No Major Improvements in Weather-Interruped Qualifying 2

Photo: Brian Cleary/BCPix.com

Neel Jani and the No. 2 Porsche 919 Hybrid remain on provisional pole after the second qualifying session for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, in a session that saw few improvements.

The two-hour session saw intermittent rain throughout, and most teams took the opportunity to practice in the wet conditions.

The only team to improve upon its time from Wednesday’s Qualifying 1 was ByKolles Racing Team. The No. 4 CLM P1/01 AER didn’t take to the track yesterday evening, after a leaking fuel pump caused a fire in the car during Free Practice.

Although the fastest time from this session was a 3:23.307 from the No. 1 Porsche, Jani’s lap of 3:19.733 still stands as the provisional pole time, leading a Porsche one-two.

The No. 8 Audi R18 e-tron quattro appears to have lost its Q1 time of 3:22.466, as timing screens now show a 3:22.823. This places it in sixth position, dropping behind the sister No. 7 car.

A few LMP2 drivers spun their cars during the session, including Johannes van Overbeek, Paul-Loup Chatin and Tracy Krohn. The latter had earlier reported steering trouble in his No. 40 Krohn Racing Ligier JS P2 Nissan.

Rene Rast’s lap time of 3:36.605 from last night still keeps the No. 26 G-Drive Racing Oreca 05 Nissan as the fastest LMP2 runner.

It is believed that the four Aston Martin V8 Vantages have had engine changes, and so Aston Martin Racing decided against completing too many laps in this session. The No. 95 car was the only competitor not to take to the circuit at all.

Ford Chip Ganassi Racing leads GTE-Pro with a one-two, as per yesterday’s running, while Clearwater Racing remains out front in GTE-Am.

The third and final qualifying session gets underway at 10 p.m. local time.

Jake Kilshaw

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