2021 Le Mans 24 Hours | Kobayashi leads Toyota into Hyperpole, Alpine close
Kamui Kobayashi continued his strong form from practice to give Toyota the edge heading into Hyperpole for the 2021 Le Mans 24 Hours, eight tenths clear of the rival Alpine.
The Japanese driver made the most of the balmy but cloudy conditions at the start of the hour-long evening session to pump in a 3m 26.279secs in the first few minutes, a benchmark that would remain until the chequered flag.
With less than a tenth covering the top three after FP1, Lopez was in more formidable form to put a solid 0.8secs between the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid he will share with Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez and the competition.
However, the two factory Toyotas were still split buy the impressive Alpine entry - referred to as a ‘grandfathered’ LMP2 machine - with Matthieu Vaxiviere helping the French team lead the fight towards the only Hybrid models in the evolving LMP1 class.
The #8 Toyota of Kazuki Nakajima, Brendon Hartley and Sebastien Buemi was third fastest, followed up by the best of the two Glickenhaus cars, with Olivier Pla in fourth driving the #708 car but two seconds down, while the #709 car driven by Romain Dumas could only manage seventh overall.
Between the two USA-flagged machines was the two leading LMP2 entries headed up by the #38 Jota driven to the fastest time in class by Antonio Felix Da Costa, marginally ahead of the Fraco Colapinto in the #26 G-Drive Oreca.
F1 race winner Robert Kubica set the best time for Team WRT for eighth fastest, ahead of Panis Racing and the best of the three United Autosports team, with the #32 car led by Niclas Jamin and the #23 of Alex Lynn booking their Hyperpole places in 10th and 11th.
The final Hyperpole spot was grabbed by the second Jota entry driven by Tom Blomqvist.
In GTE Pro, AF Corse were a dominant 1-2 with Miguel Molina the lead Ferrari 488 over team-mate Alessandro Pier Guidi, with the lead factory #92 Porsche driven by Kevin Estre and the Nick Tandy steered Corvette in third and fourth.
In GTE Am, Kevin Bastien was quickest for Dempsey-Proton Racing, ahead of the GR Racing Porsche and Cetilar Racing Ferrari.
