It was supposed to be the most exciting WEC qualifying session of the year, but rain again put the brakes on the final qualifying session for Le Mans, with times having to be taken from yesterday’s Q1 session to decide the eventual running order for the 2014 Le Mans 24 Hours.
Despite the extreme precipitation, there was at least one piece of entertainment on track in the form of safety car driver (and 3-times Le Mans winner), Yanick Dalmas putting the AudiSport R18 into a massive drift under the Dunlop Bridge, earning the plaudits of drivers up and down pit-lane.
Neel Jani continued his impressive pace at Le Mans to secure a provisional pole slot in the number two Porsche 919 Hybrid,
Jani’s 3.19:733 was just under half-a-second quicker than the number one sister car of Timo Bernhard on a 3.20:203s.
Toyota finished the session in third and just over a second away from the Porsche duo with Stephane Sarrazin recording a 3.20:737s in the number six Toyota TS050 Hybrid, just a second ahead of the number five, sister Toyota.
It was a sterling effort from the Toyota crew, having had to repair the front of the number six entry after Sarrazin clouted the barriers at Indianapolis in first practice. Audi however were stuck behind the eight-ball, with both of its R18 cars entering the session late; repairs to the number eight car’s drive-train being required after Lucas di Grassi’s excursion at the first chicane earlier in the afternoon.
Benoit Treluyer’s late qualifying run brought little solace however, with in the number 7 machine only brought a 3.22:670 second lap being just over three seconds away from Jani’s provisional pole.
Youngster Matheo Tuscher scored an LMP1 privateer provisional pole with a 3.26:586 in the number thirteen Rebellion R-One-AER, just under a second ahead of the number twelve sister Rebellion entry, while the number four ByKolles CLM was still being repaired after their engine fire in practice. As the rain settled, Race Director Eduardo Freitas declared the track safe, but would mainly be a fact-finding session for most teams – all except ByKolles, which took the opportunity to qualify after their first practice session ended with an engine fire.
The team would be up against it however, with time against them attempting to qualify all three drivers. Oliver Webb would be forced to hand over to his silver co-drivers earlier than expected. The team would settle for 9th outright - 7 seconds behind the Rebellions. All three ByKolles drivers had no chance to stay within the 110 percent rule in the extremely wet final stages. In fact, Simon Tummer was absolutely competitive given the circumstances but would have needed to be thirteen seconds faster than the fastest factory car in the wet to qualify.
The 26 G-Drive Racing Oreca dominated qualifying, with Rene Rast turning up the wickto record a 3.36:605 to finish just half a second ahead of the number 35 Baxi DC Signatech Alpine of Nelson Panciatici. Nicolas Lapierre took third for Signatech Alpine, ahead of the Manor entry of Roberto Merhi.
Dirk Muller raised some eyebrows by taking provisional GTE Pro pole for Ford with a 3.51:185. Muller’s time was enough to usurp Chip Ganassi USA team mate Ryan Briscoe from the top spot and just just a second ahead of the third placed AF Corse Ferrari 488 of Gianmaria Bruni and Sam Bird.
In GTE Am, British GT driver Rob Bell recorded a 3.56:827 in the number 61 Clearwater Racing Ferrari to be fastest ahead of the number 98 Aston Martin of Pedro Lamy and the number 55 AF Corse Ferrari 458 of Matt Griffin. The red flag emerged but once after Giancarlo Fisichella spun his Risi Competizione Ferrari at the Porsche Curves just half an hour into the session.
Images: Richard Washbrooke Photography
Qualifying - Le Mans