Practice report
WEC 24 Hours of Le Mans
Webber fastest for Porsche in opening Le Mans practice
Porsche draws first blood at Le Mans in the pre-qualifying Le Mans practice.
Sam Smith
Edited: Jun 10, 2015, 11:24 PM
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Mark Webber emerged quickest in free practice at Le Mans this evening setting a time of 3m21.362s, which eclipsed the 2014 pole time. The four hour session was punctuated by several rain showers which broke up the leading team critical evaluation of slick rubber over full stints.
Audi trails Porsche
The No.17 Porsche 919 Hybrid headed the way, leading the No.8 Audi by just over half a second. Romain Dumas in the No.18 Porsche had initially made it a Porsche 1-2-3 and had also beaten last year's pole-position time but had his quickest time deleted at the end of the session after he cut a chicane while overtaking a Ferrari GTE car. This ensured there next best time was only good enough for third overall.
The No.19 Porsche driven by Nick Tandy placed fourth fastest. The British racer who is making his LMP Le Mans debut took over the car from Kiwi, Earl Bamber who had earlier skidded in to the first Mulsanne Chicane gravel trap. Bamber was towed out under a Slow Zone caution and returned to the pits with a largely undamaged car.
The best Toyota was the defending WEC champion car driven by Anthony Davidson, Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima. The TS 040 though was just over 3.5 seconds away from the ultimate pace.
The much heralded Nissan GT-R LM NISMOs finished 12th, 13th and 14th overall and behind the leading LMP2 entry of the KCMG team. The No.21 Nissan, in the popular retro 1990 livery, saw Studio Matsuda head his team mates.
KCMG tops LMP2
Richard Bradley set the best LMP2 time for the Hong Kong entered KCMG Oreca-Nissan. The Asian based British driver set a best of 3m39.897s in the electric blue LMP2 coupe despite the car causing the first of two red flags when it stopped with a water pressure problem in the first five minutes of the session.
A last ditch effort from Spa and Nurburgring 24 Hour winner - Laurens Vanthoor made sure the OAK Racing entered and Honda-powered Ligier JS P2 claimed second place in class ahead of the Thiriet by TDS Racing ORECA-Nissan and Greaves Motorsport Gibson 015S.
Aston heads GTE classes
Aston Martin Racing easily headed both of the LMGTE classes this evening.
A succession of fast laps from GP2 racer Richie Stanaway saw the Kiwi peak on a 3m55.895s to put the No.99 Aston Martin Vantage over 1.5s clear of the No.64 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R.
Pedro Lamy’s 3m58.783s in the GTE Am Aston was clearly the fastest in the LMGTE Am class tonight. The ex Lotus and Minardi F1 racer was almost three seconds faster than the Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR driven by Patrick Long.
The first qualifying session gets underway at 22.00 local time.
Practice results
Cla No. Driver Car / Engine Time Delay Laps km/h 1 17 Timo Bernhard
Mark Webber
Brendon Hartley Porsche 3'21.362 39 243.662 2 8 Lucas di Grassi
Loïc Duval
Oliver Jarvis Audi 3'21.950 0.588 47 242.953 3 18 Romain Dumas
Neel Jani
Marc Lieb Porsche 3'22.059 0.697 43 242.822 4 19 Nico Hülkenberg
Earl Bamber
Nick Tandy Porsche 3'22.819 1.457 24 241.912 5 7 Marcel Fässler
André Lotterer
Benoît Tréluyer Audi 3'23.051 1.689 49 241.635 6 9 F.Albuquerque
Marco Bonanomi
René Rast Audi 3'23.480 2.118 46 241.126 7 1 Anthony Davidson
Sébastien Buemi
Kazuki Nakajima Toyota 3'24.763 3.401 41 239.615 8 2 Alexander Wurz
S.Sarrazin
Mike Conway Toyota 3'25.537 4.175 37 238.713 9 12 Nicolas Prost
Mathias Beche
Nick Heidfeld Rebellion/AER 3'28.441 7.079 36 235.387 10 13 A.Imperatori
D.Kraihamer
Daniel Abt Rebellion/AER 3'33.176 11.814 36 230.159 11 47 Matt Howson
Richard Bradley
Nicolas Lapierre ORECA/Nissan 3'39.897 18.535 17 223.124 12 21 Tsugio Matsuda
