Le Mans 24h: Toyota sweeps front row in second qualifying

Kamui Kobayashi was again the fastest driver at the wheel of the #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid, setting a time of 3m15.497s on his first flying lap to come within just over a tenth of last year's pole time at La Sarthe - and beat Kazuki Nakajima in the #8 Toyota by 0.411s.

SMP Racing, whose lead BR Engineering BR1 was second-fastest in Thursday night's first qualifying, was again Toyota's closest challenger, with Mikhail Aleshin setting the Russian outfit's best time of 3m16.953s - 1.456s adrift of Kobayashi's benchmark.

Rebellion Racing's #1 car, which had its Wednesday times scrubbed for a fuel flow meter infringement, recovered to fourth thanks to a 3m17.317s effort by Neel Jani following a 25-minute red flag period.

That was caused by the other Rebellion R-13, the #3 of Thomas Laurent, dumping fluid on the track along the latter part of the Mulsanne straight before stopping just beyond Mulsanne corner.

The #3 car, which didn't return to the track, provisionally qualified sixth in the hands of Laurent behind the second of the SMP BR1s, the #17 of Stephane Sarrazin.

DragonSpeed's customer BR1 and the ByKolles ENSO CLM P1/01 completed the LMP1 order, Tom Dillmann finding two seconds on his Wednesday time but remaining eighth.

LMP2: Maldonado keeps DragonSpeed on top

LMP2 continues to be led by DragonSpeed after another flyer from ex-Formula 1 racer Pastor Maldonado at the wheel of the #31 Oreca.

Maldonado turned a 3m26.490s at the start of the session to take the top spot, just over three tenths ahead of the #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca of Stephane Richelmi.

#31 Dragonspeed Oreca 07: Roberto Gonzalez, Pastor Maldonado, Anthony Davidson

Photo by: Paul Foster

Signatech Alpine's #36 Oreca did not set a better time, with Nicolas Lapierre's Wednesday effort remaining good enough for third ahead of the TDS Racing Oreca and the Racing Team Nederland Dallara.

The top Ligier, the #22 United Autosports car, did not improve either and was shuffled down to sixth.

GTE: Porsche snatches back pole from Ford

Porsche retook provisional pole in GTE Pro thanks to a late effort by Michael Christensen in the #92 911 RSR of 3m49.388s in the closing stages of the session.

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

Photo by: Rainier Ehrhardt

Antonio Garcia - fastest on Wednesday night until his best time in the #63 Corvette C7.R was scrubbed - came within 0.036s of Christensen's time late on, becoming the only other driver to better Harry Tincknell's first qualifying benchmark in the #67 Ford GT.

Tincknell's time of 3m49.530s remained enough for third, ahead of the #93 Porsche which likewise did not improve, while the #91 Porsche slipped one place to fifth despite a late improvement by Gianmaria Bruni.

The best of the Aston Martins slipped from third to sixth on the provisional grid, ahead of the #94 Porsche, the #69 and #68 Fords and the top Ferrari, the #71 car.

BMW was therefore the only manufacturer to end up outside the top 10 in class, the two MTEK-run M8 GTEs ending up 14th and 16th.

The top two times in GTE Am remain the same as on Wednesday, with Matteo Cairoli's best lap in the #88 Dempsey-Proton Porsche not being bettered.

Giancarlo Fisichella was the highest-profile improver, moving up to third place in the #54 Spirit of Race Ferrari, behind the #56 Project 1 Porsche.

Session results (Q1, Q2 combined):

