Le Mans 24 Hours: Rain seals back-to-back poles for Jani and Porsche
Neel Jani took a second consecutive pole position for Porsche at the Le Mans 24 Hours after rain washed out much of the final qualifying session.
Photo by: Eric Gilbert
The #2 Porsche 919 Hybrid’s time of 3m19.733s was set in the first qualifying session by Jani on Wednesday evening, and due to the erratic weather on Thursday was never challenged.
It gave the Swiss driver back-to-poles, along with teammates Romain Dumas and Marc Lieb.
Timo Bernhard’s 3m20.203s lap in the #1 car he shares with Brendon Hartley and Mark Webber, also set on Wednesday, ensured that Porsche locks out the front row for Saturday's race. The Weissach marque repeated its qualifying result from last year.
Unlike last season’s qualifying, however, Toyota annexed the second row of the grid as the all-new turbocharged TS 050 Hybrid made significant improvements on its 2015 showing.
Stephane Sarrazin and Anthony Davidson's times from first qualifying put the #6 car ahead of the #5, the former lapping just over a second off the pace.
The #6 car was the fastest in the wet in the final qualifying session, former F1 star Kamui Kobayashi posting a best time of 3m50.934s.
Audi had a qualifying to forget, and perhaps lost out most from the poor weather due to lost dry track time for both of its R18 e-tron quattro cars.
The #7 entry driven by Andre Lotterer, Marcel Fassler and Benoit Treluyer was never able to get a comfortable set-up to exploit the best of the conditions. As a result, they will start fifth.
Just behind came the #8 Audi, which had lapped quicker than its sister car. However, Lucas di Grassi’s best time of 3m22.468s was deleted after the car was found to have breached the limit of fuel consumption, and it lost a position to the #7.
Rebellion Racing starts the race on the fourth row, with the #13 Rebellion R-One-AER car outpacing the #12 entry.
The Swiss team's only competition in the privateer LMP1 class, ByKolles, starts ninth after effecting fire-damage repairs overnight, and setting a time eight seconds slower than the lead Rebellion.
G-Drive secures LMP2 pole
G-Drive Racing celebrated top spot in the LMP2 category, as Rene Rast claimed a clear pole position in the JOTA Sport-run Oreca #26 05-Nissan.
The works Audi driver, who is loaned out to G-Drive this season, set two laps which would have been good enough for pole in the car he shares with ex-Manor F1 driver Will Stevens and reigning WEC LMP2 champion Roman Rusinov.
As expected, the Oreca 05-Nissan package controlled the category and claimed the top four places. with the two Signatech-run, Alpine-branded #35 and #36 cars taking second and third places. Nelson Panciatici and Nicolas Lapierre set the times respectively.
Roberto Merhi’s late session time on Wednesday evening in the #44 Manor Oreca was good enough for fourth place on the team's La Sarthe debut, while Laurens Vanthoor’s effort in the Michael Shank Racing entry ensured the American team was the best placed Ligier runner in fifth.
Ford sweeps front row in GTE
The LMGTE Pro class saw Ford take a headline-grabbing and controversial 1-2-4-5 on its first appearance at Le Mans as a works team for 34 years.
Dirk Muller’s time of 3m51.185s in the #68 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Team USA-entered car (also driven by Joey Hand and Sebastien Bourdais) beat Ryan Briscoe’s 3m51.497s late on in first qualifying.
With the UK-based Ford GTs placing fourth and fifth, it was an ultra-successful resumption of the Ford story at La Sarthe, Muller's pole adding to previous overall poles for Ford entries in 1965, 1966 and 1967.
The Ford vs Ferrari legend also looks set to be renewed as the #51 AF Corse 488 GTE of Gianmaria Bruni, James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi will start third with a lap that was just 0.383s off the pole time.
The LMGTE Pro class was effectively split in to two, as the Fords and Ferraris annexed the top seven positions, while the rest – including both works Porsches, Corvettes and Aston Martins – were well adrift.
LMGTE Am sees the #61 Clearwater Racing Ferrari 458 Italia of Rob Bell, Keita Sawa and Mok Weng start from pole ahead of the #98 Aston Martin trio Pedro Lamy, Mathias Lauda and Paul Dalla Lana.
Rain spoils final session
Parts of the La Sarthe track were flooded when a downpour hit the track after 12 minutes of the final two-hour session.
Many cars didn’t bother venturing out, but with equally poor weather forecast for Saturday, some teams took the opportunity to try wet settings.
But the steady rain soon became torrential and the red flag flew as some cars lost control due to aquaplaning. Matteo Mallucelli had the most lurid gyration as his Risi Competizione Ferrari completed a high-speed 360 degree spin on the approach to the Dunlop chicane.
