Porsche blocks out top three spots at Le Mans


Neel Jani has secured pole position for the 2015 Le Mans 24 Hour after final qualifying
Porsche sealed the first three positions after surviving the final part of qualifying for the Le Mans 24 Hour with its prodigious pace intact.
Neel Jani’s benchmark time of 3:16.88s in the #18 Porsche he is sharing with Romain Dumas and Marc Lieb established in Q1 on Wednesday night proved untouchable.
Timo Bernhard improved the time of the #17 919 with a 3:17.76s best lap to move within 1s of Jani.
Nick Tandy also improved the time of the #19 Porsche which moved the machine he is sharing with Kiwi Earl Bamber and F1 driver Nico Hulkenberg to under 2s of the leading 919.
Oliver Jarvis will start the twice-around-the-clock classic in fourth place behind the wheel of the #8 Audi R18 e-tron quattro he is sharing with Loic Duval and Lucas di Grassi.
The Silverstone and Spa winning #7 Audi driven by Benoit Treluyer was fifth ahead of the #9 R18 driven by Rene Rast.
Toyota will start from the fourth row with Mike Conway in the #2 TS040 in seventh ahead of the defending WEC champion #1 Toyota of Anthony Davidson.
The Rebellion Racing R-ONE AERs of Matias Beche and Alexandre Imperatori complete the top 10.
Tiago Monteiro was 11th in the lone Team ByKOLLES CLM.
Nissan’s leading GT-R LM NISMO at the hands of last year’s LMP2 champion Harry Tincknell was 12th in the #22 machine with a 3:36.99s best lap.
The #23 Nissan of Max Chilton will start from 13th while the third GT-R LM at the hands of Tsugio Matsuda made huge gains to claim 16th spot.
The Hong Kong-based KCMG remains on the LMP2 pole with Richard Bradley’s time of 3:38.03s from opening qualifying remaining unbeaten.
Kiwi star Richie Stanaway saw his Wednesday night time good enough to remain on pole in the GTE Pro ranks in the #99 Aston Martin Vantage.
“First time at Le Mans & qualified on pole position! Thanks to everybody at @AMR_Official Now let’s focus on the race on Saturday,” Stanaway tweeted.
Ferrari will occupy the top two spots on the GTE Pro grid after Gianmaria Bruni vaulted the #51 AF Corse 458 Italia up the order in the final session.
Pedro Lamy also remained the quickest in GTE Am in another Aston Martin Vantage.
Jan Magnussen was cleared of injury after being taken to the medical centre following a heavy impact which brought about an early close to the opening part of Qualifying 2.
Magnussen crashed heavily in the #63 Corvette he is sharing with Ryan Briscoe and Antonio Garcia exiting the high-speed Porsche Curves.
Less than an hour after the completion of qualifying, the team announced that the Corvette sustained too much damage in order for repairs to be made to start in the race.
The crash was the result of a mechanical issue.
The final part of qualifying was interrupted by several incidents highlighted by the #67 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR spectacularly catching fire down Mulsanne straight.
See below for full Le Mans 24 Hour starting order
Pos | Class | Driver | Team | Car | Time |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | LMP1 | R.Dumas, N.Jani, M.Lieb | Porsche Team | Porsche | 3m16.887s |
2 | LMP1 | T.Bernhard, M.Webber, B.Hartley | Porsche Team | Porsche | 3m17.767s |
3 | LMP1 | N.Hulkenberg, E.Bamber, N.Tandy | Porsche Team | Porsche | 3m18.862s |
4 | LMP1 | L.di Grassi, L.Duval, O.Jarvis | Audi Sport Team Joest | Audi | 3m19.866s |
5 | LMP1 | M.Fassler, A.Lotterer, B.Treluyer | Audi Sport Team Joest | Audi | 3m20.561s |
6 | LMP1 | F.Albuquerque, M.Bonanomi, R.Rast | Audi Sport Team Joest | Audi | 3m20.997s |
7 | LMP1 | A.Wurz, S.Sarrazin, M.Conway | Toyota Racing | Toyota | 3m23.543s |
8 | LMP1 | A.Davidson, S.Buemi, K.Nakajima | Toyota Racing | Toyota | 3m23.767s |
9 | LMP1 | N.Prost, M.Beche, N.Heidfeld | Rebellion Racing | Rebellion/AER | 3m26.874s |
10 | LMP1 | A.Imperatori, D.Kraihamer, D.Abt | Rebellion Racing | Rebellion/AER | 3m28.930s |
11 | LMP1 | S.Trummer, P.Kaffer, T.Monteiro | Team ByKolles | CLM/AER | 3m36.825s |
12 | LMP1 | H.Tincknell, M.Krumm, A.Buncombe | Nissan Motorsports | Nissan | 3m36.995s |
