2015 24 Hours of Le Mans - practice and qualifying

The biggest event of the weekend and one of the biggest motorsports event of the year is famous 24 Hours of Le Mans. The 83rd time the best drivers and cars from the whole world are coming to France to race for 24 straight hours in fierce battle of technologies, drivers and strategies. However, since the race is so big (over 60 cars) the whole event is stretched during the week. So practice session was on Wednesday 10th June. It started in 16:00 hours and lasted for four hours.

During the practice session, Porsche 919 Hybrid proved that is one of the favorite for this years race and was fastest of the whole LMP1 class. With time of 3m 21.362s set by experienced Mark Webber, Porsche was in front of the Audi on second and another 919 Hybrid on third and another 919 Hybrid on fourth. During the practice it was clear that all the work Porsche put in development and testing of the new LMP1 racer is going to pay off. The innovative and very interesting Nissan was 20 seconds slower and finished last in the class.

LMP1 and LMP2 class:

1. Webber/Hartley/Bernhard GER Porsche 919 Hybrid 3m 21.362s LMP1
2. Duval/di Grassi/Jarvis GER Audi Sport Team Joest R18 e-tron 3m 21.950s LMP1
3. Jani/Lieb/Dumas GER Porsche 919 Hybrid 3m 22.059s LMP1
4. Hulkenberg/Tandy/Bamber GER Porsche 919 Hybrid 3m 22.819s LMP1
5. Lotterer/Fassler/Treluyer GER Audi Sport Team Joest R18 e-tron 3m 23.051s LMP1
6. Albuquerque/Bonanomi/Rast GER Audi Sport Team Joest R18 e-tron 3m 23.480s LMP1
7. Davidson/Buemi/Nakajima JPN Toyota Gazoo TS040 Hybrid 3m 24.763s LMP1
8. Wurz/Conway/Sarrazin JPN Toyota Gazoo TS040 Hybrid 3m 25.537s LMP1
9. Heidfeld/Prost/Beche SUI Rebellion R-ONE AER 3m 28.441s LMP1
10. Imperatori/Abt/Kraihamer SUI Rebellion R-ONE AER 3m 33.176s LMP1
11. Howson/Lapierre/Bradley HKG KCMG Oreca 05-Nissan 3m 39.897s LMP2
12. Ordonez/Matsuda/Shulzitskiy JPN Nissan GT-R LM Nismo 3m 40.332s LMP1
13. Mardenborough/Chilton/Pla JPN Nissan GT-R LM Nismo 3m 40.429s LMP1
14. Tincknell/Krumm/Buncombe JPN Nissan GT-R LM Nismo 3m 41.302s LMP1
15. Cumming/Vanthoor/Estre FRA OAK Ligier-Honda 3m 41.311 LMP2
16. Thiriet/Badey/Gommendy FRA Thiriet by TDS Oreca 05-Nissan 3m 41.742s LMP2
17. Lancaster/Paletou/Hirsch GBR Greaves Gibson-Nissan 3m 42.163s LMP2
18. Rusinov/Canal/Bird RUS G-Drive Ligier-Nissan 3m 42.641s LMP2
19. Sharp/Dalziel/Heinemeier-Hansson USA ESM Ligier-Honda 3m 43.344s LMP2
20. Watts/Kane/Leventis GBR Strakka DOME-Nissan 3m 43.948s LMP2
21. Tung/Cheng/Roussel GER Pegasus Morgan-Nissan 3m 43.990s LMP2
22. Aleshin/Ladygin/Ladygin RUS SMP BR01-Nissan 3m 44.482s LMP2
23. Webb/Ragues/Amberg SUI SARD-Morand Morgan-SARD 3m 44.767s LMP2
24. Yacaman/Derani/Gonzalez RUS G-Drive Ligier-Nissan 3m 44.794s LMP2
25. Panciatici/Chatin/Cappillaire FRA Signatech Alpine Nissan 3m 44.807s LMP2
26. Mediani/Minassian/Markozov RUS SMP BR01-Nissan 3m 45.233s LMP2
27. Turvey/Evans/Dolan GBR Jota Gibson-Nissan 3m 45.291s LMP2
28. Monteiro/Trummer/Kaffer AUT ByKolles CLM P1/01 AER 3m 45.873s LMP1
29. Ibanez/Perret/Bellarosa SMR Ibanez Oreca 03R-Nissan 3m 47.893s LMP2
30. Brown/van Overbeek/Fogarty USA ESM Ligier-Honda 3m 48.150s LMP2
31. Krohn/Jonsson/Barbosa USA Krohn Ligier-Judd 3m 48.840s LMP2
32. Chandhok/Berthon/Patterson IRL Murphy Oreca 03R-Nissan 3m 49.427s LMP2
33. Nicolet/Merlin/Maris FRA OAK Ligier-Nissan 3m 52.979s LMP2

