Benoit Treluyer makes late charge, scores first career pole. Other class pole sitters: Signatech Nissan (LMP2), BMW Motorsport (GTE-Pro) and AF Corse (GTE-Am)...
Despite not possibly showing their ultimate pace on Wednesday, Audi Sport Team Joest didn’t waste any time laying down fast laps in Thursday’s pair of final qualifying sessions at Circuit de la Sarthe.
While Romain Dumas ended Q2 atop the time charts in his No. 1 Audi R18 TDI, it was Benoit Treluyer who stole the pole in the third and final qualifying session for Saturday’s 79th Le Mans 24 Hours.
The No. 2 Audi of Treluyer turned a 3:25.738 lap time in his diesel-powered prototype with just under 45 minutes remaining in the night-time session. It was enough to hold as pole, leading an all-Audi front row for the twice-around-the-clock classic.
"I was born so close to here and the 24 Hours is such a challenge and I was not even thinking about the pole position and then I did and it is just fantastic," said Treluyer, who will share the wheel with Marcel Fassler and Andre Lotterer. "I’m so happy about the car, about the job by the mechanics, engineers and it’s just such a nice present to them for all the work they have done up to now.
As expected, nearly all of the class leaders made improvements during the final pair of two-hour sessions, including Dumas, whose 3:25.799 was good enough for second. The Frenchman and co-drivers Timo Bernhard and Mike Rockenfeller head in as defending overall winners of the race.
"The first row for Audi - that is very nice and shows clearly that we are competitive," Dumas said. "We were fast with new tires and old tires and that is a good sign for the race. Nevertheless there are still a few things to improve and that’s what we will work on from now on."
An Audi 1-2-3 sweep in qualifying appeared possible, especially following a series of flyers by the No. 3 machine of Tom Kristensen. The eight-time Le Mans winner, however, suffered a session-ending crash at Tetre Rouge while trying to pull off a pole-winning lap.
Kristensen’s Audi sustained significant left-side damage in what’s believed to be a single-car incident.
Simon Pagenaud made a late session improvement to third overall, turning a 3:26.010 in his No. 9 Team Peugeot Total 908. The quickest of the French diesels was only 0.272 seconds away from Treluyer’s pole-sitting time.
Diesel-powered prototypes again swept the top-seven times overall. The No. 12 Rebellion Racing Lola B10/60 Toyota ended up quickest of the gasoline-powered contingent, but still some seven seconds adrift.
Soheil Ayari stormed to the LMP2 class pole for Signatech Nissan. The Frenchman piloting the No. 26 Oreca 03 Nissan turned a 3:41.458, which translated to a near two-second improvement over co-driver Franck Mailleux’s best time from Wednesday’s qualifying.
Ayari, who put the Oreca-Nissan on class pole at the ILMC opener at Sebring, edged out the No. 42 Strakka Racing HPD ARX-01d by 1.157 seconds. The defending class winners returned to the circuit Thursday with a fully rebuilt car following a massive crash by Nick Leventis in the closing minutes of last night’s opening session.
While Jonny Kane’s 3:42.615 lap time didn’t hold as the pole-winning time, he and co-drivers Leventis and Danny Watts will roll off second in class. The No. 48 Team ORECA Matmut Oreca 03 of David Hallyday, Alexander Primat and Dominik Krailhamer made a slight improvement to third in class.
American hopefuls Level 5 Motorsports rebounded from yesterday’s setbacks to log over 30 laps in the pair of two-hour qualifying sessions. Joao Barbosa made a late-session improvement, a 3:50.177, but will still line up 11th in class after losing the majority of running time on Wednesday due to a fuel leak.
BMW Motorsport scored the GTE-Pro class pole, but it was the team’s No. 55 BMW M3 GT of Augusto Farfus that stole the top spot away. The World Touring Car ace laid down a 3:57.592 lap time early in the final session, taking the top spot away from the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari F458 Italia, which led the way in Qualifying 2.
While the sister No. 56 BMW will roll off third, the Charly Lamm-led Schnitzer squad has a long night ahead of them, as Andy Priaulx suffered a significant shunt at the Ford Chicane in Q2. Heavy front-end damage was sustained when the car slid into the barriers after running over gravel on-track.
The No. 74 Corvette Racing C6.R of Oliver Gavin, Jan Magnussen and Richard Westbrook clocked the fourth quickest time, but nearly two seconds back from Farfus’ pole-sitting time. Hankook Team Farnbacher’s Ferrari F458 Italia rounded out the top-five in class.
NASCAR star Michael Waltrip, making his Le Mans debut at the wheel of an AF Corse Ferrari F458, qualified 15th in the 18-car GTE-Pro field. The car’s 4:02.216 lap time was in fact slower than the GTE-Am pole-sitting machine of Marco Cioci in a year-old Ferrari F430 GT.
Cioci, who will share the wheel of the No. 61 AF Corse machine with Pierguiseppe Perazzini and Sean Paul Breslin, was some 2.250 seconds quicker than the No. 63 Proton Competition Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, which wound up second.
Flying Lizard Motorsports’ No. 81 Porsche, led by Darren Law and Spencer Pumpelly, was a close third in class.
The 79th Le Mans 24 Hours gets underway Saturday at 3 p.m. local, with Live! coverage beginning on SPEED at 8:30 a.m. ET.
RESULTS: Qualifying
John Dagys is SPEED.com’s Sportscar Racing Reporter, focusing on all major domestic and international championships. You can follow him on Twitter @johndagys or email him at askdagys@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment