Sunny second qualifying

The second out of three qualifyings prior to the 24 hours race at Le Mans was run under sunny sky.

However, there were still plenty of problems on the track for the drivers.

Rebellion Racing #3 spilled some oil on the Mulsanne Straight, resulting in a red flag. The team was convinced that there was a problem on the engine, even before they got the car back.

Keating Motorsports Ford #85 had a tour on the gravel in the same corner – but unrelated to the oil spill. It triggered a Slow Zone, so that the car could be pulled free and Ben Keating could drive it back to the pits.

MR Racing Ferrari #70 had to come in and hold still for three minutes, because they kept driving long over track limits despite several warnings.

Laurens Vanthoor in Porsche #92 was extremely lucky under braking to the Mulsanne Corner, since he almost drove into the back of ARC Bratislava #49, when Miro Konopka braked noticeably earlier than the Porsche driver had expected.

High Class Racing #20 had a small problem in the Ford Chicane, where he held still for some seconds before he could restart the car.

United Autosport #22 had to park the car in the pits for an hour, because the team had to solve a problem with some vibration from the engine.

There was also some news from Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche #99. Tracy Krohn had been released from the hospital, but FIA rules state that he isn’t allowed to drive for a week. Shortly afterwards, the team sent out a statement that they had built a new car that was ready to drive, if Krohn was able to drive. Such a shame for the team.

Toyota Gazoo Racing #7 had also done a build-up. The mechanics had found a damage on the original chassis, which Mike Conway had a collision in, and later a jump, when he hit DragonSpeed #31. That was why they spent Thursday building a new car, so the drivers could start testing it.

There were some changes on top of all the four classes.

Toyota Gazoo Racing #7 improved their time, so they were doing 3:15, while the sister car #8 was 0,4 seconds slower. SMP Racing #11 also did some improvement, but they were about 1,5 seconds slower than the Japanese Polesitter in P3.

Michael Christensen (teammates to Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor) in Porsche #92 took a new provisional Pole Position, ahead of Corvette Racing #63 with Antonio Garcia (teammates to Mike Rockenfeller and Jan Magnussen), and pushed Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK #67 down to third.

Aston Martin Racing #95 with Nicki Thiim, Marco Sørensen and Darren Turner didn’t set a better time and is now P11 in GTE Pro.

In LMP2, DragonSpeed #31 was fastest, while Jackie Chan DC Racing #38 did some quick laptime and came up to second, pushing Signatech Alpine Matmut #36 to third.

High Class Racing #20 with Anders Fjordbach, Dennis Andersen and Mathias Beche also set a time under 3:30, but stayed on P17 in the class.

Jackie Chan DC Racing #37 with David Heinemeier Hansson, Jordan King and Ricky Taylor chopped a second from the time, but they remained on eleventh position in LMP2.

Spirit of Race Ferrari #54 with Giancarlo Fisichella drove third fastest time of all the GTE Am cars, but still with Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche #88 and Team Project 1 Porsche #56 in front.

Kessel Racing #83 with Michelle Gatting, Manuela Gostner and Rahel Frey drove two seconds faster and is now P10 in GTE Am.

The last qualifying session will be run at 22.00.