The session was actually resumed for the final 45 minutes, and although the track dried out slowly, the times being set were a long way from challenging those set in the previous sessions.
Qualifying times:
| Pos. | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 |  Romain Dumas  Neel Jani  Marc Lieb |
Porsche 919 Hybrid | LMP1 | 3'19.733 | |
| 2 | 1 |  Mark Webber Timo Bernhard  Brendon Hartley |
Porsche 919 Hybrid | LMP1 | 3'20.203 | 0.470 |
| 3 | 6 | Stéphane Sarrazin  Kamui Kobayashi  Mike Conway |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 3'20.737 | 1.004 |
| 4 | 5 | Anthony Davidson Kazuki Nakajima Sébastien Buemi |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 3'21.903 | 2.170 |
| 5 | 7 | Andre Lotterer Marcel Fassler Benoit Tréluyer |
Audi R18 | LMP1 | 3'22.780 | 3.047 |
| 6 | 8 |  Lucas di Grassi Loic Duval Oliver Jarvis |
Audi R18 | LMP1 | 3'22.823 | 3.090 |
| 7 | 13 | Alexandre Imperatori  Dominik Kraihamer Matheo Tuscher |
Rebellion R-One | LMP1 | 3'26.586 | 6.853 |
| 8 | 12 | Nick Heidfeld Nelson Piquet Jr. Nicolas Prost |
Rebellion R-One | LMP1 | 3'27.348 | 7.615 |
| 9 | 4 |
|
CLM P1/01 | LMP1 | 3'34.168 | 14.435 |
| 10 | 26 | Will Stevens  Roman Rusinov René Rast |
Oreca 05 | LMP2 | 3'36.605 | 16.872 |
| 11 | 35 | Nelson Panciatici  Ho-Pin Tung David Cheng |
Alpine A460 | LMP2 | 3'37.175 | 17.442 |
| 12 | 36 | Nicolas Lapierre  Gustavo Menezes  Stéphane Richelmi |
Alpine A460 | LMP2 | 3'37.225 | 17.492 |
| 13 | 44 |  Roberto Merhi  Tor Graves Matthew Rao |
Oreca 05 | LMP2 | 3'38.037 | 18.304 |
| 14 | 49 |  Laurens Vanthoor John Pew Oswaldo Negri Jr |
Ligier JS P2 | LMP2 | 3'38.837 | 19.104 |
| 15 | 31 | Pipo Derani Ryan Dalziel  Chris Cumming |
Ligier JS P2 | LMP2 | 3'39.366 | 19.633 |
| 16 | 46 | Mathias Beche Pierre Thiriet Ryo Hirakawa |
Oreca 05 | LMP2 | 3'39.375 | 19.642 |
| 17 | 42 | Nick Leventis Danny Watts Jonny Kane |
Gibson 015S | LMP2 | 3'39.394 | 19.661 |
| 18 | 47 | Matthew Howson Richard Bradley Tsugio Matsuda |
Oreca 05 | LMP2 | 3'39.436 | 19.703 |
| 19 | 23 | Paul-Loup Chatin Fabien Barthez Timothé Buret |
Ligier JS P2 | LMP2 | 3'39.470 | 19.737 |
| 20 | 33 | Tristan Gommendy Pu Junjin  Nick de Bruijn |
Oreca 05 | LMP2 | 3'40.631 | 20.898 |
| 21 | 38 | Giedo van der Garde Simon Dolan Jake Dennis |
Gibson 015S | LMP2 | 3'40.685 | 20.952 |
| 22 | 43 | Bruno Senna  Ricardo Gonzalez  Filipe Albuquerque |
Ligier JS P2 | LMP2 | 3'40.899 | 21.166 |
| 23 | 27 |  Maurizio Mediani Nicolas Minassian Mikhail Aleshin |
BR01 | LMP2 | 3'41.132 | 21.399 |
| 24 | 28 | Leo Roussel Inès Taittinger Remy Striebig |
Morgan | LMP2 | 3'41.285 | 21.552 |
| 25 | 30 | Scott Sharp Ed Brown Johannes van Overbeek |
Ligier JS P2 | LMP2 | 3'41.406 | 21.673 |
| 26 | 37 | Vitaly Petrov Viktor Shaytar Kirill Ladygin |
BR01 | LMP2 | 3'41.776 | 22.043 |
| 27 | 25 |
|
Ligier JS P2 | LMP2 | 3'42.088 | 22.355 |
| 28 | 41 |
|
Ligier JS P2 | LMP2 | 3'42.570 | 22.837 |
| 29 | 48 | Jeroen Bleekemolen Ben Keating Marc Goossens |
Oreca 03R | LMP2 | 3'43.508 | 23.775 |
| 30 | 34 | Shinji Nakano Nicolas Leutwiler James Winslow |
Oreca 03R | LMP2 | 3'43.590 | 23.857 |
| 31 | 22 | Erik Maris Vincent Capillaire Jonathan Coleman |
Ligier JS P2 | LMP2 | 3'44.347 | 24.614 |
| 32 | 84 |
|
Morgan | CDNT | 3'45.178 | 25.445 |
| 33 | 40 | Tracy Krohn  Nic Jonsson Joao Barbosa |
