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WEC 24 Hours of Le Mans

Le Mans 24 Hours – Final Qualifying

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Chequered Flag

We will see you here on Saturday for the big race, which we'll follow live from start to finish.

See you then...

Au revoir!

So that's it from us for tonight. Porsche wins the war, but there was a few pointers in the wet that Audi and Toyota might put up a strong battle if the race is wet on Saturday.

LMP2 will be a massive fight, come what may.

And as for GTE Pro, it's Ford v Ferrari. 1966 and all that.

Breaking news
And here's our full report of qualifying. Almost as if we knew it was a foregone conclusion...

So on Saturday we'll have a Porsche front row, Toyota second row and Audi third row.

G-Drive will head the LMP2 field away.

Ford will lead the GTE Pro contenders, with Clearwater's Ferrari at the front of the GTE Am pack.

No reason to be angry with their 919 Hybrid so far at Le Mans, unlike previous FIA WEC races where it's broken down quite a bit.
Bit of Rage Against the Machine, if we're not very much mistaken.
The celebrations at Porsche are slightly muted – after all, today's qualifying was a bit rubbish thanks to the weather. Still, there's some heavy metal playing, so the mechanics are happy.
Pit Stop
Kobayashi has pitted, just Buemi on track now of the big hitters.
FACT: Ford also took class poles (Touring) with the Capri in 1972-73.
Chequered Flag
Qualifying the Le Mans 24 Hours is officially over.

Celebrations in the Ford pits too. Want some Ford FACTS?

The Blue Oval took overall pole with the GT40 in 1965, 66 and 67.

Stopwatch
Buemi laps in 3m51.693s, Kobayashi back in the 3m55s.
Trophy
Good work from G-Drive, Ford and Clearwater Racing too – they're your class pole winners.
Jani makes it back-to-back Le Mans poles. Wonder how Hartley is feeling, he was never given the chance to challenge him?
Trophy
Porsche #2 team poses for the cameras – they know they'll start from pole. We've known it for a while, in all honesty.
Buemi laps in 3m56.318s, well off Kobayashi-pace. The Japanese starts a flyer, but has a scruffy Dunlop Chicane.
Just a few minutes remaining. Champagne on ice at Porsche.
Trophy
The #2 Porsche squad is getting ready to celebrate. Remember, they're going to start the 24 Hours of Le Mans from pole position on Saturday.
Kobayashi hitting 323kph on the Mulsanne Straight. In the wet. In the dead of night. On an out lap.
Buemi has taken over the #5 Toyota. We could have a little battle on our hands for bragging rights.
Pit Stop
He pits. Wild wets off, normal wets on.
Audi announces it's done for the evening, and joins Porsche in watching the Kobayashi show.
Pit Stop
Kobayashi is going to switch to standard wets – we assume he's on an extreme tread pattern at the moment.
Stopwatch
Someone tell Kobayashi to slow down! Actually don't – this is great. He carves a huge chunk off his fastest time, a 3m50.934s.
Here's that Yannick Dalmas moment again. He's still got it...
Davidson is lapping in the 3m55s bracket in the #5 car.
Stopwatch
Rewrite that script, Kobayashi slams in 3m53.466s – which included a wobble as he caught an LMP2 car in a bad spot at the exit of the Porsche Curves.
Pit Stop
A new nose is fitted to the #7 car. That's one way to clean the headlights...
Kobayashi is lapping the #6 Toyota in the 3m56s bracket. That shows how impressive Lotterer was.
Just the Toyotas out on track of the factory LMP1s right now.
Pit Stop
Lotterer pits. Nice work.
Stopwatch
Lotterer bangs in 3m54.839s. A new fastest time in this session.
Trophy

Turns out the driver of the Safety Car who entertained us all earlier was none other than four-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner Yannick Dalmas. 

Chapeau!

Oh, a near miss in the garage as Ford GT #67 almost gets wiped out by the Panis-Barthez Ligier, whose driver mistook the "start the engine" sign for "leave the pits". Disaster averted.
Lotterer "thinks it's OK" to run this tyre, rather than a standard wet – as suggested by engineer Leena Gade.
Stopwatch
For the record, the fastest lap of this session is now Lotterer on 3m51.632s.
Loic Duval is complaining of visibility issues on the #8 Audi.
Stopwatch
Lotterer works down to a 3m55.502s. It's drying... slowly.
Stopwatch
We've had a 3m56s lap from Conway in the #6 Toyota. Lotterer is in the 3m57s in Audi #7.
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