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24H Le Mans

Kobayashi Quickest in Incident-Free Warmup

Kamui Kobayashi puts No. 7 Toyota on top in warm up on raceday morning…

Photo: Olivier Beroud Images

Kamui Kobayashi set the fastest lap time for Toyota Gazoo Racing in Saturday morning’s warmup ahead of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The Japanese driver posted a time of 3:18.687 in the No. 7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid that he will share with Jose Maria Lopez and Mike Conway.

While only Sebastien Buemi drove the No. 8 car in the 45-minute session, Toyota cycled through all three of its drivers in the sister No. 7 car.

Buemi led most of the session until Kobayashi improved late on.

DragonSpeed had the best non-hybrid time with its No. 10 BR Engineering BR1 Gibson, meanwhile.

Jackie Chan DC Racing’s Ricky Taylor led the way in LMP2 with a time of 3:29.466 in the No. 34 Ligier JS P217 Gibson ahead of the Signatech Alpine Matmut car. 

Pole sitter IDEC Sport was the only LMP2 runner not to post a flying lap although the No. 48 Oreca did log six laps. 

Ford on Top in GTE-Pro

Scott Dixon set a time of 3:50.533 to put Ford Chip Ganassi Racing to the top of the timesheets in GTE-Pro, ahead of the three AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTEs in second through fourth.

Porsche’s pole sitting No. 91 entry was 13th in class as all three drivers set lap times during the session.

Keating Motorsports led the way in GTE-Am with its No. 85 Risi Competizione-run Ferrari driven this morning by Luca Stolz and Jeroen Bleekemolen.

Both drivers set competitive times but the Dutchman came out on top with a 3:53.218.

Dempsey-Proton Racing was another team on class pole not to set a flying lap time, with the No. 88 Porsche 911 RSR being one of two cars not going out on track at all.

No major incidents were recorded in the session, other than a couple of minor off-track excursions.

The race will get underway at 3 p.m. local time.

RESULTS: Warmup

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.

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