Porsche dominate LMGTE classes
Porsche GT Team’s Gianmaria Bruni was at his very best tonight, in his first 24 Hours of Le Mans for the German manufacturer. His lap of 3:47.504 in the No.91 Porsche 911 RSR was a full 1.5s ahead of his teammate in the No.92, Michael Christensen.
Porsche GT Team’s Gianmaria Bruni was at his very best tonight, in his first 24 Hours of Le Mans for the German manufacturer. His lap of 3:47.504 in the No.91 Porsche 911 RSR was a full 1.5s ahead of his teammate in the No.92, Michael Christensen, thus giving Porsche a 1-2 in the LMGTE Pro class.
Ford Chip Ganassi Racing took the second row of the provisional grid, with Olivier Pla in the No.66 edging out Dirk Müller in the No.68 with a lap of 3:51.498. The best Ferrari lap came courtesy of current World GT Champion James Calado in the No.51 488 GTE to place him 5th ahead of another two Porsche 911 RSRs and a third Ford.
BMW, Corvette and Aston Martin were unable to demonstrate the same pace at the Porsches and Fords tonight, but there are another two further qualifying sessions due to be held tomorrow and all to play for.
Porsche also led the way in LMGTE Am with a provisional front row lock out for Dempsey-Proton Racing.
Italian Matteo Cairoli set a blistering pace in the 911 RSR, under the watchful eyes of team owner Patrick Dempsey, with a lap of 3:50.728. Also on the pace was Australian driver Matt Campbell in the No.77 sister car from the Christian Ried-run team.
Third in class was Ben Barker in the No.86 Gulf Racing Porsche, making it an excellent day for the manufacturer celebrating its 70th anniversary.
The second Qualifying session is scheduled to start at 19h00 tomorrow (Thursday) and will last two hours.
The third and final session will run from 22h00 to midnight.
All qualifying times can be found HERE
