Le Mans 24h: Toyota secures front row lockout
Toyota secured a front row lockout after final qualifying with its pair of TS050 Hybrids for the Le Mans 24 Hours, as its privateer rivals failed to best its times from the earlier session.

Kamui Kobayashi's best time from second qualifying in the #7 Toyota, a 3m15.497s, went unbeaten in the final two-hour session, as neither of the TS050 Hybrids improved on their earlier efforts.
It gives the Japanese driver, who shares the #7 machine with Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez, a second pole at La Sarthe in three years.
Kazuki Nakajima set the quickest time in the #8 Toyota of 3m15.908s, 0.411s shy of Kobayashi.
Both of SMP Racing's AER-powered BR Engineering BR1s set new personal bests in the early stages of final qualifying, narrowing the gap slightly to the two Toyotas.
Egor Orudzhev secured third on the grid in the #17 car with a 3m16.159s, going seven tenths clear of the #11 car of Stoffel Vandoorne but still 0.682s shy of Kobayashi's benchmark.
Rebellion denied privateer LMP1 rival SMP a second-row lockout however when Gustavo Menezes posted a 3m16.404s in the #3 R-13-Gibson after a red flag delay caused by the #1 car.
Bruno Senna was at the wheel of the #1 when it suffered an engine blow-up before parking up at Arnage and causing a delay of some 15 minutes. Andre Lotterer had earlier improved the car's best time to a 3m16.810s, two tenths behind the second SMP car.
DragonSpeed's Gulf-liveried BR1 will start seventh thanks to Ben Hanley's time in first qualifying, which was 4.703s off the pace but still 2.9s up on the ByKolles ENSO CLM P1/01.
LMP2: Graff edges TDS for pole
The French Graff squad came out on top in the battle for LMP2 class honours, as Tristan Gommendy edged out TDS Racing rival Loic Duval.
Gommendy set a best lap of 3m25.073s to lead an all-Oreca top six in the Michelin-shod #39 car, beating Duval's Dunlop-shod #28 machine by 0.272s and Pastor Maldonado in the #31 DragonSpeed car, also on Michelins, by 0.594s.

#39 Graff Racing S24 Oreca 07 Gibson: Vincent Capillaire, Jonathan Hirschi, Tristan Gommendy
Photo by: Alexander Trienitz
Nicolas Lapierre left it until the dying moments of the session to move up to fourth in the FIA World Endurance Championship LMP2 points-leading Signatech Alpine, ahead of the #48 IDEC Sport car, of Paul-Loup Chatin and the G-Drive Aurus-branded Oreca driven by Jean-Eric Vergne.
Best of the non-Orecas was once again the #22 United Autosports Ligier in seventh.
GTE: Aston Martin beats Ford, Corvette
Aston Martin secured pole in the GTE Pro class ahead of Ford, Corvette and Porsche.
Marco Sorensen was at the wheel of the #95 Vantage GTE for a lap of 3m48.000s, which was enough to beat Harry Tincknell in the #67 Ford GT by just 0.112s and Antonio Garcia in the #63 Corvette C7.R by 0.830s.