GTE and GTE Am class:

34. MacDowall/Stanaway/Rees GBR Aston Martin Racing Vantage  3m 55.895s GTE Pro
35. Gavin/Milner/Taylor USA Corvette Racing C7.R 3m 57.539s GTE Pro
36. Turner/Mucke/Bell GBR Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTE 3m 58.448s GTE Pro
37. Pilet/Makowiecki/Henzler GER Porsche Team Manthay 911 RSR 3m 58.469s GTE Pro
38. Magnussen/Garcia/Briscoe USA Corvette Racing C7.R 3m 58.501s GTE Pro
39. Lamy/Lauda/Dalla Lana GBR Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTE 3m 59.783s GTE Am
40. Rigon/Calado/Beretta ITA AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia 3m 59.653s GTE Pro
41. Lietz/Christensen/Bergmeister GER Porsche Team Manthay 911  3m 59.892s GTE Pro
42. Sorensen/Thiim/Nygaard GBR Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTE 4m 00.034s GTE Pro
43. Bruni/Vilander/Fisichella ITA AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia 3m 00.082s GTE Pro
44. Dempsey/Long/Seefried GER Dempsey-Proton Porsche 911 RSR 4m 01.611s GTE Am
45. Ried/Al Quabisi/Bachler GER Abu Dhabi-Proton Porsche 911 RSR 4m 02.029s GTE Am
46. Roda/Ruberti/Poulsen FRA Larbre Chevrolet Corvette C7.R 4m 02.332s GTE Am
47. Aguas/Perrodo/Collard ITA AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia 4m 02.637s GTE Am
48. Bleekemolen/Keating/Miller USA Riley TI  Dodge Viper GTS-R 4m 03.287s GTE Am
49. Sweedler/Bell/Segal USA Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 458 Italia 4m 03.799s GTE Am
50. Mann/Gianmaria/Cressoni ITA AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia 4m 03.840s GTE Am
51. al Faisal/Giermaziak/Avenatti GBR JMW Ferrari 458 Italia 4m 04.367s GTE Am
52. Shaitar/Bertolini/Basov RUS SMP Ferrari 458 Italia 4m 05.137s GTE Am
53. Cameron/Griffin/Mortimer ITA AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia 4m 05.319s GTE Am
54. Hall/Goethe/Castellacci GBR Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTE 4m 05.550s GTE Am
55. Maassen/Chen/Kapadia TWN Team AAI Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 4m 05.787s GTE Am
56. Chen/Vannelet/Parisy TWN Team AAI Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 4m 05.989s GTE Am

Later that day, there was a first qualifying session which started 22:00 hours and lasted till midnight. During that session Porsche driver Nil Jani set a blistering 3m16.887s early on to take provisional pole, a lap fast enough to be the quickest pole position for the race in terms of laptime since 1989 should it not be beaten. The other two Porsches were second and third making qualifying session a full Porsche dominance which we did not see in Le Mans for so long.