TOYOTA LOCKS OUT LE MANS 24 HOURS FRONT ROW
Kamui Kobayashi has scored pole position for the #7 Toyota Gazoo Racing trio at this weekend’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, the fourth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
Incredibly it is the fourth time in five years that the former Formula 1 driver has taken pole position for the French classic, however, like his teammates Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez, he is yet to win the Le Mans 24 Hour.
In the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid Hypercar Kobayashi set a 3m23.900s time, 0.295s faster than the defending champions, the sister #8 Toyota in the hands of fellow former F1 driver Brendon Hartley.
The Alpine appeared to be a threat throughout practice, however when it came to crunch time in the Hyperpole session Nicolas Lapierre could only manage a 3m25.574s, over 1.6s off the pace nevertheless this car will be a threat over the 24-hour distance.
The class was rounded out by the pair of Glickenhaus Racing entries, with Oliver Pla under 0.1s behind the Alpine in car #708, while the #709 which contains Australian Ryan Briscoe was fifth.
The Hyperpole session saw the top six cars from each class battle it out for pole position.
LMP2 saw former FIA Formula E Championship driver Antonio Felix da Costa take pole position for JOTA. The Portuguese driver took pole with a 3m 27.950s time, over 0.5s faster than Louis Deletraz in the #41 Team WRT car.
The highest placed Australian in class will be James Allen he will start from eighth outright and third in class after his teammate, former F1 driver Will Stevens set the third-fastest time.
After winning the FIA Formula E Championship last weekend, Dutchman Nyck de Vries qualified fourth in the #26 G-Drive car ahead of the #32 and #23 United Autosports pair.
Hub Auto Porsche took a surprise pole position in the GTE Pro class as Dries Vanthoor set an impressive 3m 46.882s time.
Next best was the #52 AF Corse Ferrari 488 with Daniel Serra at the wheel, while Nick Tandy in the #63 Corvette made it three brands in the top three positions highlighting the competitiveness of the class.
Notably, the championship-leading #92 Porsche driven by Kevin Estre had an off at Indianapolis and forced the session to be red-flagged and will start from sixth.
In GTE Am it was the #88 Dempsey Proton car with Porsche ace Julian Andlauer that claimed an unsurprising pole to continue his run of form.
GR Racing will start from second thanks to Tom Gamble, while Team Project 1 Porsche driven by Matteo Cairoli in third position ahead of No.47 Cetilar Racing Porsche.
The Le Mans 24 Hour will get underway at midnight Sunday (22/8) (AEST).
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