The weather was much better for today’s qualifying session so the 14 cars took to a dry track in sunny conditions, which will last for the whole weekend.
Stéphane Lemeret was the first driver to go for a flying lap. Gavin Cronje went quickest in 4m 04s and then became the first to break the 4-minute barrier in 3m 58.943s second time round.
After 15 minutes, Stéphane Lemeret, who had just set the second-best time, went into a gravel trap on Les Hunaudières. The Auto Hebdo journalist got going again but ruined his flying lap. A couple of minutes later despite a further improvement by Cronje, Mathias Beche set the fastest time so far in 3m 58.202s. Moro spun in the Ford chicane. On his 5th attempt, Beche set a benchmark time 3’55.738. The Swiss driver went even quicker in the minutes that followed and set provisional pole in 3m 54.012s.
At the halfway mark, the majority of drivers handed over to their team-mates. The positions were: Beche (#Hope Pole Vision #17), Cronje (DAMS #8), Canal (Graff Racing #20), Scheier (Boutsen Energy Racing #5) and Capillaire, in #72 entered by DAMS in the ACO colours.
William Cavailhes had a spin on his out lap without damage and restarted. On his 3rd attempt Dominik Kraihamer got up into third place. 18h17 : The session was red-flagged after Sébastien Dumez had a big shunt on the exit of the Forest Esses. The Team Exagon driver had just snatched 3rd place when he hit the guardrail very hard. He was shocked but unhurt in the accident.
As a result of this the session did not restart. As Makela and Verdonck did not improve the top positions remained the same. Hope Pole Vision Racing bagged pole on the prestigious Le Mans circuit thanks to Makela-Beche.
Complete results : qualifying-practice-le-mans1
