It was a drama-packed qualifying session in La Sarthe with a red flag episode following the accident of Michael Fassbender in the #93 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR 19. When the session resumed, rain poured on track and prevented drivers from further improving their lap times.
The #7 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 Hybrid driven by Kamui Kobayashi set the fastest lap time in today’s qualifying session (3:27.247). The #708 Glickenhaus Racing 007 LMH shared by Olivier Pla, Romain Dumas and Pipo Derani ended less than two tenths behind the Japanese car (3:27.355) and some 6 tenths ahead of the #709 sister car driven by Ryan Briscoe, Richard Westbrook and Franck Mailleux (3:27.978). André Negrao, Nicolas Lapierre and Mathieu Vaxivière ended fourth in the #36 Alpine Elf Team A480 Gibson, nearly two and a half seconds behind the fastest hypercar (3:29.656).
Olivier Pla in the #708 Glickenhaus Racing 007 LMH was the first to set a representative lap time (3:28.052) in the Hypercar category. He was soon followed by Kamui Kobayashi in the #7 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 Hybrid (3:27.247) and Ryan Briscoe in the #709 Glickenhaus Racing 007 LMH.
Pla further improved the #708’s fastest lap time moments later thanks to a quick first sector (3:27.355).
Further down in the ranks, the #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 Hybrid had a difficult session: the Japanese car driven by Brendon Hartley only left the pits some 30 minutes in the session and then went off at Mulsanne on its out lap. The car did not suffer any damage.
Once the session returned to green, rain poured down. The #8 Toyota only managed a fastest lap of 3:40.842 while the other Hypercars did not improve.
The five Hypercars will compete in tomorrow’s Hyperpole session.
Meanwhile in LMP2, as light rain started falling down on the track, Filipe Albuquerque snatched a 3:31.468 in the #22 United Autosport Oreca 07 Gibson and bettered LMP2 test day’s fastest lap times. Less than 15 minutes later, Robin Frijns in the #31 Team WRT Oreca 07 Gibson snatched a 3:29.898. No other cars bettered his lap time. He was followed at the top of the LMP2 time sheets by Antonio Felix Da Costa in the #38 Jota Oreca 07 Gibson (3:30.124) and Norman Nato in the # #41 Realteam by WRT Oreca 07 Gibson (3:30.440).
The other three cars making the cut for tomorrow night’s Hyperpole session are the #23 (3:30.568) and the #22 (3:30.639) United Autosport Oreca 07 Gibsons and the #09 Prema Orlen Team (3:30.651)
Further down in the ranks, the #10 Vector Sport Oreca 07 Gibson stayed the entire session in the pits following a sensor issue on their engine. The #45 Algarve Pro Racing also stayed in for repairs following an incident in FP1, the car is being rebuilt around a spare ORECA chassis.
GTE-Pro
With rain threatened from the start there was an urgency to get things done, a rapid fight emerging between Nick Tandy’s #64 Corvette and Antonio Fuoco’s #52 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo. Tandy’s best was 3:51.599, as the Corvette driver traded blows with the #52 Ferrari, Fuoco’s 3:51.420 slicing down the lap times. Fred Makowiecki showed Porsche’s hand ten minutes in, a 3:51.400 the new and brief benchmark.
Back at the pits, Riley Motorsport’s Ferrari 488 GTE Evo had waited 15 minutes before Felipe Fraga set a 3:54.116 to pitch the car into fifth and potentially the Hyperpole shoot-out. This was short lived however, as the #51 AF Corse Ferrari that had sat out most of the preceding Free Practice session having an engine change made its way onto the circuit for the first time with purpose. James Calado had a quick lap deleted for a track limit infringement, but the reigning GTE-Pro champion responded with a 3:51.502 that would place the Ferrari fifth in class.
Porsche came back, Laurens Vanthoor delivering the first time in the 3:50’s. 3:50.999 led Garcia’s Corvette on 3:51.132, and Makowiecki’s improvement to 3:51.382 for Porsche in third. Tandy now set fourth for Corvette, Calado and Fuoco looming behind to make the Hyperpole session tomorrow evening for AF Corse and Ferrari.
GTE-Am
Michael Fassbender lost the rear of the #93 Proton Competition Porsche under heavy braking going into the first Mulsanne chicane, a big frontal shunt to the driver’s right Armco red flagging the session. Seemingly a driver error, the Irish Bronze driver was thankfully unhurt.
At this point Nicky Thiim’s 3:52.559 held the top spot in GTE-Am for the #98 Northwest AMR Aston Martin, having slugged it out with Giancarlo Fisichella’s Iron Lynx Ferrari in setting the early qualifying pace.
Mikkel Jensen’s 3:53.489 catapulted Kessel Racing’s Ferrari 488 GTE Evo into second place however and Rahel Frey found clear track space to post a 3:54.081 good enough for third. Spirit of Race’s #71 Ferrari showed strongly in the hands of Gabriel Aubry but the time was disallowed, promoting the #77 Dempsey Proton Racing into Hyperpole in fifth, Vincent Abril’s #61 AF Corse Ferrari making the cut too in sixth.
The #33 TF Sport Aston Martin had also had a potentially HyperPole-qualifying time deleted early on for track limits.
With rain arriving just after the halfway point of the session, that would be the end of any competitive laps.
