Le Mans 24h: Toyota tops first qualifying despite scare

Kobayashi set a 3m17.161s a little over 10 minutes in the two-hour night session to grab the early advantage for the #7 TS050 Hybrid, beating SMP driver Egor Orudzhev's best time in the #11 SMP Racing BR Engineering BR1 by 0.472s.

But there was drama later on for the #7 machine, which suffered a violent head-on smash with the #31 DragonSpeed LMP2 at the Ford Chicane while Mike Conway was at the wheel.

Roberto Gonzalez had spun the #31 machine and was attempting to rejoin when he and Conway made contact that sent the #7 machine into the air, although both drivers were unhurt.

Third-fastest was the best of the Rebellion R-13s, with Thomas Laurent posting the #3 car's best time of 3m19.603s after a trip to the gravel at the second Mulsanne chicane.

The FIA World Endurance Championship points-leading #8 Toyota was only fourth-fastest with a time 2.676s slower than that of its sister car.

Fernando Alonso set the car's fastest time with just five minutes left on the clock, a 3m19.837s, two tenths behind Laurent.

#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050: Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima, Fernando Alonso

Photo by: Nikolaz Godet

Ben Hanley's early effort in the customer DragonSpeed BR1 was good enough for a provisional fifth on the grid, three seconds off the pace and a tenth up on the #1 Rebellion of Neel Jani. That came prior to a lengthy spell in the garage for the #10 car due to gearbox trouble.

The second SMP BR1 of Stoffel Vandoorne was seventh, ahead of the ByKolles ENSO CLM P1/01 whose best time was set by Tom Dillmann.

LMP2: Maldonado puts DragonSpeed ahead

Despite the incident with the #7 Toyota, the #31 DragonSpeed Oreca was quickest in LMP2 thanks to a 3m26.804s effort from ex-Formula 1 driver Pastor Maldonado.

Nicolas Lapierre was second, 0.131s behind at the wheel of the #36 Signatech Alpine Oreca, followed by the best of the Ligiers, the #22 United Autosports car of Filipe Albuquerque.

Practice pacesetter IDEC Sport and Duqueine Engineering ensured it was an all-Michelin top five, with the #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing car the best of the Dunlop-shod runners in sixth.

GTE: Ford leads Porsche

GTE Pro was topped by Ford thanks to a last-ditch lap by Harry Tincknell in the #67 GT.

Tincknell set a time of 3m49.530s to move to the summit a couple of minutes before the end of the session, eclipsing Nick Tandy in the #93 Porsche 911 RSR by a scant 0.028s.

#67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT: Andy Priaulx, Harry Tincknell, Jonathan Bomarito

Photo by: Rainier Ehrhardt

With around 20 minutes left on the clock, Antonio Garcia had posted a 3m49.467s in the #63 Corvette C7.R, only for it to be disallowed because he improved under yellow flags.

Aston Martin was third-fastest, as Alex Lynn's early best time of 3m50.037s in the #97 Vantage GTE was edged in the closing stages, while the remaining three Porsches - led by Frederic Makowiecki in the #91 car - filled out the top six places in class.

Aston's second car was next up followed by the best respective entries from Ferrari and BMW, while Corvette's top car ended up 11th after Garcia's time was scrubbed.

A spin for Olivier Pla at the exit of the final Porsche Curve in the #66 Ford left that car 17th and last.

The #77 Dempsey-Proton Porsche led the way in GTE Am courtesy of Matteo Cairoli's best lap of 3m52.454s, which was enough to top the class by 0.296s from Jorg Bergmeister in the #56 Project 1 Porsche.

Julien Andlauer made it an all-Porsche top three in the #88 Dempsey-Proton machine with a late improvement ahead of the #98 Aston Martin.

The #99 Proton Porsche, severely damaged in Tracy Krohn's practice crash earlier in the day, did not appear on track in first qualifying.

Session results:

