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Le Mans: Toyota fastest in practice as Audi's Duval crashes heavily

Toyota driver Anthony Davidson topped free practice for the Le Mans 24 Hours, a session interrupted by a massive accident for Audi's Loic Duval

Davidson set the best time in the #8 Toyota TS040 Hybrid of 3m23.652s on the one-hour mark, minutes before Duval crashed at the Porsche Curves.

The #1 Audi R18 e-tron Quattro hit the debris fencing hard but Duval was confirmed to be conscious and communicating when he was taken to the medical centre for checks.

A statement issued by race organisers described Duval's condition as "encouraging".

Marcel Fassler was second fastest in the #2 Audi, just 0.324s off the Toyota, but the strength of the Japanese marque was underlined by Kazuki Nakajima's third-best time in the #7 car.

The #1 Audi had briefly headed the timesheets in the hands of Lucas di Grassi, shortly before Duval's crash.

Although it was shuffled down the order, Brazilian's time was still good enough for fourth place, fractionally ahead of the third Audi driven by former McLaren AUTOSPORT BRDC Award winner Oliver Jarvis.

Porsche was sixth and seventh on its return to top class action at Le Mans, with Timo Bernard three seconds off the overall pace and just over seven-tenths faster than the sister car, driven by Neel Jani.

The two LMP1-L Rebellion-Toyota R-Ones were eighth and ninth, with Mathias Beche outpacing the sister car, whose best time was set by Dominik Kraihamer.

The LMP2 pace was set by Jann Mardenborough driving the new Ligier JSP2 Coupe run by OAK Racing.

He beat the Murphy Prototypes ORECA-Nissan 03R of Karun Chandhok by just over a tenth.

Gianmaria Bruni was fastest in GTE Pro in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia, with Nicki Thiim setting the pace in GTE Am driving the #95 Aston Martin Vantage GTE.

The session was interrupted by a second red flag shortly before the session entered its final half hour after Erik Maris went off at the first Mulsanne chicane.

The subsequent restart lasted only four minutes as Frankie Montecalvo's AF Corse-run 8Star Motorsport Ferrari went off at the second chicane, and the decision was taken not to restart the session.

The #74 Chevrolet Corvette also hit trouble, stopping out on circuit with Tommy Milner at the wheel, while the #41 Greaves Motorsport Zytek, driven by Michael Munemann, also went off.

The Nissan ZEOD RC was unable to set a time after suffering a loss of drive on its out-lap with Lucas Ordonez at the wheel thanks to a gearbox problem.

It is hoped that the car will be able to participate in tonight's first qualifying session.

First qualifying starts at 2200 tonight.

