Le Mans 24h: Toyota secures front row lockout

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	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	3'15.497
2	8	Sébastien Buemi Kazuki Nakajima Fernando Alonso	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	3'15.908	0.411
3	17	Stéphane Sarrazin Egor Orudzhev Sergey Sirotkin	BR Engineering BR1	LMP1	3'16.159	0.662
4	3	Thomas Laurent Nathanael Berthon Gustavo Menezes	Rebellion R13	LMP1	3'16.404	0.907
5	11	Vitaly Petrov Mikhail Aleshin Stoffel Vandoorne	BR Engineering BR1	LMP1	3'16.665	1.168
6	1	Neel Jani Andre Lotterer Bruno Senna	Rebellion R13	LMP1	3'16.810	1.313
7	10	Henrik Hedman Ben Hanley Renger van der Zande	BR Engineering BR1	LMP1	3'20.200	4.703
8	4	Tom Dillmann Oliver Webb Paolo Ruberti	ENSO CLM P1/01	LMP1	3'23.109	7.612
9	39	Tristan Gommendy Vincent Capillaire Jonathan Hirschi	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'25.073	9.576
10	28	François Perrodo Matthieu Vaxiviere Loic Duval	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'25.345	9.848
11	31	Roberto Gonzalez Pastor Maldonado Anthony Davidson	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'25.667	10.170
12	36	Nicolas Lapierre Andre Negrao Pierre Thiriet	Alpine A470	LMP2	3'25.874	10.377
13	48	Paul Lafargue Paul-Loup Chatin Memo Rojas	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'26.011	10.514
14	26	Roman Rusinov Job Van Uitert Jean-Eric Vergne	Aurus 01	LMP2	3'26.257	10.760
15	22	Philip Hanson Filipe Albuquerque Paul di Resta	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	3'26.543	11.046
16	38	Ho-Pin Tung Stéphane Richelmi Gabriel Aubry	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'26.821	11.324
17	29	Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Nyck de Vries	Dallara P217	LMP2	3'27.107	11.610
18	32	Ryan Cullen Alex Brundle	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	3'27.509	12.012
19	20	Anders Fjordbach Dennis Andersen Mathias Beche	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'27.610	12.113
20	23	Rene Binder Julien Canal Will Stevens	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	3'27.790	12.293
21	37	David Heinemeier Hansson Jordan King Ricky Taylor	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'28.049	12.552
22	30	Nico Jamin Pierre Ragues Romain Dumas	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'28.195	12.698
23	25	David Zollinger Andrea Pizzitola John Falb	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'28.457	12.960
24	43	John Farano Arjun Maini Norman Nato	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'28.803	13.306
25	47	Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Andrea Belicchi	Dallara P217	LMP2	3'28.942	13.445
26	34	Jakub Smiechowski James Winslow Nigel Moore	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	3'30.744	15.247
27	49	Miro Konopka Henning Enqvist Konstantin Tereshchenko	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	3'34.146	18.649
28	50	Erwin Creed Romano Ricci Nicholas Boulle	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	3'34.913	19.416
29	95	Marco Sorensen Nicki Thiim Darren Turner	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE PRO	3'48.000	32.503
30	67	Andy Priaulx Harry Tincknell Jonathan Bomarito	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	3'48.112	32.615
31	63	Jan Magnussen Antonio Garcia Mike Rockenfeller	Chevrolet Corvette C7R	LMGTE PRO	3'48.830	33.333
32	93	Patrick Pilet Earl Bamber Nick Tandy	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	3'48.907	33.410
33	82	Augusto Farfus Antonio Felix da Costa Jesse Krohn	BMW M8 GTE	LMGTE PRO	3'49.108	33.611
34	68	Joey Hand Dirk Muller Sébastien Bourdais	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	3'49.116	33.619
35	92	Michael Christensen Kevin Estre Laurens Vanthoor	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	3'49.196	33.699
36	71	Davide Rigon Sam Bird Miguel Molina	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	3'49.391	33.894
37	66	Stefan Mücke Olivier Pla Billy Johnson	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	3'49.511	34.014
38	69	Ryan Briscoe Richard Westbrook Scott Dixon	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	3'49.546	34.049
39	64	Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner Marcel Fassler	Chevrolet Corvette C7R	LMGTE PRO	3'49.573	34.076
40	51	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado Daniel Serra	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	3'49.655	34.158
41	91	Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz Frédéric Makowiecki	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	3'49.921	34.424
42	97	Alex Lynn Maxime Martin Jonathan Adam	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE PRO	3'50.037	34.540
43	94	Sven Muller Mathieu Jaminet Dennis Olsen	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	3'50.278	34.781
44	81	Nick Catsburg Martin Tomczyk Philipp Eng	BMW M8 GTE	LMGTE PRO	3'51.353	35.856
45	88	Satoshi Hoshino Giorgio Roda Matteo Cairoli	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'51.439	35.942
46	89	Pipo Derani Oliver Jarvis Jules Gounon	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	3'51.454	35.957
47	77	Matt Campbell Christian Ried Julien Andlauer	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'51.645	36.148
48	86	Michael Wainwright Benjamin Barker Thomas Preining	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'51.944	36.447
49	84	Jeff Segal Rodrigo Baptista Wei Lu	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	3'52.423	36.926
50	78	Louis Prette Philippe Prette Vincent Abril	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'52.434	36.937
51	56	Jörg Bergmeister Patrick Lindsey Egidio Perfetti	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'52.750	37.253
52	54	Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Giancarlo Fisichella	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	3'52.826	37.329
53	57	Takeshi Kimura Kei Cozzolino Côme Ledogar	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	3'53.474	37.977
54	85	Ben Keating Jeroen Bleekemolen Felipe Fraga	Ford GT	LMGTE AM	3'53.492	37.995
55	60	Claudio Schiavoni Andrea Piccini Sergio Pianezzola	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	3'53.528	38.031
56	98	Paul Dalla Lana Pedro Lamy Mathias Lauda	Aston Martin Vantage	LMGTE AM	3'53.530	38.033
57	90	Salih Yoluc Euan Hankey Charles Eastwood	Aston Martin Vantage	LMGTE AM	3'53.606	38.109
58	62	Cooper MacNeil Toni Vilander Robert Smith	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	3'53.630	38.133
59	70	Motoaki Ishikawa Olivier Beretta Eddie Cheever III	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	3'54.051	38.554
60	83	Manuela Gostner Rahel Frey Michelle Gatting	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	3'54.083	38.586
61	61	Luis Perez Companc Matthew Griffin Matteo Cressoni	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	3'54.799	39.302
62	99	Tracy Krohn Nic Jönsson Patrick Long	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM
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