Home Sports Car WEC Porsche takes temporary pole in first qualifying

Porsche takes temporary pole in first qualifying

12/06/2014

Brendon Hartley put Porsche on provisional pole for the Le Mans 24 Hours after the opening qualifying session was brought to a premature end due to a crash.

Kiwi Hartley, who is partnered in the #20 Porsche 919 Hybrid by Mark Webber and Timo Bernhard, lapped in 3m23.157s to head a one-two for the German manufacturer on its return to the top class of the French enduro after 15 years away.

The other Porsche 919, driven by Neel Jani ,set the pace once the first representative runs had been completed.

Although he was swiftly overhauled by Hartley and later suffered a hydraulics issue, a 3m23.928s was good enough to clinch second ahead of the two Toyotas.

Toyota’s #8 TS040 HYBRID had topped practice in the hands of Anthony Davidson, but the Briton – partnered by Nicolas Lapierre and Sebastien Buemi – ended up just over two seconds adrift of the lead Porsche, and a tenth clear of the sister car of Alexander Wurz, Stephane Sarrazin and Kazuki Nakajima.

Last year’s winner Audi only had two cars taking part in the first part of qualifying after Loic Duval’s huge crash in practice, and its pair of R18 e-tron quattros could only manage fifth and sixth fastest in the hands of Andre Lotterer and Filipe Albuquerque.

Both Toyota and Audi were expected to usurp the Porsches at the top of the times until, with just under an hour left to run, Fernando Rees crashed his GTE Pro Aston Martin Vantage at the Porsche Curves.

That, along with Sarrazin slowing to a halt at the Dunlop chicane due to an oil leak in the Toyota, brought out the red flags, and Rees’ incident caused sufficient barrier damage for the session to be brought to a premature end with half an hour still left on the clock.

In LMP2, the #26 OAK Racing Morgan-Nissan took provisional pole with Oliver Pla outpacing Paul-Loup Chatin in the #36 Signatech Alpine ORECA-Nissan by more than half a second.

It was closer in GTE Pro, but AF Corse Ferrari 458 driver Gianmaria Bruni beat the lead AMR Vantage, driven by Stefan Mucke, into second place by 0.3s, with Frederic Makowiecki (Manthey Porsche 911 RSR) and Antonio Garcia (Corvette C7.R) ensuring the top four places were locked out by four different manufacturers.

Ferrari was also on top in GTE Am, where the #72 SMP 458 driven by Andrea Bertolini led the similar #61 AF car of Marco Cioci by less than 0.2s.

Six cars failed to set a time. In addition to the #1 Audi’s absence, the Nissan ZEOD RC, #41 Greaves Zytek-Nissan, two Imsa Porsches and 8Star Ferrari all failed to complete a flying lap.

Results:

