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Porsche Sweeps Le Mans Qualifying
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Porsche has swept the front three positions on the starting grid for the 83rd running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans at Circuit de la Sarthe.
Neel Jani, driving the No. 18 Porsche 919 Hybrid, secured the pole position with a lap in 3:16.887 that he put down on Wednesday, the best lap time ever by an LMP1 car at Le Mans and the best lap time since both chicanes have been added in the Mulsanne Straight.
The Swiss driver and his teammates Romain Dumas and Marc Lieb will start from pole position on Saturday, followed by both sister cars, No. 17 (Brendon Hartley, Timo Bernhard and Mark Webber) and No. 19 (Nico Hülkenberg, Nick Tandy and Earl Bamber), resulting in a Porsche sweep of the first three spots on the grid of the 83rd 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Following the three Porsches were the three Audis, but not in the same order as they were on Wednesday as the three-time Le Mans winners Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer and Benoît Tréluyer, in the No. 7 R18 e-tron quattro, were able to squeeze past the sister car, the No. 9 of Marco Bonanomi, René Rast and Filipe Albuquerque. The No. 8 Audi, driven by 2013 Le Mans winner Loïc Duval, Oliver Jarvis and Lucas di Grassi, was the fastest of the Audi entries.
There was also no change for the Toyota squad as the Endurance World Champions Sébastien Buemi and Anthony Davidson, joined by Kazuki Nakajima will start from eighth on the grid in the No. 1 Toyota TS040 Hybrid, right behind the No. 2 sister car driven by two-time Le Mans winner Alexander Wurz, Stéphane Sarrazin and Mike Conway.
The brand new Nissan GT-R LM NISMO, which will make its debut in endurance racing at Le Mans, will start from the back of the LMP1 field, even though the three cars were faster than yesterday.
In the LMP2 class, the brand new Oreca 05 will start from pole position thanks to Chinese team KCMG and Matt Howson, Richard Bradley and Nicolas Lapierre with Wednesday’s best lap time of 3:38.032. G-Drive Racing’s No. 26 Ligier chalked up the second best lap time Thursday, passing Greaves Motorsport and last year’s winner Jota Sport.
Aston Martin Racing swept qualifying in GTE, with the British manufacturer claiming three of the top-four positions in the combined class.
Richie Stanaway’s 3:54.928 lap time from Wednesday held up in GTE-Pro, while Pedro Lamy will earned the pole in the GTE-Am portion.
There was one major crash during the Thursday’s two sessions, with the Corvette Racing No. 63 making heavy contact in the Porsche Curves with Jan Magnussen behind the wheel during the first session on Thursday. Magnussen wasn’t hurt in the crash, but the resulting damage has forced the team to withdraw the No. 63 entry from Saturday’s event.
Neel Jani, driving the No. 18 Porsche 919 Hybrid, secured the pole position with a lap in 3:16.887 that he put down on Wednesday, the best lap time ever by an LMP1 car at Le Mans and the best lap time since both chicanes have been added in the Mulsanne Straight.
The Swiss driver and his teammates Romain Dumas and Marc Lieb will start from pole position on Saturday, followed by both sister cars, No. 17 (Brendon Hartley, Timo Bernhard and Mark Webber) and No. 19 (Nico Hülkenberg, Nick Tandy and Earl Bamber), resulting in a Porsche sweep of the first three spots on the grid of the 83rd 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Following the three Porsches were the three Audis, but not in the same order as they were on Wednesday as the three-time Le Mans winners Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer and Benoît Tréluyer, in the No. 7 R18 e-tron quattro, were able to squeeze past the sister car, the No. 9 of Marco Bonanomi, René Rast and Filipe Albuquerque. The No. 8 Audi, driven by 2013 Le Mans winner Loïc Duval, Oliver Jarvis and Lucas di Grassi, was the fastest of the Audi entries.
There was also no change for the Toyota squad as the Endurance World Champions Sébastien Buemi and Anthony Davidson, joined by Kazuki Nakajima will start from eighth on the grid in the No. 1 Toyota TS040 Hybrid, right behind the No. 2 sister car driven by two-time Le Mans winner Alexander Wurz, Stéphane Sarrazin and Mike Conway.
The brand new Nissan GT-R LM NISMO, which will make its debut in endurance racing at Le Mans, will start from the back of the LMP1 field, even though the three cars were faster than yesterday.
In the LMP2 class, the brand new Oreca 05 will start from pole position thanks to Chinese team KCMG and Matt Howson, Richard Bradley and Nicolas Lapierre with Wednesday’s best lap time of 3:38.032. G-Drive Racing’s No. 26 Ligier chalked up the second best lap time Thursday, passing Greaves Motorsport and last year’s winner Jota Sport.
Aston Martin Racing swept qualifying in GTE, with the British manufacturer claiming three of the top-four positions in the combined class.
Richie Stanaway’s 3:54.928 lap time from Wednesday held up in GTE-Pro, while Pedro Lamy will earned the pole in the GTE-Am portion.
There was one major crash during the Thursday’s two sessions, with the Corvette Racing No. 63 making heavy contact in the Porsche Curves with Jan Magnussen behind the wheel during the first session on Thursday. Magnussen wasn’t hurt in the crash, but the resulting damage has forced the team to withdraw the No. 63 entry from Saturday’s event.
