Kamui Kobayashi has set the fastest time in the qualifying practice session for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The Japanese driver set the quickest time early on in the session in the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid, posting a 03:26:279. Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez both also had time in the car, but Toyota has said that the remainder of the lap time was focused on set-up work.
The #36 Alpine A480-Gibson took second in the hands of Matthieu Vaxiviere, with Brendon Hartley third in the #8 Toyota and Olivier Pla fourth for Glickenhaus.
The one-hour session on Wednesday evening served a double purpose: it determined which six cars in each class would go through to Thursday’s Hyperpole session, while determining the rest of the grid for Saturday’s race for those that did not make the cut.
JOTA took the top spot in LMP2 thanks to a best lap of 03:29:144 set by Antonio Felix da Costa in the #38 ORECA 07-Gibson.
Da Costa outqualified the #26 G-Drive Racing Aurus 01-Gibson of newly crowned Formula E world champion Nyck de Vries, with Louis Deletraz third for Team WRT and Will Stevens fourth for Panis Racing. The top six was completed by the two United Autosports ORECAs of Nico Jamin and Paul di Resta.
Several top teams missed out on a spot in Hyperpole, most notably defending race winner Filipe Albuquerque in the #22 United Autosports ORECA.
Albuquerque was held up by traffic and was visibly frustrated afterwards. IDEC Sport also saw their qualifying session to go less than perfect when Paul-Loup Chatin crashed the #48 ORECA at Tertre Rouge shortly after the start of the session.
AF Corse topped the GTE Pro standings one-two, with Daniel Serra setting the quickest time in the #52 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo. The double class winner posted a 03:46.011, with James Calado swooping in late on to improve and go second in the #51 Ferrari.
Kevin Estre secured third in the #92 Porsche 911 RSR-19, ahead of the #64 Corvette C8.R of Nick Tandy fourth, Dries Vanthoor fifth in the #72 HubAuto Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19 and the #91 Porsche of Gianmaria Bruni securing the final spot in Hyperpole.
Julien Andlauer led the way in a Porsche-led session in GTE Am, as the #88 Dempsey-Proton Porsche 911 RSR-19 took the top spot with a 03:48:620.
Ben Barker took second place in the #86 GR Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19, wth Antonio Fuoco third for Cetilar Racing and fourth secured by the #71 Inception Racing Ferrari driven by Ben Barnicoat.
Fifth went to Matteo Cairloli’s #56 Team Project 1 Porsche, while the top six was rounded out with Felipe Fraga securing the final ticket to Hyperpole in the #33 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage AMR.
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