The capricious weather in the Sarthe region played havoc with teams’ plans to improve on yesterday’s times with the third and final qualifying session being red flagged for 57 minutes due to heavy rain and treacherous track conditions.
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Porsche, who returned to Le Mans with a works team in 2014 for the first time in 16 years, are the most successful manufacturer with 17 titles.
Toyota Gazoo Racing has locked out the second row thanks to its qualifying one session times with the #5 TS050 Hybrid in third ahead of the sister #6 machine.
Torrential rain in Thursday night’s third and final session meant Jani’s time stood, with the number one Porsche driven by endurance world champions Mark Webber of Australia, Germany’s Timo Bernhard and New Zealander Brendon Hartley completing the front row. The diesel-powered prototypes will roll off fifth and sixth overall.
Rebellion Racing’s Dominik Kraihamer claimed the fastest time of the LMP1 Private Team entries in the No.13 R-One AER, ahead of the sister vehicle and the No.4 ByKolles which is now repaired after its fire yesterday.
The American squad, however, will be forced to serve a five-minute stop-and-hold penalty sometime in the first half of the race due to undergoing an engine change.
After stamping its presence all over the opening qualifying session, Ford has retained all four GT cars inside the top five spots in the class, with the #68 Ford Chip Ganassi Team USA auto taking pole position with its sister US entry alongside it.
The #68 will start in pole for the class, while Australian Ryan Briscoe secured second with a 3:51.497. Ferrari replied swiftly by one upping both lap times with a 3:51.568 lap time in the #51 488 GTE.
The Englishman edged out the No. 98 Aston Martin Vantage GTE of Pedro Lamy by 0.371 seconds, with the No. 88 Abu Dhabi Proton Racing Porsche set to start third.
Porsche has taken a one-two in qualifying with Jani repeating his 2015 achievement of placing his 919 Hybrid on pole, ahead of the #1 Porsche.
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The 84th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans gets underway Saturday at 3 p.m. local time.