Ligier JS P2 | LMP2 | 3'45.213 | 25.480 |
| 34 | 68 | Sébastien Bourdais Joey Hand Dirk Müller |
Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 3'51.185 | 31.452 |
| 35 | 69 | Ryan Briscoe Scott Dixon Richard Westbrook |
Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 3'51.497 | 31.764 |
| 36 | 51 | Gianmaria Bruni James Calado Alessandro Pier Guidi |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 3'51.568 | 31.835 |
| 37 | 67 | Harry Tincknell Andy Priaulx Marino Franchitti |
Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 3'51.590 | 31.857 |
| 38 | 66 | Stefan Mücke Olivier Pla Billy Johnson |
Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 3'52.038 | 32.305 |
| 39 | 71 | Sam Bird Davide Rigon Andrea Bertolini |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 3'52.508 | 32.775 |
| 40 | 82 | Giancarlo Fisichella  Toni Vilander Matteo Malucelli |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 3'53.176 | 33.443 |
| 41 | 92 | Frédéric Makowiecki Earl Bamber Jörg Bergmeister |
Porsche 911 RSR (2016) | LMGTE PRO | 3'54.918 | 35.185 |
| 42 | 95 |  Marco Sorensen Nicki Thiim Darren Turner |
Aston Martin Vantage | LMGTE PRO | 3'55.261 | 35.528 |
| 43 | 91 | Nick Tandy Patrick Pilet Kevin Estre |
Porsche 911 RSR (2016) | LMGTE PRO | 3'55.332 | 35.599 |
| 44 | 97 | Fernando Rees Richie Stanaway Jonathan Adam |
Aston Martin Vantage | LMGTE PRO | 3'55.380 | 35.647 |
| 45 | 77 | Richard Lietz Michael Christensen Philipp Eng |
Porsche 911 RSR (2016) | LMGTE PRO | 3'55.426 | 35.693 |
| 46 | 64 | Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner Jordan Taylor |
Chevrolet Corvette C7R | LMGTE PRO | 3'55.848 | 36.115 |
| 47 | 61 | Rob Bell  Mok Weng Sun Keita Sawa |
Ferrari F458 Italia | LMGTE AM | 3'56.827 | 37.094 |
| 48 | 98 | Pedro Lamy Paul Dalla Lana Mathias Lauda |
Aston Martin Vantage V8 | LMGTE AM | 3'57.198 | 37.465 |
| 49 | 88 | David Heinemeier Hansson Patrick Long  Khaled Al Qubaisi |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'57.513 | 37.780 |
| 50 | 55 | Duncan Cameron  Matt Griffin Aaron Scott |
Ferrari F458 Italia | LMGTE AM | 3'57.596 | 37.863 |
| 51 | 83 | François Perrodo Emmanuel Collard Rui Aguas |
Ferrari F458 Italia | LMGTE AM | 3'57.742 | 38.009 |
| 52 | 63 | Jan Magnussen Antonio Garcia Ricky Taylor |
Chevrolet Corvette C7R | LMGTE PRO | 3'57.967 | 38.234 |
| 53 | 50 | Pierre Ragues Yutaka Yamagishi Jean-Philippe Belloc |
Chevrolet Corvette C7-Z06 | LMGTE AM | 3'58.018 | 38.285 |
| 54 | 60 | Christina Nielsen Johnny Laursen Mikkel Mac |
Ferrari F458 Italia | LMGTE AM | 3'58.760 | 39.027 |
| 55 | 78 | Christian Ried Wolf Henzler Joel Camathias |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'59.034 | 39.301 |
| 56 | 62 | Bill Sweedler Townsend Bell Jeff Segal |
Ferrari F458 Italia | LMGTE AM | 4'00.008 | 40.275 |
| 57 | 89 | Marc Miller Cooper MacNeil Lehman Keen |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 4'00.107 | 40.374 |
| 58 | 86 | Michael Wainwright Adam Carroll Ben Barker |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 4'01.046 | 41.313 |
| 59 | 57 | Mark Patterson Johnny O'Connell Oliver Bryant |
Chevrolet Corvette C7-Z06 | LMGTE AM | 4'02.326 | 42.593 |
| 60 | 99 | Gary Hirsch Liam Griffin Andrew Howard |
Aston Martin Vantage V8 | LMGTE AM | 4'03.148 | 43.415 |
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