Kazuki Nakajima produced a great lap on Thursday night to put the #8 Toyota TS050 HYBRID on the pole position for this weekend’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Nakajima, had already set the provisional pole on Wednesday when he clocked 3m17.270s in the first session. He then beat Wednesday’s best time by close to two seconds with his first flying lap in the final part of qualifying on Thursday. He ended up two seconds faster than the sister car, #7 Toyota Gazoo Racing that will be driven by Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, and Jose Maria Lopez, that will start the race from second.
The 86th running of the iconic race at the Sarthe circuit starts on Saturday at 16h00 Beirut time. Toyota locked the front-row and are clear favorites for victory as the only major manufacturer entered in the top LMP1 category. Mazda is the first and only Japanese marque to triumph at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Toyota have their eyes set on becoming the second Japanese marque to achieve this feat.