Toyota, Alonso on provisional pole for 24 Hours of Le Mans after Nakajima lap
Toyota Gazoo Racing swept to a one-two finish during the first qualifying sessio🃏n for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with Fernando Alonso provisionally set to make his debut in the race from pole position.
With rain threatening to interrupt Q2 and 🍎Q3 on Thursday, the majority of teams chased their optimum lap time early in the opening qualifying session on Wednesday night in case conditions prevent them from going faster tomorrow.
Toyota Gazoo Racing swept to a one𒆙-two finish during the first qualifying session for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with Fern🦩ando Alonso provisionally set to make his debut in the race from pole position.
With rain threatening to interrupt Q2 and Q3 on Thursday, the majority of teams chased their optimum lap time early in the opening qualifying session on Wednesda🐻y night in case conditions prevent them from going faster tomorrow.
Kazuki Nakajima got out early in Q1 and posted a fastest time of 3m17.270s to secure provisional pole fo⛎r the #8 Toyota TS050 Hybrid with just his second lap of the session, beating the sister #7 Toyota by one-tenth of a second.
With conditions getting cooler as night fell at Le Mans, neither Alonso nor Sebastien Buemi could match co-driver Nakajima’s lap time during their runs as they completed thei🍰r required night-time allocation. As things stand, the trio will lead the field away for the start of the race on Saturday afternoon.
2017 pole-sitter and Le Mans lap record holder Kamui Kobayashi fell 0.107s shy of🔯 Nakajima’s time, leaving him to settle for P2 alongside Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez heading into Thursday’s running.
Despite running the Toyotas close in practice earlier in the day, th𒀰e privateer non-hybrid LMP1 te🍬ams were unable to get in the fight at the very front in Q1 as they finished more than two seconds off the pace.
SMP Racing fini♒shed as the best of the rest with the #17 BR Engineering BR1 AER, led by Stephane Sarrazin, while Rebellion Racing followed in fourth and fifth via Gustavo Menezes and And🍨re Lotterer respectively.
DragonSpeed finished sixth in class despite suffering a stoppage with its #10 BR1 chassis with 50 minutes remaining in the session. The team managed to beat the second SMP R🎀acing entry which finshed seventh, led by Mikhail Aleshin.
ByKolles had been due to start further up the grid, only for its ꦚfastest lap to be scratched due to excessive fuel consumption, leaving the team eighth oveဣrall. The team nevertheless fared better than Manor-Ginetta, who could only muster 11th and 23rd overall amid its ongoing struggles.
LMP2 saw IDE♎C Sport grab provisional class pole thanks to a fast lap from Paul-Loup Chatin, edging out TDS Racing’s Loic Duval by three-tenths of a second. G-Drive Racing took third in class with Jean-Eric Vergne, albeit further one second off the pace.
Porsche continued to enjoy 𝄹an edge over the field in GTE-Pro as Gianmaria Bruni stormed to provisional pole in the #91 Porsche 911 RSR, but completed just one flying lap in the session. After crossinꦇg the line to finish his first flyer, Bruni spun off the track at the Dunlop Chicane, hitting the barrier and bringing the car’s session to an early end.
Bruni's time was nevertheless a full 1.5 seconds fastꦉer than the sister #92 Porsche in second place, with Ford Chip Ganass🍌i Racing following in P3 and P4 with the #66 and #68 Ford GTs respectively.
Dempsey-Protonꦑ Racing took a one-two finish in GTE-Am, heade✤d up by Matteo Cairoli in the #88 Porsche 911 RSR as he finished 1.2 seconds ahead of the #77 Porsche also entered by the team. Gulf Racing wound up third in class with the #86 Porsche, 1.8 seconds down on the class pole time.
Qualifying 2 tꩲakes place fro𒐪m 6pm until 8pm on Thursday before the third and final stage of qualifying that runs from 10pm until midnight.
