The third and final qualifying session ahead of the 87th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans saw the no7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid capitalise on the pace it had shown in previous sessions to claim pole position for the eighth and final round of the 2018/19 FIA World Endurance Championship Super Season.
The pole position time of 3m15.497 was set in Q2 by Kamui Kobayashi and it wasn’t bettered in Q3. The no8 Toyota will start on the front row alongside the no7 car, with the 3m15.908 lap also set during Q2.
The no17 SMP Racing BR1 will head the second row of the grid with the no3 Rebellion Racing R13-Gibson alongside the Russian team’s LMP1 race car.
Aston Martin Racing celebrated taking the pole position at Le Mans with a stunning lap of 3m48.000 by Marco Sorensen to beat the other class cars to the coveted LMGTE Pro pole position. The Danish driver’s lap was 0.112s ahead of the no67 Ford GT of Harry Tincknell, with the no63 Corvette in third.
The championship leading no92 Porsche 911 RSR will start the race on Saturday in 7th on the LMGTE Pro grid, six places ahead of their championship rivals and teammates in the no91 Porsche.
The no39 Graff Oreca-Gibson took the LMP2 class pole in the final session with Tristen Gommendy posting a 3m25.073 to edge the best placed WEC entered car, the no28 TDS Racing Oreca, by 0.3 seconds. The no31 Dragonspeed Oreca was third fastest with a 3m25.667. However the no39 car was issued with a penalty when the car failed to stop at the weigh bridge (Stewards Decision no75), with all lap times deleted up to the point of the incident. This dropped the no39 Graff Oreca down to 14th on the grid and promoted the no28 TDS Racing Oreca into pole position, with the no31 Dragonspeed in second.
In LMGTE Am it is a Dempsey-Proton Racing 1-2, with the no88 Porsche 911 RSR of Matteo Cairoli finishing the day on 3m51.439, while the no77 Porsche of Matt Campbell finished on a 3m51.645. Porsche will also head the second row with the no86 Gulf Racing 911 finishing on a 3m51.944.
Friday is a rest day before the big event on Saturday 15 June, beginning with the Warm Up at 09h00 followed by the start of the 87th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans at 15h00.
