LeMans: Toyota takes provisional pole ahead of SMP Racing

Russian privateer team SMP Racing in the No. 17 BR Engineering BR1 car was just 0.472s behind the leading Toyota, while Rebellion Racing placed third quickest in the No. 3 Rebellion R13 – Gibson making it two privateer LMP1 cars in the top three.

With just 45 minutes left on the clock, there was on-track drama between the No. 31 DragonSpeed car and the No. 7 Toyota driven by Mike Conway when the former stopped on the Ford chicane and the Toyota collided with the stationary car. The damage incurred saw the cars return to the pits for repairs and miraculously both teams were to make it back on track before the session ended.

World Championship leaders Sebastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Fernando Alonso in the #8 TS050 HYBRID hold provisional fourth before Thursday’s two 120-minute qualifying sessions. The starting grid is decided by the fastest single lap set in any of the three qualifying sessions.

Despite the incident, DragonSpeed was the fastest LMP2 car in Qualifying with a time of 3:26.852, just 0.131s ahead of the No. 36 Signatech Alpine Matmut Alpine A470 Gibson. American squad United Autosports – who is confirmed to join the FIA WEC for the 2019/2020 season – was third fastest.

Ford pip Aston Martin to the post in LMGTE Pro

Just 1.32s separated the top eight cars in LMGTE Pro at the end of tonight’s Qualifying session but it was Harry Tincknell in the No. 67 Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK that pipped Aston Martin Racing’s Alex Lynn to the post in the session’s closing stages with a time of 3:49.530.

#88 Dempsey Porsche tops LMGTE

Lynn led the field for the majority of Q1 but the hugely competitive nature of the LMGTE Pro category eventually saw the No. 91 Aston Martin Vantage AMR drop to third, 0.062s ahead of the No.91 Porsche 911 RSR belonging to the Porsche GT Team.

In LMGTE Am, it was a Porsche 1-2-3 with the No. 88 Dempsey-Proton Porsche 911 RSR fastest with a time of 3:52.454, 0.296s ahead of Team Project 1 in a similar car. Third fastest was Dempsey Proton’s second WEC entry – the No. 77 car – making it a hugely successful qualifying session for the team.

The second Qualifying session will get underway tomorrow at 19h00, followed by the third and final one at 22h00.

Fastest Driver Quote

Kamui Kobayashi (#7 TS050 HYBRID): “It wasn’t the best lap as I experienced quite a lot of traffic. It’s a pity not to have a clear lap but the car feels good and I think the time can be improved. Qualifying doesn’t mean anything in a 24-hour race so we are just preparing for the race as best we can. The track conditions today probably don’t match what we will face in the race so we still have preparation work to do."

Q1 Results