Cla	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Time	Gap
1	7	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	3'17.161
2	17	Stéphane Sarrazin Egor Orudzhev Sergey Sirotkin	BR Engineering BR1	LMP1	3'17.633	0.472
3	3	Thomas Laurent Nathanael Berthon Gustavo Menezes	Rebellion R13	LMP1	3'19.603	2.442
4	8	Sébastien Buemi Kazuki Nakajima Fernando Alonso	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	3'19.632	2.471
5	10	Henrik Hedman Ben Hanley Renger van der Zande	BR Engineering BR1	LMP1	3'20.200	3.039
6	1	Neel Jani Andre Lotterer Bruno Senna	Rebellion R13	LMP1	3'20.297	3.136
7	11	Vitaly Petrov Mikhail Aleshin Stoffel Vandoorne	BR Engineering BR1	LMP1	3'20.934	3.773
8	4	Tom Dillmann Oliver Webb Paolo Ruberti	ENSO CLM P1/01	LMP1	3'25.246	8.085
9	31	Roberto Gonzalez Pastor Maldonado Anthony Davidson	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'26.804	9.643
10	36	Nicolas Lapierre Andre Negrao Pierre Thiriet	Alpine A470	LMP2	3'26.935	9.774
11	22	Philip Hanson Filipe Albuquerque Paul di Resta	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	3'27.338	10.177
12	48	Paul Lafargue Paul-Loup Chatin Memo Rojas	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'27.847	10.686
13	30	Nico Jamin Pierre Ragues Romain Dumas	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'28.653	11.492
14	38	Ho-Pin Tung Stéphane Richelmi Gabriel Aubry	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'28.738	11.577
15	28	François Perrodo Matthieu Vaxiviere Loic Duval	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'28.840	11.679
16	29	Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Nyck de Vries	Dallara P217	LMP2	3'28.909	11.748
17	26	Roman Rusinov Job Van Uitert Jean-Eric Vergne	Aurus 01	LMP2	3'29.107	11.946
18	25	David Zollinger Andrea Pizzitola John Falb	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'29.126	11.965
19	37	David Heinemeier Hansson Jordan King Ricky Taylor	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'29.498	12.337
20	32	Ryan Cullen Alex Brundle	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	3'29.583	12.422
21	47	Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Andrea Belicchi	Dallara P217	LMP2	3'29.748	12.587
22	23	Rene Binder Julien Canal Will Stevens	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	3'29.821	12.660
23	34	Jakub Smiechowski James Winslow Nigel Moore	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	3'30.744	13.583
24	39	Tristan Gommendy Vincent Capillaire Jonathan Hirschi	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'30.970	13.809
25	43	John Farano Arjun Maini Norman Nato	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'31.017	13.856
26	20	Anders Fjordbach Dennis Andersen Mathias Beche	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'32.945	15.784
27	49	Miro Konopka Henning Enqvist Konstantin Tereshchenko	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	3'35.480	18.319
28	50	Erwin Creed Romano Ricci Nicholas Boulle	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	3'38.663	21.502
29	67	Andy Priaulx Harry Tincknell Jonathan Bomarito	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	3'49.530	32.369
30	93	Patrick Pilet Earl Bamber Nick Tandy	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	3'49.558	32.397
31	97	Alex Lynn Maxime Martin Jonathan Adam	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE PRO	3'50.037	32.876
32	91	Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz Frédéric Makowiecki	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	3'50.099	32.938
33	94	Sven Muller Mathieu Jaminet Dennis Olsen	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	3'50.278	33.117
34	92	Michael Christensen Kevin Estre Laurens Vanthoor	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	3'50.468	33.307
35	95	Marco Sorensen Nicki Thiim Darren Turner	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE PRO	3'50.812	33.651
36	71	Davide Rigon Sam Bird Miguel Molina	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	3'50.850	33.689
37	81	Nick Catsburg Martin Tomczyk Philipp Eng	BMW M8 GTE	LMGTE PRO	3'51.476	34.315
38	69	Ryan Briscoe Richard Westbrook Scott Dixon	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	3'51.821	34.660
39	63	Jan Magnussen Antonio Garcia Mike Rockenfeller	Chevrolet Corvette C7R	LMGTE PRO	3'52.109	34.948
40	51	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado Daniel Serra	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	3'52.128	34.967
41	88	Satoshi Hoshino Giorgio Roda Matteo Cairoli	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'52.454	35.293
42	64	Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner Marcel Fassler	Chevrolet Corvette C7R	LMGTE PRO	3'52.490	35.329
43	56	Jörg Bergmeister Patrick Lindsey Egidio Perfetti	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'52.750	35.589
44	89	Pipo Derani Oliver Jarvis Jules Gounon	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	3'52.997	35.836
45	68	Joey Hand Dirk Muller Sébastien Bourdais	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	3'53.053	35.892
46	77	Matt Campbell Christian Ried Julien Andlauer	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'53.408	36.247
47	82	Augusto Farfus Antonio Felix da Costa Jesse Krohn	BMW M8 GTE	LMGTE PRO	3'53.498	36.337
48	98	Paul Dalla Lana Pedro Lamy Mathias Lauda	Aston Martin Vantage	LMGTE AM	3'53.530	36.369
49	54	Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Giancarlo Fisichella	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	3'53.793	36.632
50	66	Stefan Mücke Olivier Pla Billy Johnson	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	3'53.793	36.632
51	90	Salih Yoluc Euan Hankey Charles Eastwood	Aston Martin Vantage	LMGTE AM	3'53.974	36.813
52	78	Louis Prette Philippe Prette Vincent Abril	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'54.324	37.163
53	84	Jeff Segal Rodrigo Baptista Wei Lu	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	3'54.513	37.352
54	70	Motoaki Ishikawa Olivier Beretta Eddie Cheever III	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	3'54.737	37.576
55	86	Michael Wainwright Benjamin Barker Thomas Preining	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'55.033	37.872
56	62	Cooper MacNeil Toni Vilander Robert Smith	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	3'55.544	38.383
57	57	Takeshi Kimura Kei Cozzolino Côme Ledogar	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	3'56.034	38.873
58	61	Luis Perez Companc Matthew Griffin Matteo Cressoni	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	3'56.072	38.911
59	60	Claudio Schiavoni Andrea Piccini Sergio Pianezzola	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	3'56.147	38.986
60	83	Manuela Gostner Rahel Frey Michelle Gatting	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	3'56.333	39.172
61	85	Ben Keating Jeroen Bleekemolen Felipe Fraga	Ford GT	LMGTE AM	3'56.579	39.418
62	99	Tracy Krohn Nic Jönsson Patrick Long	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM
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