Porsche tops Day 2 morning session, Toyota causes red flag

Toyota had led the way for most of the four-hour morning session by virtue of Stephane Sarrazin's early benchmark of 1m38.273s in the #6 TS050 Hybrid.

However, with around 40 minutes remaining, Kamui Kobayashi ground to a halt with a technical problem at Turn 4, bringing out the red flags, and once the session resumed it was Brendon Hartley who put the #1 Porsche on top in the dying stages.

The New Zealander set a 1m37.886s to beat Toyota by 0.387s, although this effort was still some four tenths slower than what the 919 Hybrid had achieved on Day 1 in the hands of Neel Jani.

Audi was third quickest with the #7 entry piloted by Marcel Fassler, who was 1.677s off the pace but again comfortably clear of the two Rebellion R-Ones in fourth and fifth.

Sixth fastest overall was the top LMP2 entry - Gustavo Menezes set the pace in the #36 Signatech Alpine early on with a 1m46.974s and was never headed.

The #26 G-Drive Oreca was second, seven tenths back, ahead of the #35 Signatech entry in third.

Ferrari was once again the team to beat in the GTE Pro class, with Sam Bird putting the #71 entry on top with a best time of 1m58.083 to head the sister #51 488 machine by three tenths.

Bird, however, was involved in a scrape with the Manor of Tor Graves, both cars sustaining minor damage but getting back out on the circuit later on.

Third-fastest among the GTE contingent was the top GTE Am car, the #86 Gulf Racing Porsche. Meanwhile, Paul Dalla Lana's #98 Aston suffered a puncture, bringing out the full course yellows while the debris was cleared.