Magnussen’s Heavy Crash Ends Second Qualifying Early at Le Mans

A heavy crash for Jan Magnussen in the No. 63 Corvette C7.R at the exit of Porsche Curves brought out the second red flag of second qualifying at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with just over 42 minutes remaining in the session.

As Magnussen exited the Porsche Curves, the car hit a curb on the right and made heavy contact with the right front of the car striking the guardrail. The car also sustained a secondary impact.

Magnussen was reported as awake and alert, and undid his helmet under his own power, but was extracted out of the car by the local marshals.

A later update issued just before 11 p.m. local time from race officials said Magnussen had left the medical center and was debriefing with his Corvette Racing team.

Following the accident, just before 9 p.m. local time, Race Control said the session would not be restarted.

It was already running 12 minutes long due to the first red flag of the session, when Duncan Cameron was stuck in the gravel in the Porsche Curves in his No. 55 AF Corse Ferrari F458 Italia.

The fastest driver in the two-hour session thus far was Nick Tandy in the No. 19 Porsche 919 Hybrid, at 3:18.862 early in the session to stay third overall.

Andre Lotterer in the No. 7 Audi R18 e-tron quattro, posted a best time of 3:20.561 to move ahead of the No. 9 Audi into fifth place overall.

Several other cars throughout the field improved their times from Wednesday, notably the pair of Tequila Patron ESM Ligier JS P2 Hondas, and several other LMP2 cars.

Two of the five AF Corse Ferrari F458 Italias, the No. 51 GTE-Pro entry and No. 61 GTE-Am entry, had their times disallowed after Wednesday’s sessions for abuse of track limits.

The No. 51 car had been second in GTE-Pro with a best time of 3:55.306 after Wednesday’s sessions, while the No. 61 car had been fifth in GTE-Am.

Third and final qualifying will start at 9:30 p.m. local time.