Le Mans 24 Hours - Qualifying: Ferrari ahead, Peugeot misses Hyperpole

Qualifying for the Centenary edition of the Le Mans 24 Hours began at 7pm. And very quickly, at exactly 7.07pm, Kamui Kobayashi completed a first flying lap in 3'25''485 at the wheel of the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid. But within a minute, Matthieu Vaxiviere and Filipe Albuquerque (Oreca 07 #22 / United Autosports) had contact at the last chicane. The Alpine Team's Oreca #36 had to be towed away, so the red flag was waved and qualifying was paused at 51''06. 

The session resumed at 7.20pm, but five minutes later, the Duqueine Team's Oreca #30 was slowed down (suspension). And Malthe Jakobsen went off at Indianapolis at the wheel of Cool Racing's Oreca #37. A rare event, given the Dane's reputation for consistency. This led to a second red flag, for nine minutes.

On the restart, Jonas Ried went off in the Porsche corners, causing extensive damage to his #88 911 RSR-19. But the German set off again, and the session was not interrupted again. 

At the front, Frédéric Makowiecki (Porsche 963 #5) and Earl Bamber (Cadillac V-Series.R #2) were up to the pace and pushed Alessandro Pier Guidi (Ferrari 499P #51) back to fourth place. The Frenchman and the New Zealander closed to within 0''363 and 0''535 respectively of Kamui Kobayashi.

At 7.53pm, Brendon Hartley relieved the Toyota clan and moved up to second place, 0''028 down, with his GR010 Hybrid #8. Sébastien Bourdais moved up to fourth place (+0''439), but was soon beaten by Felipe Nasr (Porsche 963 #75).

It was an interesting session and, at the moment, the only major manufacturer not present in the Hyperpole was Peugeot, with the two 9X8s more than 2"0 behind the reference brand. And Antonio Fuoco beat everbody, overtaking the two Toyotas.

Did he really? Not at all.  Alessandro Pier Guidi - #51 - set the fastest time in 3'25''412, despite being hampered in the final sector by the #72 Aston Martin, but was immediately beaten by Antonio Fuoco.

At 20:04, Michelle Gatting (Porsche #85 / Iron Dames) got stuck in the gravel trap. Although she restarted three minutes later, the #56 911 RSR-19 stopped at the track's edge, preventing all competitors from improving. Finally, only 10 minutes from the chequered flag did the entire track come under green flag once again... for a few seconds, before the #85 Porsche stopped just short of the Mulsanne bend, triggering another Slow Zone. Fortunately, it only took the stewards a few seconds to put it behind the barriers.

Kévin Estre, now in ninth place, went on the attack. But the Frenchman failed to break into the top 8 for the Hyperpole. At the same time, Nick Catsburg (Corvette #33), who had just started after his car had been repaired following Nico Varrone's crash, put the American car to the top of the GTE Am hierarchy.

At 8.20pm, the chequered flag falls on this qualifying session. While Kévin Este failed to qualify, Davide Rigon (Ferrari 488 GTE no. 54 / AF Corse) and Alessio Rovera (Ferrari 488 GTE no. 83 - Richard Mille AF Corse) edged out Catsburg in GTE Am.

A superb, lively and hard-fought qualifying session, which augurs well for an exciting Hyperpole tomorrow at 8pm. Unfortunately, this Hyperpole will not be attended by Peugeot, the only major manufacturer in the Hypercar category to fail to place a car in the top eight this evening.

The problem encountered by the Porsche 963 - Hertz Team JOTA concerns the hybrid system.

In LMP2, Pietro Fittipaldi (Oreca 07 #28 - Team JOTA) quickly moved to the front of the field with a time of 3'34"751. Nobody beats that time, with Louis Delétraz (Oreca 07 #41 - Team WRT) finishing two thousandths shy. Paul-Loup Chatin (Oreca 07 #48 - IDEC Sport) followed in third. The other LMP2 Hyperpole qualified cars are the Oreca 07 #10 - Vector Sport, Oreca 07 #47 - COOL Racing, Oreca 07 #923 - Racing Team Turkey, with a time set by Dries Vanthoor that puts the car in the lead in LMP2 Pro-Am, both Oreca 07 #63 and #9 - Prema Racing. The two Oreca - United Autosports cars were among those eliminated.

The GTE Am standings took shape in the final minutes, with the successive improvements of Alessio Rovera's #83 Ferrari 488 GTE - Richard Mille AF Corse, fastest in 3'51"877, 0"037 ahead of Davide Rigon's #54 Ferrari - AF Corse. Nick Catsburg, despite a troubled session, put the #33 Corvette C8.R - Corvette Racing in third place at 0"351. Others qualified for Hyperpole are the #25 Aston Martin Vantage - ORT by TF Sport, the #57 Ferrari 488 - Kessel Racing, the #55 Aston Martin - GMB Motorsport and the #21 Ferrari 488 - AF Corse and #74 Ferrari 488 - Kessel Racing.

Qualifiying classification is HERE