#95 Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR: Marco Sorensen, Nicki Thiim, Darren Turner
Photo by: Marc Fleury
The best of the Porsche 911 RSRs was one of the CORE autosport-run IMSA cars, the #93 machine of Nick Tandy in fourth, which had been third until Garcia's last-gasp improvement.
BMW made it five different manufacturers in the top five thanks to Augusto Farfus's best lap in the #82 M8 GTE, but the sister machine was left down in 16th after Nicky Catsburg crashed at the Ford chicane.
Ferrari's top representative was the #71 488 GTE of Sam Bird in eighth, behind the #66 Ford GT of late improver Dirk Muller and the WEC points-leading #92 Porsche driven by Michael Christensen.
Porsche locked out the top three places in GTE Am, with Matteo Cairoli clinching pole for the #88 Dempsey-Proton car with a best time of 3m51.439s.
Matt Campbell was around two tenths slower in the sister #77 car, while Thomas Preining made a late move up to third in the #86 Gulf Racing Porsche, demoting the best of the Ferraris, the #84 JMW Motorsport car.
Qualifying results:
Cla | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 7 | |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 3'15.497 | |
2 | 8 | |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 3'15.908 | 0.411 |
3 | 17 | |
BR Engineering BR1 | LMP1 | 3'16.159 | 0.662 |
4 | 3 | |
Rebellion R13 | LMP1 | 3'16.404 | 0.907 |
5 | 11 | |
BR Engineering BR1 | LMP1 | 3'16.665 | 1.168 |
6 | 1 | |
Rebellion R13 | LMP1 | 3'16.810 | 1.313 |
7 | 10 | |
BR Engineering BR1 | LMP1 | 3'20.200 | 4.703 |
8 | 4 | |
ENSO CLM P1/01 | LMP1 | 3'23.109 | 7.612 |
9 | 39 | |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'25.073 | 9.576 |
10 | 28 | |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'25.345 | 9.848 |
11 | 31 | |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'25.667 | 10.170 |
12 | 36 | |
Alpine A470 | LMP2 | 3'25.874 | 10.377 |
13 | 48 | |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'26.011 | 10.514 |
14 | 26 | |
Aurus 01 | LMP2 | 3'26.257 | 10.760 |
15 | 22 | |
Ligier JSP 217 | LMP2 | 3'26.543 | 11.046 |
16 | 38 | |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'26.821 | 11.324 |
17 | 29 | |
Dallara P217 | LMP2 | 3'27.107 | 11.610 |
18 | 32 | |
Ligier JSP 217 | LMP2 | 3'27.509 | 12.012 |
19 | 20 | |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'27.610 | 12.113 |
20 | 23 | |
Ligier JSP 217 | LMP2 | 3'27.790 | 12.293 |
21 | 37 | |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'28.049 | 12.552 |
22 | 30 | |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'28.195 | 12.698 |
23 | 25 | |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'28.457 | 12.960 |
24 | 43 | |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'28.803 | 13.306 |
25 | 47 | |
Dallara P217 | LMP2 | 3'28.942 | 13.445 |
26 | 34 | |
Ligier JSP 217 | LMP2 | 3'30.744 | 15.247 |
27 | 49 | |
Ligier JSP 217 | LMP2 | 3'34.146 | 18.649 |
28 | 50 | |
Ligier JSP 217 | LMP2 | 3'34.913 | 19.416 |
29 | 95 | |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE PRO | 3'48.000 | 32.503 |
30 | 67 | |
Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 3'48.112 | 32.615 |
31 | 63 | |
Chevrolet Corvette C7R | LMGTE PRO | 3'48.830 | 33.333 |
32 | 93 | |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 3'48.907 | 33.410 |
33 | 82 | |
BMW M8 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 3'49.108 | 33.611 |
34 | 68 | |
Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 3'49.116 | 33.619 |
35 | 92 | |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 3'49.196 | 33.699 |
36 | 71 | |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 3'49.391 | 33.894 |
37 | 66 | |
Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 3'49.511 | 34.014 |
38 | 69 | |
Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 3'49.546 | 34.049 |
39 | 64 | |
Chevrolet Corvette C7R | LMGTE PRO | 3'49.573 | 34.076 |
40 | 51 | |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 3'49.655 | 34.158 |
41 | 91 | |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 3'49.921 | 34.424 |
42 | 97 | |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE PRO | 3'50.037 | 34.540 |
43 | 94 | |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 3'50.278 | 34.781 |
44 | 81 | |
BMW M8 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 3'51.353 | 35.856 |
45 | 88 | |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'51.439 | 35.942 |
46 | 89 | |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 3'51.454 | 35.957 |
47 | 77 | |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'51.645 | 36.148 |
48 | 86 | |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'51.944 | 36.447 |
49 | 84 | |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE AM | 3'52.423 | 36.926 |
50 | 78 | |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'52.434 | 36.937 |
51 | 56 | |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'52.750 | 37.253 |
52 | 54 | |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE AM | 3'52.826 | 37.329 |
53 | 57 | |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE AM | 3'53.474 | 37.977 |
54 | 85 | |
Ford GT | LMGTE AM | 3'53.492 | 37.995 |
55 | 60 | |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE AM | 3'53.528 | 38.031 |
56 | 98 | |
Aston Martin Vantage | LMGTE AM | 3'53.530 | 38.033 |
57 | 90 | |
Aston Martin Vantage | LMGTE AM | 3'53.606 | 38.109 |
58 | 62 | |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE AM | 3'53.630 | 38.133 |
59 | 70 | |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE AM | 3'54.051 | 38.554 |
60 | 83 | |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE AM | 3'54.083 | 38.586 |
61 | 61 | |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE AM | 3'54.799 | 39.302 |
62 | 99 | |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | ||
View full results |
Le Mans 24h: Toyota sweeps front row in second qualifying
Kobayashi "quite disappointed" by Le Mans pole time
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