Kobayashi smashes qualifying record in Toyota front-row sweep for Le Mans
Toyota Gazoo Racing will start the 85th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans from pole position after Kamui Kobayashi's lap record from Qualifying 2 went unbeaten in the final session on Thursday night.
Kobayashi's time of 3:14.791 in the No. 7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid obliterated the existing lap record at the Circuit de la Sarthe by over two seconds, as well as beating the previous best average speed set back in 1985 by Hans-Joachim Stuck.
The Japanese driver headed up a front-row lock-out for Toyota as the No. 8 car followed in second, bouncing back from an oil supply issue that resulted in an engine change in Q2.
Sebastien Buemi was unable to get close to Kobayashi's record time, finishing 2.3 seconds adrift in second place, but still managed to edge out Porsche by one-tenth as the German marque shifted its focus to race setup.
The No. 1 Porsche 919 Hybrid qualified third as Neel Jani's time of 3:17.259 from Q2 was not improved upon, while the sister No. 2 car finished fourth-fastest thanks Timo Bernhard's effort, eight-tenths of a second further back.
The No. 9 Toyota rounded out the LMP1 manufacturers in fifth place, 3.8 seconds off pole.
Porsche hit trouble midway through the session when Brendon Hartley was forced to park the No. 2 up at Indianapolis after a heat temperature warning.
Hartley attempted to return to the pits on electric power, but was unable to make it home, requiring recovery on the tow truck, thus ending his session.
ByKolles completed the LMP1 order in sixth place with the No. 4 ENSO CLM P1/01 NISMO, moving back ahead of the LMP2 runners in the final qualifying session thanks to a lap from Oliver Webb, albeit 9.3 seconds back from the overall fastest time.
While the battle for supremacy in LMP1 was settled before final qualifying had even started, the fight in LMP2 raged on into the night, with Alex Lynn eventually leading G-Drive Racing to class pole.
Lynn's lap of 3:25.352 in the No. 26 Oreca 07 Gibson marked a new lap record for LMP2, 11.3 seconds up on the 2016 pole time, with the British driver beating Vitaly Petrov in the No. 25 CEFC Manor TRS Racing entry by two-tenths.
Jackie Chan DC Racing took third in class thanks to Ho-Pin Tung, who posted a late effort of 3:25.911 to end qualifying within six-tenths of class pole. Vaillante Rebellion took fourth and fifth in class, with Bruno Senna leading Mathias Beche in the No. 31 and No. 13 Orecas respectively.
The pace advantage of the Oreca chassis was clear by the end of qualifying as the French manufacturer swept the top nine positions in LMP2.
SMP Racing was the leading non-Oreca team in 10th, finishing 2.2 seconds off the pace with the No. 27 Dallara P217. United Autosports led Ligier's charge, ending qualifying 15th in class, while Keating Motorsports was 24th with the lone Riley Mk. 30 Gibson.
Darren Turner gave Aston Martin Racing GTE-Pro class pole for 24 Hours of Le Mans on Thursday night with a record-setting time for a GTE car in the Circuit de la Sarthe's current configuration.
Turner’s lap of 3:50.837 in the No. 95 Aston Martin Vantage GTE was 0.191 faster than James Calado’s No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE and 1.3 seconds under Dirk Mueller’s 3:51.185 benchmark from last year.
The British manufacturer’s first GTE-Pro pole at Le Mans since 2015 was made all the sweeter as Richie Stanaway took third in the No. 97 Aston Martin, just one-hundredth of a second behind Calado.
Sam Bird improved to fourth in the closing stages in the second AF Corse Ferrari, surpassing Ryan Briscoe in the No. 69 Ford GT and Antonio Garcia’s No. 64 Corvette Racing C7.R.
On its first outing at Le Mans, the best of the mid-rear engine Porsche 911 RSR GTEs finished seventh in the hands of Michael Christensen.
Defending event winners Mueller and Joey Hand could only muster 12th in the No. 68 Ford alongside rookie Tony Kanaan, with 1.7 seconds separating the entire class down to 13th placed Fred Makowiecki in the second Porsche.
In GTE-Am, Fernando Rees showed Larbre Competition’s test day form was no fluke as he took the French team’s Corvette C7.R to pole position in GTE-Am.
It was the team’s first pole since 2007 with an Aston Martin DBR9 in the GT1 class.
Rees was just 0.3 seconds slower than Makowiecki’s Pro car and the same margin clear of Pedro Lamy’s No. 98 Aston Martin Racing Vantage.
Townsend Bell ended the session third in the No. 62 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GTE, while Matteo Cairoli made it four different manufacturers in the top four positions in the older-generation Porsche 911 RSR GTE entered by Dempsey-Proton Racing.
The next opportunity teams will have to hit the track will come on Saturday morning with a 45-minute warm-up session, before the start of the 24 Hours of Le Mans at 3 p.m. local time (9 a.m. ET) with live coverage on FS1.
