Le Mans 24h: Toyota leads SMP in disrupted practice

Kobayashi hit the front with less than two minutes of the four-hour session remaining, clocking a 3m18.091s aboard the TS050 Hybrid he shares with Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez to deny the #11 SMP crew top spot.

Stoffel Vandoorne had put SMP's #11 BR Engineering BR1 top with 20 minutes remaining, but his time ended up 1.840 seconds shy of Kobayashi's on a rapidly drying track.

Ex-McLaren Formula 1 driver Vandoorne's 3m19.931s time was a mere 0.029s faster than that set by Gustavo Menezes, whose 3m19.960s lap in the Rebellion R-13 he shares with Thomas Laurent and Nathanael Berthon had stood as the benchmark for much of the session.

Menezes posted that effort moments before a red flag was shown when GTE Am driver Tracy Krohn crashed the #99 Porsche 911 RSR an hour and 40 minutes into the session.

Krohn had a hefty shunt on the run between the second chicane and Mulsanne corner, leaving a significant amount of debris across the track - delaying running by around 45 minutes.

An update from the FIA World Endurance Championship via Twitter said Krohn had been taken to hospital for precautionary checks but that he was "conscious and in good spirits".

The length of the delay allowed a heavy rain shower to hit the circuit before the session restarted, but in the final hour the sun broke through the clouds and helped dry the track.

The second Toyota ended the session fourth thanks to a 3m20.941s lap set by Fernando Alonso, who was the first driver from the #8 car's line-up to take to the track.

Kazuki Nakajima looked on course to improve on that time with his final lap, but his effort was thwarted by a yellow flag being shown in the final sector caused by Erwin Creed's spinning #50 Larbre Competition Ligier.

The #1 Rebellion was fifth with Andre Lotterer at the wheel, 3.166s off the pace, ahead of the #17 SMP car of Sergey Sirotkin.

DragonSpeed's Gibson-powered BR1 and the ByKolles ENSO CLM P1/01 brought up the rear of the LMP1 order, lapping 6.355s and 9.752s off the pace respectively.

LMP2: IDEC Sport sets the early pace

LMP2 was topped by the IDEC Sport Oreca of Paul-Loup Chatin, who set the fastest time in class - a 3m28.363s - late on, beating the DragonSpeed Oreca of Pastor Maldonado.

#48 IDEC Sport Oreca 07 Gibson: Paul Lafargue, Paul-Loup Chatin, Memo Rojas, Patrice Lafargue

Photo by: Marc Fleury

Jonathan Hirschi had been the first driver to break under the 3m30 bracket in the #39 Graff Oreca, but as track conditions improved, his time was beaten by both Maldonado and the #26 G-Drive Racing Aurus-branded Oreca of Jean-Eric Vergne, who ended up third.

Pierre Thiriet was another late mover in the #36 Signatech Alpine Oreca, bumping Nyck de Vries in the best non-Oreca – the #29 Racing Team Nederland Dallara – down to sixth in class.

The best-placed Ligier ended the session in seventh, as Filipe Albuquerque moved the #22 United Autosports car up the order in the dying moments after a spell in the garage having an engine oil pump replaced. 

GTE: Porsche takes 1-2

Porsche took a 1-2 in the GTE Pro division, with Michael Christensen's early lap of 3m52.149s in the #92 911 RSR surviving a late flurry of improvements to stand as the top time.

Mathieu Jaminet made a late jump up the order in the #94 Porsche, 0.315s off the pace of Christensen, while Sam Bird was third-fastest in the best of the Ferrari 488 GTEs, the #71 machine.

#92 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR: Michael Christensen, Kevin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor

Photo by: Alexander Trienitz

Stefan Mucke was the quickest of the Fords in fourth, having briefly gone second in the black-and-white retro-liveried #66 GT, ahead of James Calado in the second of the factory AF Corse-run Ferraris and Augusto Farfus in the top BMW M8 GTE.

The late improvements shuffled down the #67 Ford, which had been second at the red flag, all the way down to seventh, ahead of the remaining two Porsches and the top Corvette C7.R.

Aston Martin’s top Vantage GTE was 11th and 1.653s off the pace in Alex Lynn’s hands.

In GTE Am, the #77 Dempsey-Proton Porsche of Julien Andlauer led the way on a 3m55.304s.

That was enough to beat the #54 Spirit of Race Ferrari of Giancarlo Fisichella by 0.382s, while Pedro Lamy was only another 0.028s behind in the #98 Aston Martin.

Additional reporting by James Newbold

Practice results:

