Larbre Corvette Crashes in Warmup at Le Mans

Larbre Competition driver Gianluca Roda crashed the No. 50 Corvette C7.R at Porsche Curves in Saturday morning’s warmup for the 83rd running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Ten minutes from the end of the session, the Italian lost control of the Corvette and hit the outside wall, sliding down the grass before coming to a stop.

Roda was able to get out of his car under his own power, but the French team will face an uphill struggle to repair the car in time for the start of the race.

Filipe Albuquerque meanwhile set the pace, lapping the Circuit de la Sarthe in 3:19.423, faster than any of the Audi R18 e-tron quattros went in qualifying.

The Portuguese driver, who celebrates his 30th birthday today, outpaced his Audi teammates, who set the second and third fastest time in the session.

Fourth fastest was the No. 18 Porsche 919 Hybrid of Neel Jani, Romain Dumas and Marc Lieb, 0.001s quicker than the No. 17 sister car.

In LMP2, the Jota Sport Gibson 015S Nissan was fastest, ahead of the Greaves Motorsport Gibson and pole sitting KCMG Oreca 05 Nissan. Both the Greaves Gibson and KCMG Oreca set a 3:39.960.

The No. 97 Aston Martin Racing Vantage of Stefan Muecke, Darren Turner and Rob Bell beat the two AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italias in GTE-Pro, while the No. 88 Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR was quickest in GTE-Am.

The 24 Hours of Le Mans will start at 3:00 p.m. CET, 9:00 a.m. ET.

RESULTS: Warmup