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
Follow every session of the Le Mans 24 Hours as it happens with AUTOSPORT's live coverage from the French classic
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments