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Buemi’s number 8 car clinches Pole Position at Le Mans

With Formula E Season 2 champion Sébastien Buemi on Pole Position ahead of the 2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, we take a look at how the Formula E drivers taking part in endurance racing’s biggest event did in today’s qualifying session.

LMP1

The #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing entry of Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima, and Fernando Alonso claimed pole position for the 86th running of the Le Mans 24 Hours with Nakajima setting the fastest time with a 3:15.377.

They beat the #7 car of their teammates, Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, and José María López by exactly two seconds to ensure that the team based in Cologne, Germany stood the best possible chance on race day.

TECHEETAH’s André Lotterer’s teammate, former Mahindra Racing driver, Bruno Senna set the fastest time of the privateer LMP1 teams in the #1 Rebellion R13 – Gibson which they will share with Neel Jani in the race with a 3:19.405.

They were slightly faster than the #17 SMP Racing BR1 – AER which was anchored by MS&AD Andretti driver Stéphane Sarrazin and his teammates Orudzhev and Isaakyan. The Frenchman managed a 3:19.483 lap time at the wheel.

The CEFC TRSM Ginetta G60-LT-P1 – Mecachromes struggled for pace due to a lack of running although the #6 of Oliver Rowland, Mike Simpson, and NIO’s Oliver Turvey were the fastest of the two cars with a time of 3:23.757.


LMP2

In LMP2, the #26 G-Drive Racing Oreca – Gibson of Romain Rusinov, Andrea Pizzitola, and current Formula E championship leader Jean-Eric Vergne were the third quickest in class with a 3:25.160 from Vergne.

This was after the pole-winning #28 TDS Racing Oreca had all of its lap times from the session deleted due to not stopping at the scrutineering light.


GTE-Pro

GTE-Pro saw the #71 AF Corse Ferrari of Sam Bird, Davide Rigon, and Miguel Molina start as the highest of the entries with Formula E in them with Bird setting a 3:50.246 lap time, scoring the tenth fastest time in the class.

The #82 BMW Team MTEK entry for MS&AD Andretti driver Antonio Felix da Costa, Augusto Farfus, and Alexander Sims will start a couple of spots behind the Ferrari. Da Costa’s best time is of 3:50.579.

The #97 Aston Martin Racing crew of Alex Lynn, Maxime Martin, and Jonathan Adam will start from 16th in class and 50th overall after Lynn’s 3:52.486, making him the fastest of the Aston Martin drivers in class.

The fastest time was set by Gianmaria Bruni in the #91 Porsche he will be sharing with Richard Leitz and Frederic Makowiecki with a 3:47.504.


GTE-Am

Porsche also set the fastest time in GTE-AM thanks to a 3:50.728 set by Matteo Cairoli in the #88 Dempsey – Proton Racing entry he shares with Khaled Al Kubasi and Gorgio Roda.

 

Photo courtesy of FIA WEC.

Rob Lomas

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