13 | LMP1 | O.Pla, J.Mardenborough, M.Chilton | Nissan Motorsports | Nissan | 3m37.291s |
14 | LMP2 | M.Howson, R.Bradley, N.Lapierre | KCMG | ORECA/Nissan | 3m38.032s |
15 | LMP1 | T.Matsuda, M.Shulzhitskiy, L.Ordonez | Nissan Motorsports | Nissan | 3m38.691s |
16 | LMP2 | R.Rusinov, J.Canal, S.Bird | G-Drive Racing | Ligier/Nissan | 3m38.939s |
17 | LMP2 | G.Hirsch, G.Paletou, J.Lancaster | Greaves Motorsport | Gibson/Nissan | 3m38.958s |
18 | LMP2 | S.Dolan, M.Evans, O.Turvey | JOTA | Gibson/Nissan | 3m39.004s |
19 | LMP2 | N.Panciatici, P-L.Chatin, V.Capillaire | Signatech Alpine | Alpine/Nissan | 3m39.699s |
20 | LMP2 | P.Thiriet, T.Gommendy, L.Badey | Thiriet by TDS Racing | ORECA/Nissan | 3m39.805s |
21 | LMP2 | C.Cumming, L.Vanthoor, K.Estre | Oak Racing | Ligier/HPD | 3m40.058s |
22 | LMP2 | K.Chandhok, M.Patterson, N.Berthon | Murphy Prototypes | ORECA/Nissan | 3m40.690s |
23 | LMP2 | G.Yacaman, L.Derani, R.Gonzalez | G-Drive Racing | Ligier/Nissan | 3m40.967s |
24 | LMP2 | P.Ragues, O.Webb, Z.Amberg | Team SARD Morand | Morgan/SARD | 3m41.250s |
25 | LMP2 | L.Roussel, D.Cheng, H-Pin Tung | Pegasus Racing | Morgan/Nissan | 3m42.023s |
26 | LMP2 | M.Mediani, D.Markozov, N.Minassian | SMP Racing | BR Engineering/Nissan | 3m42.077s |
27 | LMP2 | N.Leventis, D.Watts, J.Kane | Strakka Racing | Dome/Nissan | 3m42.237s |
28 | LMP2 | M.Aleshin, K.Ladygin, A.Ladygin | SMP Racing | BR Engineering/Nissan | 3m42.417s |
29 | LMP2 | S.Sharp, R.Dalziel, D.Hansson | Extreme Speed Motorsports | Ligier/HPD | 3m42.453s |
30 | LMP2 | E.Brown, J.van Overbeek, J.Fogarty | Extreme Speed Motorsports | Ligier/HPD | 3m44.631s |
31 | LMP2 | T.Krohn, N.Jonsson, J.Barbosa | Krohn Racing | Ligier/Judd | 3m44.854s |
32 | LMP2 | P.Perret, I.Bellarosa, J.Ibanez | Ibanez Racing | ORECA/Nissan | 3m45.350s |
33 | LMP2 | J.Nicolet, J-M.Merlin, E.Maris | Oak Racing | Ligier/HPD | 3m52.843s |
34 | GTE Pro | F.Rees, A.MacDowall, R.Stanaway | Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin | 3m54.928s |
35 | GTE Pro | G.Bruni, T.Vilander, G.Fisichella | AF Corse | Ferrari | 3m55.025s |
36 | GTE Am | P.D.Lana, P.Lamy, M.Lauda | Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin | 3m55.102s |
37 | GTE Pro | D.Turner, S.Mucke, R.Bell | Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin | 3m55.466s |
38 | GTE Pro | D.Rigon, J.Calado, O.Beretta | AF Corse | Ferrari | 3m55.582s |
39 | GTE Pro | M.Sorensen, C.Nygaard, N.Thiim | Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin | 3m55.783s |
40 | GTE Pro | J.Magnussen, A.Garcia, R.Briscoe | Corvette Racing | Chevrolet | 3m55.963s |
41 | GTE Pro | R.Lietz, M.Christensen, J.Bergmeister | Porsche Team Manthey | Porsche | 3m56.618s |
42 | GTE Am | F.Perrodo, E.Collard, R.Aguas | AF Corse | Ferrari | 3m56.723s |
43 | GTE Am | V.Shaitar, A.Bertolini, A.Basov | SMP Racing | Ferrari | 3m56.877s |
44 | GTE Pro | P.Pilet, F.Makowiecki, W.Henzler | Porsche Team Manthey | Porsche | 3m56.922s |
45 | GTE Pro | O.Gavin, T.Milner, J.Taylor | Corvette Racing | Chevrolet | 3m57.081s |
46 | GTE Am | J.Bleekemolen, B.Keating, M.Miller | Riley Motorsports-Ti Auto | SRT/Dodge | 3m57.836s |
47 | GTE Am | P.Dempsey, P.Long, M.Seefried | Dempsey Racing – Proton | Porsche | 3m57.842s |
48 | GTE Am | C.Ried, K.Al Qubaisi, K.Bachler | Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing | Porsche | 3m58.259s |
49 | GTE Am | D.Cameron, M.Griffin, A.Mortimer | AF Corse | Ferrari | 3m58.433s |
50 | GTE Am | P.Mann, R.Giammaria, M.Cressoni | AF Corse | Ferrari | 3m58.695s |
51 | GTE Am | B.Sweedler, T.Bell, J.Segal | Scuderia Corsa | Ferrari | 3m58.946s |
52 | GTE Am | G.Roda, P.Ruberti, K.Poulsen | Larbre Competition | Chevrolet | 3m59.522s |
53 | GTE Am | A.Al Faisal, K.Giermaziak, M.Avenatti | JMW Motorsport | Ferrari | 3m59.612s |
54 | GTE Am | R.Goethe, S.Hall, F.Castellacci | Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin | 4m01.146s |
55 | GTE Am | H.C.Chen, G.Vannelet, M.Parisy | Team AAI | Porsche | 4m01.243s |
56 | GTE Am | J.San Chen, A.Kapadia, X.Maassen | Team AAI | Porsche | 4m01.270s |
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