Pos  Cl     Drivers                             Team/Car                 Time
 1.  P1     Davidson/Lapierre/Buemi             Toyota                   3m23.652s
 2.  P1     Fassler/Lotterer/Treluyer           Audi                     3m23.976s
 3.  P1     Wurz/Sarrazin/Nakajima              Toyota                   3m24.291s
 4.  P1     Di Grassi/Duval/Kristensen          Audi                     3m24.729s
 5.  P1     Albuquerque/Bonanomi/Jarvis         Audi                     3m24.829s
 6.  P1     Bernhard/Webber/Hartley             Porsche                  3m26.602s
 7.  P1     Dumas/Jani/Lieb                     Porsche                  3m27.374s
 8.  P1     Prost/Heidfeld/Beche                Rebellion-Toyota         3m31.212s
 9.  P1     Kraihamer/Belicchi/Leimer           Rebellion-Toyota         3m36.345s
10.  P2     Brundle/Mardenborough/Shulzhitskiy  OAK Ligier-Nissan        3m40.611s
11.  P2     Berthon/Gonzalez/Chandhok           Murphy ORECA-Nissan      3m40.737s
12.  P2     Ladygin/Minassian/Mediani           SMP ORECA-Nissan         3m41.073s
13.  P2     Chatin/Panciatici/Webb              Signatech Alpine-Nissan  3m41.096s
14.  P2     Howson/Bradley/Imperatori           KCMG ORECA-Nissan        3m41.602s
15.  P2     Rusinov/Pla/Canal                   OAK Morgan-Nissan        3m41.828s
16.  P2     Ragues/Taylor/Ihara                 Larbre Morgan-Judd       3m42.216s
17.  P2     Thiriet/Badey/Gommendy              TDS Ligier-Nissan        3m42.261s
18.  P2     Rast/Charouz/Capillaire             Loeb ORECA-Nissan        3m42.630s
19.  P2     Frey/Mailleux/Lancaster             Race Perf ORECA-Judd     3m43.080s
20.  P2     Dolan/Tincknell/Gene                Jota Zytek-Nissan        3m43.148s
21.  P2     Zlobin/Salo/Ladygin                 SMP ORECA-Nissan         3m43.310s
22.  P2     Klien/Hirsch/Brandela               Morand Morgan-Judd       3m43.725s
23.  P2     Cheng/Tung/Fong                     OAK Ligier-HPD           3m44.739s
24.  P2     Schell/Leutwiller/Roussel           Pegasus Morgan-Nissan    3m44.799s
25.  P2     Kimber-Smith/McMurry/Dyson          Greaves Zytek-Nissan     3m45.275s
26.  P2     Munemman/Latif/Winslow              Greaves Zytek-Nissan     3m51.970s
27.  GTE A  Poulsen/Hansson/Thiim               Aston Martin             3m57.015s
28.  GTE P  Bruni/Vilander/Fisichella           AF Ferrari               3m57.028s
29.  GTE P  Turner/Mucke/Senna                  Aston Martin             3m57.086s
30.  GTE P  Magnussen/Garcia/Taylor             Corvette                 3m58.136s
31.  GTE A  Dempsey/Foster/Long                 Dempsey Porsche          3m58.167s
32.  GTE P  Rigon/Calado/Beretta                AF Ferrari               3m58.263s
33.  GTE P  Pilet/Bergmeister/Tandy             Manthey Porsche          3m58.316s
34.  GTE P  Holzer/Makowiecki/Lietz             Manthey Porsche          3m58.492s
35.  GTE P  Macdowall/O'Young/Rees              Aston Martin             3m58.870s
36.  GTE A  Wyatt/Rugolo/Bird                   AF Ferrari               3m58.923s
37.  GTE P  Gavin/Milner/Westbrook              Corvette                 3m59.225s
38.  GTE P  Griffin/Parente/Leo                 Ram Ferrari              3m59.383s
39.  GTE A  Dalla Lana/Lamy/Nygaard             Aston Martin             3m59.387s
40.  GTE A  Ried/Bachler/Al Qubaisi             Proton Porsche           3m59.461s
41.  GTE A  Perez-Companc/Cioci/Venturi         AF Ferrari               3m59.498s
42.  GTE A  Bertolini/Shaitar/Basov             SMP Ferrari              3m59.667s
43.  GTE A  Montecalvo/Roda/Ruberti             8Star Ferrari            3m59.901s
44.  GTE A  Mann/Case/Giammaria                 AF Ferrari               3m59.945s
45.  GTE A  Narac/Armindo/Hallyday              Imsa Porsche             4m00.760s
46.  GTE A  Perrodo/Collard/Palttala            Prospeed Porsche         4m01.108s
47.  GTE A  Krohn/Jonsson/Collins               Krohn Ferrari            4m01.858s
48.  GTE A  MacNeil/Curtis/Bleekemolen          Prospeed Porsche         4m02.279s
49.  GTE A  Barthez/Pons/Ayari                  Sofrev Ferrari           4m02.449s
50.  GTE A  Maris/Merlin/Helary                 Imsa Porsche             4m02.580s
51.  GTE A  Mowlem/Patterson/Hamilton           Ram Ferrari              4m02.757s
52.  GTE A  Al Faisal/Neiman/Pumpelly           JMW Ferrari              4m02.852s
53.  GTE A  Nakano/Ehret/Rich                   Taisan Ferrari           4m08.634s
54.  GTE A  Mallegol/Bachelier/Blank            AF Ferrari               4m10.793s
55.  C      Ordonez/Reip/Motoyama               Nissan ZEOD

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