Kobayashi fastest for Toyota in Le Mans practice
Kamui Kobayashi headed up a one-two finish for Toyota Gazoo Racing in practice for the 24 Hours of Le Mans on Wednesday evening at the Circuit de la Sarthe as Fernando Alonso enjoyed his final preparations ahead of qualifying later today.
After heading the field during the test day two weeks ago, Toyota once again set the pace in the sole official practice running of race week, with 2017 pole-sitter Kobayashi turning in a fastest time of 3m18.718s behind the wheel of the #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid in the closing stages of the four-hour session.
Kamui Kobayashi headed up a one-two finish for Toyota Gazoo Racing in practice for the 24 Hours of Le Mans on Wednesday evening at the Circuit de la Sarthe as Fernando Alonso enjoyed his final preparations ahead of qualifying later today.
After heading the field during the test day two weeks ago, Toyota once again set the pace in the sole official practice running of race week, with 2017 pole-sitter Kobayashi turning in a fastest time of 3m18.718s behind the wheel of the #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid in the closing stages of the four-hour session.
With rain forecast for qualifying on Thursday, the majority of LMP1 teams pushed to try and complete some fast laps to close out practice in anticipation of tonight's Q1 session potentially setting the grid, with the sister #8 Toyota's fastest time coming with the very last lap before the chequered flag courtesy of Alonso's teammate, Sebastien Buemi.
Buemi's lap was half a second slower than Kobayashi's best time, but was enough to complete a one-two finish for Toyota as Rebellion Racing slotted into third place via Thomas Laurent, who was seven-tenths of a second back from Kobayashi at the head of the field as the leading privateer driver.
Alonso managed two stints in the Toyota as he continued his Le Mans preparations, with the first two hours' worth of qualifying set to take place tonight from 10pm until midnight local time.
DragonSpeed ended practice in fourth place as it returned to the track for the first time since Pietro Fittipaldi's qualifying crash at Spa, while Jenson Button finished the session in fifth place, setting the fastest time for SMP Racing in the #11 BR Engineering BR1 AER car.
LMP2 saw Jean-Eric Vergne set the headline pace for G-Drive Racing in the #26 Oreca 07 Gibson, recording a best time of 3m25.529s to finish half a second clear of the #48 IDEC Sport Oreca in P2, which had led the majority of the session before a late lap from the former Toro Rosso F1 driver. TDS Racing finished third in class with the #28 Oreca courtesy of a best time from Mathieu Vaxiviere.
Porsche continued its impressive recent form by sweeping to a 1-2-3 finish in GTE-Pro, led by Patrick Pilet behind the wheel of the #93 Porsche 911 RSR. Pilet produced two laps good enough to finish top of his class, with his best time of 3m50.121s giving him P1 by seven-tenths of a second ahead of the #92 Porsche, with the sister #91 entry finishing just three-thousandths of a second further back in P3.
Olivier Pla was the leading non-Porsche driver in GTE-Pro, taking fourth for Ford Chip Ganassi Racing in the #66 Ford GT, more than 1.3 seconds off the pace. The #71 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo ended the session fifth in class.
In GTE-Am, top honours went to Dempsey-Proton Racing's #88 Porsche, led by Matteo Cairoli, who posted a fastest lap of 3m52.903s to finish nine-tenths of a second clear of the #86 Gulf Racing Porsche. Spirit of Race took third in class with its #54 Ferrari.
The session went by without any major incidents, bar a couple of on-track stoppages and off-track excursions. The Manor-Ginetta programme's tough baptism continued as its cars were hit by electrical issues, but unlike at Spa last month, the team was able to record a lap time with at least one of its entries this time around.
Harry Tincknell kissed the barrier in the #67 Ford early in the session, requiring recovery, while even GTE-Pro leader Pilet had a scrape with the barrier at one point that left his car in need of some repairs before he recovered to set his class' fastest time.