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	11	Vitaly Petrov Mikhail Aleshin Stoffel Vandoorne	BR Engineering BR1	LMP1	3'16.953	1.456
4	1	Neel Jani Andre Lotterer Bruno Senna	Rebellion R13	LMP1	3'17.313	1.816
5	17	Stéphane Sarrazin Egor Orudzhev Sergey Sirotkin	BR Engineering BR1	LMP1	3'17.437	1.940
6	3	Thomas Laurent Nathanael Berthon Gustavo Menezes	Rebellion R13	LMP1	3'18.884	3.387
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	3'23.726	8.229
9	31	Roberto Gonzalez Pastor Maldonado Anthony Davidson	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'26.490	10.993
10	38	Ho-Pin Tung Stéphane Richelmi Gabriel Aubry	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'26.821	11.324
11	36	Nicolas Lapierre Andre Negrao Pierre Thiriet	Alpine A470	LMP2	3'26.935	11.438
12	28	François Perrodo Matthieu Vaxiviere Loic Duval	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'27.096	11.599
13	29	Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Nyck de Vries	Dallara P217	LMP2	3'27.107	11.610
14	22	Philip Hanson Filipe Albuquerque Paul di Resta	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	3'27.338	11.841
15	23	Rene Binder Julien Canal Will Stevens	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	3'27.790	12.293
16	48	Paul Lafargue Paul-Loup Chatin Memo Rojas	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'27.804	12.307
17	39	Tristan Gommendy Vincent Capillaire Jonathan Hirschi	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'28.426	12.929
18	25	David Zollinger Andrea Pizzitola John Falb	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'28.457	12.960
19	37	David Heinemeier Hansson Jordan King Ricky Taylor	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'28.569	13.072
20	30	Nico Jamin Pierre Ragues Romain Dumas	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'28.653	13.156
21	26	Roman Rusinov Job Van Uitert Jean-Eric Vergne	Aurus 01	LMP2	3'28.713	13.216
22	32	Ryan Cullen Alex Brundle	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	3'28.779	13.282
23	47	Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Andrea Belicchi	Dallara P217	LMP2	3'28.942	13.445
24	43	John Farano Arjun Maini Norman Nato	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'29.137	13.640
25	20	Anders Fjordbach Dennis Andersen Mathias Beche	Oreca 07	LMP2	3'29.633	14.136
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	3'35.480	19.983
28	50	Erwin Creed Romano Ricci Nicholas Boulle	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	3'36.144	20.647
29	92	Michael Christensen Kevin Estre Laurens Vanthoor	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	3'49.388	33.891
30	63	Jan Magnussen Antonio Garcia Mike Rockenfeller	Chevrolet Corvette C7R	LMGTE PRO	3'49.424	33.927
31	67	Andy Priaulx Harry Tincknell Jonathan Bomarito	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	3'49.530	34.033
32	93	Patrick Pilet Earl Bamber Nick Tandy	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	3'49.558	34.061
33	91	Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz Frédéric Makowiecki	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	3'49.921	34.424
34	97	Alex Lynn Maxime Martin Jonathan Adam	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE PRO	3'50.037	34.540
35	94	Sven Muller Mathieu Jaminet Dennis Olsen	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	3'50.278	34.781
36	69	Ryan Briscoe Richard Westbrook Scott Dixon	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	3'50.339	34.842
37	68	Joey Hand Dirk Muller Sébastien Bourdais	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	3'50.486	34.989
38	71	Davide Rigon Sam Bird Miguel Molina	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	3'50.623	35.126
39	95	Marco Sorensen Nicki Thiim Darren Turner	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE PRO	3'50.812	35.315
40	64	Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner Marcel Fassler	Chevrolet Corvette C7R	LMGTE PRO	3'51.011	35.514
41	51	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado Daniel Serra	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	3'51.019	35.522
42	81	Nick Catsburg Martin Tomczyk Philipp Eng	BMW M8 GTE	LMGTE PRO	3'51.353	35.856
43	66	Stefan Mücke Olivier Pla Billy Johnson	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	3'51.601	36.104
44	82	Augusto Farfus Antonio Felix da Costa Jesse Krohn	BMW M8 GTE	LMGTE PRO	3'51.818	36.321
45	88	Satoshi Hoshino Giorgio Roda Matteo Cairoli	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'52.454	36.957
46	56	Jörg Bergmeister Patrick Lindsey Egidio Perfetti	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'52.750	37.253
47	54	Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Giancarlo Fisichella	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	3'52.826	37.329
48	89	Pipo Derani Oliver Jarvis Jules Gounon	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	3'52.997	37.500
49	77	Matt Campbell Christian Ried Julien Andlauer	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'53.408	37.911
50	57	Takeshi Kimura Kei Cozzolino Côme Ledogar	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	3'53.474	37.977
51	85	Ben Keating Jeroen Bleekemolen Felipe Fraga	Ford GT	LMGTE AM	3'53.492	37.995
52	98	Paul Dalla Lana Pedro Lamy Mathias Lauda	Aston Martin Vantage	LMGTE AM	3'53.530	38.033
53	86	Michael Wainwright Benjamin Barker Thomas Preining	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'53.571	38.074
54	90	Salih Yoluc Euan Hankey Charles Eastwood	Aston Martin Vantage	LMGTE AM	3'53.974	38.477
55	60	Claudio Schiavoni Andrea Piccini Sergio Pianezzola	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	3'53.990	38.493
56	78	Louis Prette Philippe Prette Vincent Abril	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	3'54.324	38.827
57	62	Cooper MacNeil Toni Vilander Robert Smith	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	3'54.350	38.853
58	83	Manuela Gostner Rahel Frey Michelle Gatting	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	3'54.363	38.866
59	84	Jeff Segal Rodrigo Baptista Wei Lu	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	3'54.513	39.016
60	70	Motoaki Ishikawa Olivier Beretta Eddie Cheever III	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	3'54.737	39.240
61	61	Luis Perez Companc Matthew Griffin Matteo Cressoni	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	3'56.072	40.575
62	99	Tracy Krohn Nic Jönsson Patrick Long	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM
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