Rain and race incidents meant that the drivers who began the traditional pole position chase this evening did not do so in the best conditions in the last two qualifying sessions for the 2013 Le Mans 24 Hours. As a result the no. 2 Audi driven by Loïc Duval, Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish that was quickest on Wednesday evening will start from pole on Saturday 22nd June.
The weather didn’t help things in the second qualifying sessions on Thursday 20th June. At 18h45, just under 15 minutes before the green light unleashed the cars, a heavy shower soaked around two-thirds of the circuit. The drivers went out one by one on a very tricky track but they didn’t set any meaningful times. As the road began to dry out the no. 40 Oreca-Nissan went off on the Mulsanne straight at the second chicane leading to the session being red-flagged with around 32 minutes left.
In order not to penalise the teams Race Control decided to bring forward by 30 minutes the start of the second part of the session, which lasted 2h 30m.
The drivers went out at 21h30 and not 22h00 as originally scheduled. At 23h17 with 43 minutes still to go the drivers started to chase the pole position again after more interruptions.
Finally, the fastest time on Wednesday in LM P1 was not beaten so on pole went to the no. 2 Audi (Duval, Kristensen, McNish) thanks to the Frenchman’s 3m22.439s on 19th June. The R18 e-tron-quattro will start in front of its two sister cars no.1 (3m23.696s), which snatched second at the last moment thanks to André Lotterer who improved his Wednesday’s time, from no.3 (3m24.341s). The first TS030 Toyota Hybrid of Wurz, Lapierre and Nakajima (3m26.654s) will start the race in fourth place 4.3s off the quickest time.
In LM P2, Olivier Pla in the no. 24 Morgan-Nissan n°24 he shares with Alex Brundle and David Heinemeier Hansson clinched pole in the dying seconds in 3m38.621s from the no.26 l’Oreca 03-Nissan n°26 (3m39.535s) and the no. 38 Zytek-Nissan (3m40.459s).
As on Wednesday the LM GTE Pro category was dominated by Aston Martin, and no. 99 (Makowiecki, Senna, Bell), already quickest yesterday improve its time to 3m54.635s followed by another Aston no. 97 (3m55.455s) and the first Porsche n°92 in 3m55.491s. It was the same story in LM GTE Am thanks to Nygaard, Poulsen and Simonsen’s V8 Vantage (no. 95, 3m55.776s) from the no. 88 Porsche (3m58.889s) and the no. 96 Aston Martin Vantage V8 (3m59.805s).
The cars entered in the Le Mans 24 Hours will have a final 45-minute warm-up session on Saturday 22nd June at 9h00 before the start of the 90th anniversary race at 15h00.