Cla	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Time	Gap
1	7	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	3'18.091
2	11	Vitaly Petrov Mikhail Aleshin Stoffel Vandoorne	BR Engineering BR1	LMP1	3'19.931	1.840
3	3	Thomas Laurent Nathanael Berthon Gustavo Menezes	Rebellion R13	LMP1	3'19.960	1.869
4	8	Sébastien Buemi Kazuki Nakajima Fernando Alonso	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	3'20.941	2.850
5	1	Neel Jani Andre Lotterer Bruno Senna	Rebellion R13	LMP1	3'21.257	3.166
6	17	Stéphane Sarrazin Egor Orudzhev Sergey Sirotkin	BR Engineering BR1	LMP1	3'22.431	4.340
7	10	Henrik Hedman Ben Hanley Renger van der Zande	BR Engineering BR1	LMP1	3'24.446	6.355
8	4	Tom Dillmann Oliver Webb Paolo Ruberti	ENSO CLM P1/01	LMP1	3'27.843	9.752
9	48	Paul Lafargue Paul-Loup Chatin Memo Rojas	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'28.363	10.272
10	31	Roberto Gonzalez Pastor Maldonado Anthony Davidson	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'28.730	10.639
11	26	Roman Rusinov Job Van Uitert Jean-Eric Vergne	Aurus 01	LMP2	3'28.893	10.802
12	39	Tristan Gommendy Vincent Capillaire Jonathan Hirschi	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'28.959	10.868
13	36	Nicolas Lapierre Andre Negrao Pierre Thiriet	Alpine A470	LMP2	3'29.978	11.887
14	29	Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Nyck de Vries	Dallara P217	LMP2	3'30.611	12.520
15	22	Philip Hanson Filipe Albuquerque Paul di Resta	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	3'30.862	12.771
16	38	Ho-Pin Tung Stéphane Richelmi Gabriel Aubry	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'30.893	12.802
17	32	Ryan Cullen Alex Brundle	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	3'31.299	13.208
18	37	David Heinemeier Hansson Jordan King Ricky Taylor	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'31.416	13.325
19	30	Nico Jamin Pierre Ragues Romain Dumas	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'31.416	13.325
20	23	Rene Binder Julien Canal Will Stevens	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	3'31.951	13.860
21	25	David Zollinger Andrea Pizzitola John Falb	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'32.138	14.047
22	20	Anders Fjordbach Dennis Andersen Mathias Beche	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'32.353	14.262
23	47	Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Andrea Belicchi	Dallara P217	LMP2	3'33.009	14.918
24	28	François Perrodo Matthieu Vaxiviere Loic Duval	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'34.483	16.392
25	43	John Farano Arjun Maini Norman Nato	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'34.823	16.732
26	34	Jakub Smiechowski James Winslow Nigel Moore	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	3'36.237	18.146
27	49	Miro Konopka Henning Enqvist Konstantin Tereshchenko	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	3'36.241	18.150
28	50	Erwin Creed Romano Ricci Nicholas Boulle	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	3'38.171	20.080
29	92	Michael Christensen Kevin Estre Laurens Vanthoor	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	3'52.149	34.058
30	94	Sven Muller Mathieu Jaminet Dennis Olsen	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	3'52.464	34.373
31	71	Davide Rigon Sam Bird Miguel Molina	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	3'52.743	34.652
32	66	Stefan Mücke Olivier Pla Billy Johnson	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	3'52.778	34.687
33	51	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado Daniel Serra	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	3'52.844	34.753
34	82	Augusto Farfus Antonio Felix da Costa Jesse Krohn	BMW M8 GTE	LMGTE PRO	3'52.969	34.878
35	67	Andy Priaulx Harry Tincknell Jonathan Bomarito	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	3'53.027	34.936
36	93	Patrick Pilet Earl Bamber Nick Tandy	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	3'53.157	35.066
37	91	Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz Frédéric Makowiecki	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	3'53.182	35.091
38	63	Jan Magnussen Antonio Garcia Mike Rockenfeller	Chevrolet Corvette C7R	LMGTE PRO	3'53.343	35.252
39	97	Alex Lynn Maxime Martin Jonathan Adam	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE PRO	3'53.802	35.711
40	95	Marco Sorensen Nicki Thiim Darren Turner	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE PRO	3'53.904	35.813
41	68	Joey Hand Dirk Muller Sébastien Bourdais	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	3'54.055	35.964
42	69	Ryan Briscoe Richard Westbrook Scott Dixon	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	3'54.189	36.098
43	64	Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner Marcel Fassler	Chevrolet Corvette C7R	LMGTE PRO	3'54.198	36.107
44	81	Nick Catsburg Martin Tomczyk Philipp Eng	BMW M8 GTE	LMGTE PRO	3'54.258	36.167
45	77	Matt Campbell Christian Ried Julien Andlauer	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'55.304	37.213
46	54	Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Giancarlo Fisichella	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	3'55.686	37.595
47	98	Paul Dalla Lana Pedro Lamy Mathias Lauda	Aston Martin Vantage	LMGTE AM	3'55.714	37.623
48	78	Louis Prette Philippe Prette Vincent Abril	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'56.046	37.955
49	88	Satoshi Hoshino Giorgio Roda Matteo Cairoli	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'56.282	38.191
50	89	Pipo Derani Oliver Jarvis Jules Gounon	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	3'56.429	38.338
51	84	Jeff Segal Rodrigo Baptista Wei Lu	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	3'57.017	38.926
52	86	Michael Wainwright Benjamin Barker Thomas Preining	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'57.137	39.046
53	83	Manuela Gostner Rahel Frey Michelle Gatting	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	3'57.463	39.372
54	57	Takeshi Kimura Kei Cozzolino Côme Ledogar	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	3'57.480	39.389
55	70	Motoaki Ishikawa Olivier Beretta Eddie Cheever III	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	3'57.991	39.900
56	62	Cooper MacNeil Toni Vilander Robert Smith	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	3'58.280	40.189
57	56	Jörg Bergmeister Patrick Lindsey Egidio Perfetti	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'58.326	40.235
58	90	Salih Yoluc Euan Hankey Charles Eastwood	Aston Martin Vantage	LMGTE AM	3'58.522	40.431
59	61	Luis Perez Companc Matthew Griffin Matteo Cressoni	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	3'58.933	40.842
60	85	Ben Keating Jeroen Bleekemolen Felipe Fraga	Ford GT	LMGTE AM	3'59.660	41.569
61	60	Claudio Schiavoni Andrea Piccini Sergio Pianezzola	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	3'59.948	41.857
62	99	Tracy Krohn Nic Jönsson Patrick Long	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	4'00.472	42.381
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