24h Le Mans
The first day’s practice and qualifying sessions are now complete and there has been a feast of racing, tension and excitement for all to enjoy.
Audi continue to hold the upper hand at the moment, but the inter-team competition has been intense. 2011 race winner Andre Lotterer, in the No.1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro secured provisional pole position in the final minute of the two-hour qualifying session, displacing the marque’s most successful driver at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, eight-time winner Tom Kristensen, in the No. 2 car. The Dane had been earlier closely challenged by both his team mates and the No.7 Toyota TS 030 Hybrid but it was Loic Duval in the No.3 Audi R18 ultra who finally claimed third place. There is a scant two tenths of a second separating the top three.
The quickest of the privately-entered, non-diesel LMP1 cars was the No. 21 Strakka Racing HPD ARX 03a of Danny Watts ahead of the two Rebellion Racing Lola Toyotas. The No.16 Pescarolo 03 Judd was not able to make it out in qualifying following damage sustained in an accident towards the end of practice. An update from the Pescarolo team is expected tomorrow.
In LMP2 Christophe Tinseau laid claim to the fastest time in class early in the two-hour session in the No.46 Thiriet by TDS Racing Oreca 03 Nissan. His time of 3:39.252 places him just ahead of the No.48 Murphy Prototypes Oreca, also powered by Nissan – young New Zealander, Brendon Hartley setting the pace in that car. The first of the LMP2 HPD Hondas was third in class, the No. 44 Starworks Motorsport entry showing its intention to challenge for a second FIA World Endurance Championship class victory this year.
It took Oliver Gavin just ten minutes in the No.74 Corvette Racing C6.R to signal his intent for the race. The British four-time GT1 winner qualified at the head of the GTE-Pro class with a time of 3:55.910 to head the No. 59 Luxury Racing Ferrari of Jaime Melo and Corvette Racing team mate Jan Magnussen in the No.73 car. AF Corse’s No.51 entry of Fisichella-Bruni-Vilander was unable to challenge for pole after the car was badly damaged in a practice accident. There is much repair work to be done on the Ferrari 458 Italia before it can return to the track.
In the final minutes Sean Edwards made an improvement in the No.75 ProSpeed Competition Porsche to take himself to second place in GTE- Am, and while it narrowed the gap to the No.79 Flying Lizard Porsche, it wasn’t enough to knock Patrick Pilet’s class pole into touch. His fastest lap of 3:57.594 was half a second clear. In third place was the No.99 Aston Martin Vantage, thanks to some fine laps at the end by Dane Allan Simonsen.
The Highcroft Racing-run Nissan DeltaWing was running extremely competitively amongst the LMP2 class and up to 15th place overall at one stage. However, as the innovative car ran heavily over some kerbs it triggered both the fire extinguisher and the master electrical switch which caused the No.0 to grind to a halt out on track.
If the weather is not fair tomorrow, tonight's results could determine the starting grid for the 80th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. However, if the much-needed and much-favoured dry conditions remains, then another four hours of nail-biting qualifying will be available for all to enjoy.
The first two-hour session starts at 1900 hours, with a second two-hour qualifying at 2200 hrs.
