Toyota secured a one-two finish in the opening qualifying session for the 2018 Le Mans 24 Hours, with Kazuki Nakajima setting the benchmark in the #7 on his opening lap.
The twilight opening minutes of the two-hour session provided the fastest track conditions, with the majority of personal bests being set during the first runs.
This was the case for the two Toyota TS050 entries. On their first laps, Nakajima’s 3m17.270s in the #7 entry edged team-mate Kamui Kobayashi in the #8 car by 0.107s.
These times remained as the fastest for the rest of the session. Nakajima’s timesheet-topping effort was set in spite of having not personally posted a representative time in practice as a result of being compromised by slow zones.
Le Mans lap record holder Kobayashi was 2.106s clear of the first privateer entry, with the #11 SMP Racing entry in third place. Stephane Sarrazin first propelled the #11 to third before Egor Orudzhev later lowered the gap to the Toyotas.
The ORECA-built Rebellion R-13 cars were next on the timesheet, with the #1 car ahead of the #3 but separated by 0.1s.
In sixth place was the #10 DragonSpeed entry. Ben Hanley posted the team’s fastest time of the session early on before the car later suffered reliability issues. Smoke billowed from the back of the machine at Dunlop, causing Renger van der Zande to pull over and curtailing the team’s session.
The #11 SMP Racing BR1 ended up seventh ahead of the ByKolles #4, which had its two fastest lap times deleted for exceeding fuel consumption limits.
The #8 Toyota also suffered a similar fuel irregularity. While not affecting the team’s fastest lap of the session, it had a total of seven laps deleted late on for also exceeding the maximum fuel consumption.
The Manor Ginetta G60s suffered electrical gremlins which kept the team marooned in the garage for much of the opening hour of the session. Both entries did, however, manage to record at least five laps with each driver to meet the minimum requirements.
Idec Sport topped the LMP2 timesheet, with the #48 car. It led the #28 TDS Racing ORECA, which had led the class in the opening stages after Loic Duval’s first run before falling to 0.284s adrift in second.
Current Formula E championship leader Jean-Eric Vergne had propelled G-Drive Racing to the top of the LMP2 times in practice. He ended up third in the #26 entry in qualifying, edging Pastor Maldonado’s DragonSpeed by 0.061s.
Top of the GTE-Pro class was the #31 Porsche driven by Gianmaria Bruni. His 3m47.504s time was recorded on his first lap of the session.
Immediately after his second lap, Bruni spun on the exit of the high-speed Turn 1, ending up in the gravel trap at Dunlop. The car was out of the session, but still finished 1.593s ahead of the nearest competition.
Porsche also topped GTE-Am. Matteo Cairoli’s benchmark ensured that the #88 Dempsey-Proton Racing entry was fastest ahead of team-mates in the #77 car.