M.Shulzhitskiy
Lucas Ordóñez Nissan 3'40.332 18.970 19 222.683 13 23 Olivier Pla
J.Mardenborough
Max Chilton Nissan 3'40.429 19.067 16 222.585 14 22 Harry Tincknell
Michael Krumm
Alex Buncombe Nissan 3'41.302 19.940 19 221.707 15 34 Chris Cumming
Laurens Vanthoor
Kévin Estre Ligier/HPD 3'41.311 19.949 34 221.698 16 46 Pierre Thiriet
Tristan Gommendy
Ludovic Badey ORECA/Nissan 3'41.742 20.380 35 221.267 17 41 Gary Hirsch
Gaëtan Paletou
Jon Lancaster Gibson/Nissan 3'42.163 20.801 34 220.848 18 26 Roman Rusinov
Julien Canal
Sam Bird Ligier/Nissan 3'42.641 21.279 24 220.374 19 30 Scott Sharp
Ryan Dalziel
David Hansson Ligier/HPD 3'43.344 21.982 24 219.680 20 42 Nick Leventis
Danny Watts
Jonny Kane Dome/Nissan 3'43.948 22.586 25 219.088 21 29 Leo Roussel
David Cheng
Ho-Pin Tung Morgan/Nissan 3'43.990 22.628 25 219.047 22 37 Mikhail Aleshin
Kirill Ladygin
Anton Ladygin BR Engineering/Nissan 3'44.482 23.120 27 218.567 23 43 Pierre Ragues
Oliver Webb
Zoel Amberg Morgan/SARD 3'44.767 23.405 34 218.290 24 28 Gustavo Yacamán
Luis Derani
Ricardo González Ligier/Nissan 3'44.794 23.432 31 218.263 25 36 N.Panciatici
Paul-Loup Chatin
V.Capillaire Alpine/Nissan 3'44.807 23.445 17 218.251 26 27 Maurizio Mediani
Devi Markozov
N.Minassian BR Engineering/Nissan 3'45.233 23.871 28 217.838 27 38 Simon Dolan
Mitchell Evans
Oliver Turvey Gibson/Nissan 3'45.291 23.929 33 217.782 28 4 Simon Trummer
Pierre Kaffer
Tiago Monteiro CLM/AER 3'45.873 24.511 21 217.221 29 45 Pierre Perret
Ivan Bellarosa
José Ibanez ORECA/Nissan 3'47.893 26.531 28 215.295 30 31 Ed Brown
J.van Overbeek
Jon Fogarty Ligier/HPD 3'48.150 26.788 25 215.053 31 40 Tracy Krohn
Nic Jönsson
João Barbosa Ligier/Judd 3'48.840 27.478 34 214.404 32 48 Karun Chandhok
Mark Patterson
N.Berthon ORECA/Nissan 3'49.427 28.065 12 213.856 33 35 Jacques Nicolet
Jean-Marc Merlin
Erik Maris Ligier/HPD 3'52.979 31.617 26 210.595 34 99 Fernando Rees
Alex MacDowall
Richie Stanaway Aston Martin 3'55.895 34.533 35 207.992 35 64 Oliver Gavin
Tommy Milner
Jordan Taylor Chevrolet 3'57.539 36.177 24 206.553 36 97 Darren Turner
Stefan Mücke
Rob Bell Aston Martin 3'58.448 37.086 28 205.765 37 92 Patrick Pilet
F.Makowiecki
Wolf Henzler Porsche 3'58.469 37.107 27 205.747 38 63 Jan Magnussen
Antonio García
Ryan Briscoe Chevrolet 3'58.501 37.139 25 205.719 39 98 Paul Dalla Lana
Pedro Lamy
Mathias Lauda Aston Martin 3'58.783 37.421 29 205.476 40 71 Davide Rigon
James Calado
Olivier Beretta Ferrari 3'59.653 38.291 26 204.731 41 91 Richard Lietz
M.Christensen
Jörg Bergmeister Porsche 3'59.892 38.530 21 204.527 42 95 Marco Sørensen
C.Nygaard
Nicki Thiim Aston Martin 4'00.034 38.672 21 204.406 43 51 Gianmaria Bruni
Toni Vilander
G.Fisichella Ferrari 4'00.082 38.720 28 204.365 44 77 Patrick Dempsey
Patrick Long
Marco Seefried Porsche 4'01.611 40.249 30 203.071 45 88 Christian Ried
K.Al Qubaisi
Klaus Bachler Porsche 4'02.029 40.667 25 202.721 46 50 Gianluca Roda
Paolo Ruberti
Kristian Poulsen Chevrolet 4'02.332 40.970 21 202.467 47 83 François Perrodo
Emmanuel Collard
Rui Águas Ferrari 4'02.637 41.275 26 202.213 48 53 J.Bleekemolen
Ben Keating
Marc Miller SRT/Dodge 4'03.287 41.925 12 201.672 49 62 Bill Sweedler
Townsend Bell
Jeff Segal Ferrari 4'03.799 42.437 28 201.249 50 61 Peter Mann
R.Giammaria
Matteo Cressoni Ferrari 4'03.840 42.478 25 201.215 51 66 A.Al Faisal
Kuba Giermaziak
Michael Avenatti Ferrari 4'04.367 43.005 25 200.781 52 72 Viktor Shaitar
Andrea Bertolini
Aleksey Basov Ferrari 4'05.137 43.775 21 200.150 53 55 Duncan Cameron
Matt Griffin
Alex Mortimer Ferrari 4'05.319 43.957 27 200.002 54 96 Roald Goethe
Stuart Hall
F.Castellacci Aston Martin 4'05.550 44.188 26 199.814 55 67 Jun San Chen
Alex Kapadia
Xavier Maassen Porsche 4'05.787 44.425 29 199.621 56 68 Han Chen Chen
Gilles Vannelet
Mike Parisy Porsche 4'06.704 45.342 21 198.879
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