Pos	Nº	Category	Drivers	Team
1	20	LM P1 – H	Bernhard – Webber – Hartley	Porsche Team	DEU
2	14	LM P1 – H	Dumas – Jani – Lieb	Porsche Team	DEU
3	7	LM P1 – H	Wurz – Sarrazin – Nakajima	Toyota Racing	JPN
4	8	LM P1 – H	Davidson – Lapierre – Buemi	Toyota Racing	JPN
5	2	LM P1 – H	Fässler – Lotterer – Treluyer	Audi Sport Team JOEST	DEU
6	3	LM P1 – H	Albuquerque – Bonanomi – Jarvis	Audi Sport Team JOEST	DEU
7	13	LM P1 – L	Kraihamer – Belicchi – Leimer	Rebellion Racing	CHE
8	12	LM P1 – L	Prost – Heidfeld – Beche	Rebellion Racing	CHE
9	26	LM P2	Rusinov – Pla – Canal	G-Drive Racing	RUS
10	36	LM P2	Chatin – Panciatici – Webb	Signatech Alpine	FRA
11	47	LM P2	Howson – Bradley – Imperatori	KCMG	HOK
12	35	LM P2	Brundle – Mardenborough – Shulzhitskiy	OAK Racing	FRA
13	34	LM P2	Frey – Mailleux – Lancaster	Race Performance	CHE
14	48	LM P2	Berthon – González – Chandhok	Murphy Prototypes	IND
15	42	LM P2	Kimber-Smith – McMurry – Dyson	Caterham Racing	MYS
16	46	LM P2	Thiriet – Badey – Gommendy	Thiriet by TDS Racing	FRA
17	33	LM P2	Cheng – Tung – Fong	OAK Racing – Team Asia	FRA
18	24	LM P2	Rast – Charouz – Capillaire	Sebastien Löeb Racing	FRA
19	27	LM P2	Zlobin – Salo – Ladygin	SMP Racing	RUS
20	38	LM P2	Dolan – Tincknell – Turvey	Jota Sport	GBR
21	43	LM P2	Klien – Hirsch – Brandela	Newblood by Morand Racing	CHE
22	37	LM P2	Kadygin – Minassian – Mediani	SMP Racing	RUS
23	29	LM P2	Schell – Leutwiler – Roussel	Pegasus Racing	DEU
24	50	LM P2	Ragues – Taylor – Ihara	Larbre Competition	FRA
25	51	LM GTE Pro	Bruni – Vilander – Fisichella	AF Corse	ITA
26	97	LM GTE Pro	Turner – Mücke – Senna	Aston Martin Racing	GBR
27	92	LM GTE Pro	Holzer – Makowiecki – Lietz	Porsche Team Manthey	DEU
28	73	LM GTE Pro	Magnussen – García – Taylor	Corvette Racing	USA
29	91	LM GTE Pro	Pilet – Bergmeister – Tandy	Porsche Team Manthey	DEU
30	72	LM GTE Am	Bertolini – Shaitar – Basov	SMP Racing	RUS
31	61	LM GTE Am	Companc – Cioci – Venturi	AF Corse	ITA
32	77	LM GTE Am	Dempsey – Foster – Long	Dempsey Racing – Proton	USA
33	99	LM GTE Pro	MacDowall – O’Young – Rees	Aston Martin Racing	GBR
34	52	LM GTE Pro	Griffin – Parente – Leo	RAM Racing	GBR
35	71	LM GTE Pro	Rigon – Calado – Beretta	AF Corse	ITA
36	88	LM GTE Am	Ried – Bachler – Al Qubaisi	Proton Competition	DEU
37	75	LM GTE Am	Perrodo – Collard – Palttala	Prospeed Competition	BEL
38	74	LM GTE Pro	Gavin – Milner – Westbrook	Corvette Racing	USA
39	53	LM GTE Am	Mowlem – Patterson – Hamilton	RAM Racing	GBR
40	58	LM GTE Am	Barthez – Pons – Ayari	Team Sofrev ASP	FRA
41	98	LM GTE Am	Dalla Lana – Lamy – Nygaard	Aston Martin Racing	GBR
42	79	LM GTE Am	MacNeil – Curtis – Bleekemolen	Prospeed Competition	BEL
43	81	LM GTE Am	Wyatt – Rugolo – Bird	AF Corse	ITA
44	70	LM GTE Am	Nakano – Ehret – Rich	Team Taisan	JPN
45	57	LM GTE Am	Krohn – Jönsson – Collins	Krohn Racing	USA
46	66	LM GTE Am	Turki Alfasail – Neiman – Pumpelly	JMW Motorsport	GBR
47	95	LM GTE Am	Poulsen – Heinemeier-Hansson – Thiim	Aston Martin Racing	GBR
48	62	LM GTE Am	Mallegol – Bachelier – Blank	AF Corse	ITA
49	60	LM GTE Am	Mann – Case – Giammaria	AF Corse	ITA
50	0	CDNT	Ordoñez – Reip – Motoyama	Nissan Motorsports Global	JPN
51	1	LM P1 – H	Di Grassi – Gené – Kristensen	Audi Sport Team JOEST	DEU
52	41	LM P2	Munemann – Latif – Winslow	Greaves Motorsport	GBR
53	67	LM GTE Am	Maris – Merlin – Helary	IMSA Performance Matmut	FRA
54	76	LM GTE Am	Narac – Armindo – Hallyday	IMSA Performance Matmut	FRA
55	90	LM GTE Am	Montecalvo – Roda – Ruberti	8 Star Motorsports	USA