albuquerque   Philip Hanson	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	15	3'26.772	9.502
18	40	Jose Gutierrez   Enzo Guibbert   James Allen	Oreca 07	LMP2	11	3'27.280	10.010
19	37	Nabil Jeffri   Weiron Tan   Jazeman Jaafar	Oreca 07	LMP2	12	3'27.468	10.198
20	47	Felipe Nasr   Roberto Lacorte   Giorgio Sernagiotto	Dallara P217	LMP2	11	3'27.993	10.723
21	38	Ho-Pin Tung   Stéphane Richelmi   Gabriel Aubry	Oreca 07	LMP2	13	3'27.999	10.729
22	23	Will Stevens   Julien Canal   Timothé Buret	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	13	3'28.008	10.738
23	32	Juan Pablo Montoya    William Owen   Hugo De Sadeleer	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	14	3'28.159	10.889
24	29	Jan Lammers   Giedo van der Garde   Frits van Eerd	Dallara P217	LMP2	11	3'28.556	11.286
25	35	Viktor Shaytar   Norman Nato   Harrison Newey	Dallara P217	LMP2	14	3'28.629	11.359
26	34	David Heinemeier Hansson  Ricky Taylor   Côme Ledogar	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	12	3'33.755	16.485
27	33	David Cheng   Nicholas Boulle   Pierre Nicolet	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	9	3'35.237	17.967
28	44	Andrea Bertolini   Tracy Krohn   Nic Jönsson	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	11	3'35.385	18.115
29	50	Thomas Dagoneau   Romano Ricci   Erwin Creed	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	12	3'38.206	20.936
30	25	Mark Patterson   Tacksung Kim   Ate de Jong	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	14	3'44.177	26.907
31	91	Gianmaria Bruni   Richard Lietz   Frédéric Makowiecki	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	12	3'47.504	30.234
32	92	Michael Christensen   Kevin Estre   Laurens Vanthoor	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	14	3'49.097	31.827
33	66	Stefan Mücke   Olivier Pla   Billy Johnson	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	8	3'49.181	31.911
34	68	Sébastien Bourdais   Joey Hand   Dirk Müller	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	11	3'49.582	32.312
35	93	Nick Tandy   Patrick Pilet   Earl Bamber	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	13	3'49.621	32.351
36	51	James Calado   Alessandro Pier Guidi   Daniel Serra	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	12	3'49.854	32.584
37	94	Romain Dumas   Timo Bernhard   Sven Muller	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	1	3'50.089	32.819
38	67	Harry Tincknell   Tony Kanaan   Andy Priaulx	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	11	3'50.429	33.159
39	82	Antonio Felix da Costa   Augusto Farfus   Alexander Sims	BMW M8 GTE	LMGTE PRO	14	3'50.579	33.309
40	69	Ryan Briscoe   Scott Dixon   Richard Westbrook	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	13	3'50.593	33.323
41	81	Nick Catsburg   Martin Tomczyk   Philipp Eng	BMW M8 GTE	LMGTE PRO	13	3'50.596	33.326
42	71	Sam Bird   Davide Rigon   Miguel Molina	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	13	3'50.669	33.399
43	88	Khaled Al Qubaisi   Matteo Cairoli   Giorgio Roda	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	9	3'50.728	33.458
44	63	Jan Magnussen   Antonio Garcia   Mike Rockenfeller	Chevrolet Corvette C7R	LMGTE PRO	12	3'50.789	33.519
45	64	Marcel Fassler   Oliver Gavin   Tommy Milner	Chevrolet Corvette C7R	LMGTE PRO	12	3'50.952	33.682
46	77	Christian Ried   Matt Campbell    Julien Andlauer	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	8	3'51.930	34.660
47	54	Giancarlo Fisichella   Francesco Castellacci   Thomas Flohr	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	13	3'51.956	34.686
48	52	Pipo Derani   Toni Vilander   Antonio Giovinazzi	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	12	3'52.112	34.842
49	97	Jonathan Adam   Maxime Martin   Alex Lynn	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE PRO	11	3'52.486	35.216
50	86	Michael Wainwright   Ben Barker   Alex Davison	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	9	3'52.517	35.247
51	56	Jörg Bergmeister   Patrick Lindsey   Egidio Perfetti	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	13	3'52.985	35.715
52	84	Jeff Segal   Liam Griffin   Cooper MacNeil	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	10	3'53.439	36.169
53	85	Jeroen Bleekemolen   Ben Keating   Luca Stolz	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	11	3'54.000	36.730
54	98	Pedro Lamy   Paul Dalla Lana   Mathias Lauda	Aston Martin Vantage	LMGTE AM	13	3'54.307	37.037
55	99	Patrick Long   Tim Pappas   Spencer Pumpelly	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	12	3'54.720	37.450
56	95	Marco Sorensen   Nicki Thiim   Darren Turner	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE PRO	11	3'54.780	37.510
57	70	Olivier Beretta   Motoaki Ishikawa    Eddie Cheever III	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	14	3'54.951	37.681
58	61	Matt Griffin   Mok Weng Sun   Keita Sawa	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	10	3'55.076	37.806
59	80	Erik Maris   Christina Nielsen   Fabio Babini	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	9	3'55.569	38.299
60	90	Salih Yoluc   Euan Hankey   Charlie Eastwood	Aston Martin Vantage	LMGTE AM	13	3'55.661	38.391