Le Mans 24H: Toyotas lead, Aston Martin tops both GTE classes in first qualifying session

Toyota GAZOO Racing topped the overall times in the first qualifying session for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The first of two qualifying sessions took place, with Friday hosting ‘Hyperpole’ where the top six (five in LMP1) of each category would get themselves into that shoot-out.

Unlike the other qualifying sessions in the World Endurance Championship, the lap-times for each car would not be dictated by an average between two drivers.

Instead, it was down to the outright pace of each car/driver to get into Hyperpole.

In LMP1, both Toyotas topped the times as Jose Maria Lopez in the #7 set a fastest overall time of 3m17.089s ahead of former Le Mans champion Brendon Hartley in the #8.

The #4 ByKolles split the two Rebellions to round out the class.

A tight qualifying session in LMP2 had Racing Team Nederland’s Nyck De Vries set a time of 3m26.648s to top the class, +0.0449s ahead of second-placed Jackie Chan DC Racing (the only LMP2 with Goodyear tyres to get into Hyperpole).

Further down, reigning LMP2 Le Mans winners in the #36 Signatech Alpine Elf lost out to go 10th fastest in-class. They will be looking for a hat-trick of Le Mans wins this weekend.

Acura Team Penske driver (in IMSA, DPi class) Juan Pablo Montoya returned to Le Mans for Dragonspeed USA, setting a fastest time out of his crew of 3m29.741s for 16th in LMP2.

Following a crash for both IDEC Sport cars (#17 and #28) in FP2, the reigning ELMS champions did not participate in qualifying and will start at the back of the LMP2 field.

The WEC championship-leading #95 Aston Martin (in the hands of Richard Westbrook) topped the GTE field with a time of 3m50.872s, with its sister #97 closely behind in second.

The two AF Corse 488 GTE Evos sat behind the two Astons, as closely followed by the #91 and #92 Porsches.

The #63 WeatherTech Racing of Toni Vilander set a time of 3m52.508s, +0.241s ahead of the last-placed #82 Risi Competizione.

AMR also topped the Am field with their #98 entry, setting a fastest time of 3m52.778s.

The #83 AF Corse missed out on the top-six (and Hyperpole) by +0.023s away from the #56 Team Project 1 car.

Further down the Am field, the three Iron Lynx entries qualified closely together in 15th, 18th and 19th in-class.

Jan Magnussen, a Corvette Racing regular (a team not participating at Le Mans for the first time in 20 years), got the #66 JMW Motorsport 488 GTE Evo to 16th with a time of 3m56.383s.

The #52 AF Corse struggled to end up with the slowest time out of the 59-car field with a 4m01.217s, over a second behind the next Ferrari upwards (the #62).