Reigning Le Mans champions Porsche will lead away the 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans on Saturday, with the No.2 Porsche 919 Hybrid on pole position.
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The last section of qualifying is due to take place later Thursday but with the surface still wet, it’s unlikely that challengers Audi or Toyota will be able to better Jani’s time of 3min 19.733sec set Wednesday. That means Toyota will start behind the Porsche cars from the second row, the #6 Toyota TS050 Hybrid will start from P3 while the #5 sister vehicle will start from P4.
The 24 Hours of Le Mans is definitely a bucket list race for fans. This year Audi is entering a couple of cars into the race, with ex-Formula 1 and current Formula E driver Lucas di Grassi among its six-driver lineup.
Q: What’s the big challenge at Le Mans?
The electrical component of the drivetrain powers the front axle of the 919 (making the auto effectively four-wheel drive).
“The target in Le Mans, obviously, is the race and not getting pole position”. Brendon Hartley’s lead in the #1 Porsche is just three seconds over the #6 Toyota. That means the 919 Hybrid for the 2016 Le Mans race produces around 900 hp in total and is able to sprint from 0-124 miles per hour in just 4.8 seconds.
“In these conditions, it was extremely hard to work out a ideal set-up for the race”, said Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich. “Ford wants to do this right, in the spirit of the race – we’re certainly not lifting off on the straight!”
Aston Martin Racing’s No.98 V8 Vantage of Pedro Lamy upheld the WEC’s honour in the LMGTE Am category, second in class behind the Clearwater Racing Ferrari.
British drivers feature in all five teams, with one of the Fords boasting an all-British crew of Marino Franchitti, Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell.
One auto who will be happy to be out of the pits will be the #1 Porsche driven by Brenden Hartley.
“So hopefully people will see the results; they’ll see that I have taken it seriously, that I’ve given it the respect it deserves”.
“It’s important [to appeal to] a certain range of customers to be able to say, ‘here’s the sort of technology we can show – on one side, high performance, and on the other side, reliability”, says Leupen. It enables GT racing but we do not need this kind of BOP.
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The problem: Tomorrow’s impending race start means there’s no time to test the changes in further practice or qualifying sessions, so the ACO may have inadvertently lopsided the results yet again, giving one team or another an advantage.
