Separated into two groups, the first cars to take the track were the LM GTEs. 

Ferrari the fastest in LM GTE

At its first appearance in Europe, the new Ferrari 488 Italia performed very well in LM GTE Pro. Sam Bird and Davide Rigon were the fastest in the No. 71 entered by AF Corse. It was ahead of the No. 77 Porsche of Dempsey Proton Racing driven by Christensen / Lietz. Another first took place: the first laps of the Ford GT in a European race and the two American cars definitely showed well. Olivier Pla, at the wheel of the No. 66 clocked the third best time and its sister car the No. 67 the fourth! The last two spots were taken by the two Aston Martin Vantages, and the No. 51 Ferrari (488 AF Corse) experienced mechanical problems. Yet, James Calado had achieved the fastest lap.

In LM GTE Am, the Porsches (No. 88 of Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing and No. 78 of KCMG) came in ahead of Larbre Compétition's No. 50 Corvette C7.R which had actually been the fastest for some time. In this class as well the Aston Martin V8 Vantage was in last place!

LM P1: Audi surprises everyone

Though Porsche dominated yesterday's two free practice sessions, Audi scored pole position in the LM P1 class and even a one-two in qualifying. Indeed Audi Sport Team Joest's No. 7 Audi R18 driven by Marcel Fässler-André Lotterer-Benoît Tréluyer came in ahead of the No. 8 Audi driven by Lucas di Grassi-Loïc Duval-Oliver Jarvis. The Porsche 919 Hybrids (No. 1 ahead of No. 2) followed but at more than nine-tenths from the Audis, and the Toyotas (TS050-Hybrid) came in far behind those two manufacturers due to turbo and electrical problems, at nearly five seconds.

In LM P2, the best time went to G-Drive Racing's No. 26 Oreca 05 Nissan driven by Roman Rusinov-Nathanaël Berthon-René Rast ahead by more than a full second of the two Ligier JS P2s: the No. 31 of Extreme Speed Motorsports and the No. 43 of GRG Sport By Morand. The No. 27 BR 01 Nissan came in fourth and the No. 36 Alpine A460 ended up in seventh place!

The six-hour race will start on Sunday, April 17th at noon. 

David Bristol /ACO - Translation by Nikki Ehrhardt / ACO