Pos Cl Drivers Team/Car Time 1. P1 Kristensen/McNish/Duval Audi 3m22.349 2. P1 di Grassi/Gene/Jarvis Audi 3m23.696 3. P1 Lotterer/Treluyer/Fassler Audi 3m24.341 4. P1 Davidson/Buemi/Sarrazin Toyota 3m26.654 5. P1 Wurz/Lapierre/Nakajima Toyota 3m26.676 6. P1 Prost/Jani/Heidfeld Rebellion Lola-Toyota 3m28.935 7. P1 Belicchi/Beche/Cheng Rebellion Lola-Toyota 3m32.167 8. P1 Kane/Watts/Leventis Strakka HPD 3m36.547 9. P2 Pla/Heinemeier Hansson/Brundle OAK Morgan-Nissan 3m38.621 10. P2 Rusinov/M.Martin/Conway Delta-ADR ORECA-Nissan 3m39.535 11. P2 Dolan/Turvey/Luhr Jota Zytek-Nissan 3m40.459 12. P2 Gachnang/Mailleux/Lombard Morand Morgan-Judd 3m40.741 13. P2 Graves/Nakano/Hamilton Delta-ADR ORECA-Nissan 3m40.925 14. P2 Imperatori/Tung/Howson KCMG Morgan-Nissan 3m41.042 15. P2 Hartley/Patterson/Chandhok Murphy ORECA-Nissan 3m41.569 16. P2 Panciatici/Ragues/Gommendy Signatech ORECA-Nissan 3m41.654 17. P2 Baguette/Gonzalez/Plowman OAK Morgan-Nissan 3m41.854 18. P2 Perez Companc/Minassian/Kaffer Pecom ORECA-Nissan 3m43.420 19. P2 Thiriet/Badey/M.Martin TDS ORECA-Nissan 3m43.494 20. P2 Mardenborough/Ordonez/Krumm Greaves Zytek-Nissan 3m44.421 21. P2 Kimber-Smith/Rossi/Lux Greaves Zytek-Nissan 3m44.621 22. P2 Frey/Niederhauser/Bleekemolen Race Perf' ORECA-Judd 3m45.244 23. P2 Holzer/Kraihamer/Charouz Lotus-Praga 3m45.274 24. P2 Weeda/Rossiter/Bouchut Lotus-Praga 3m47.920 25. P2 Nicolet/Merlin/Mondolot OAK Morgan-Nissan 3m48.196 26. P2 Tucker/Franchitti/Briscoe Level 5 HPD 3m48.597 27. P2 Giroix/Haezebrouck/Ihara Gulf Lola-Nissan 3m49.096 28. P2 Mowlem/Burgess/Hirschi HVM Status Lola-Judd 3m49.805 29. GTP Bell/Makowiecki/Senna Aston Martin 3m54.635 30. GTP Dumbreck/Mucke/Turner Aston Martin 3m55.445 31. GTP Lieb/Lietz/Dumas Manthey Porsche 3m55.491 32. GTP Bruni/Fisichella/Malucelli AF Corse Ferrari 3m55.909 33. GTP Auberlen/Dalla Lana/Lamy Aston Martin 3m56.336 34. GTP Beretta/Kobayashi/Vilander AF Corse Ferrari 3m56.471 35. GTP Bergmeister/Pilet/Bernhard Manthey Porsche 3m56.573 36. P2 Porta/Raffin/Brandela DKR Lola-Judd 3m56.905 37. P2 Downs/Dagoneau/Younessi Boutsen ORECA-Nissan 3m57.139 38. GTA Nygaard/Poulsen/Simonsen Aston Martin 3m57.776 39. GTP Westbrook/Gavin/Milner Corvette 3m58.644 40. GTA Ried/Roda/Ruberti Proton Porsche 3m58.889 41. GTP Magnussen/Garcia/Taylor Corvette 3m59.526 42. GTA Hall/Goethe/Campbell-Walter Aston Martin 3m59.805 43. GTA Gerber/Griffin/Cioci AF Ferrari 3m59.997 44. GTA Milesi/Gibon/Henzler Imsa Porsche 4m00.503 45. GTP Collard/Perrodo/Crubile Prospeed Porsche 4m00.682 46. GTP Dalziel/Farnbacher/Goossens SRT Viper 4m00.802 47. GTA Dempsey/Foster/Long Dempsey Porsche 4m00.916 48. GTA Narac/Bourret/Vernay Imsa Porsche 4m01.713 49. GTA Potolicchio/Aguas/Bright 8star Ferrari 4m01.934 50. GTP Bomarito/Kendall/Wittmer SRT Viper 4m03.461 51. GTA Perazzini/Case/O'Young AF Corse Ferrari 4m03.966 52. GTA MacNeil/Rodrigues/Dumas Larbre Corvette 4m04.512 53. GTA Bornhauser/Canal/Taylor Larbre Corvette 4m04.873 54. GTP Bertolini/Al Faisal/Al Qubaisi JMW Ferrari 4m05.417 55. GTA Mallegol/Bachelier/Blank AF Ferrari 4m09.064 56. GTA Krohn/Jonsson/Mediani Krohn Ferrari 4m16.233