With qualifying for the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans ending yesterday evening, no other LMP1 teams were able to improve on the blistering pace set by Porsche to knock the three 919 Hybrids off the top spots on the timesheet.
The fastest time was set by Neel Jani, driver of the #18 Porsche, on the first qualifying session held on Wednesday evening. His lap time of 3:16.887 broke the qualifying record for the current track which had previously been held by Peugeot since 2008.
2nd position was claimed by Timo Bernhard in the #17 car, and his time also broke the previous record. Finally, the #19 car will start from P3, thanks to Nick Tandy‘s best time.
On Saturday at 3pm local time, the three 919 Hybrids will be piloted by Timo Bernhard, Neel Jani and Nico Hülkenberg for the opening stint.
“Claiming first, second and third is obviously a perfect qualifying result,” said Wolfgang Hatz, Board Member Research and Development at Porsche AG. “Nevertheless, today we have worked a lot for the race and were quite good on longer runs on used tyres. I have told everybody not to look at the competition but to focus on maximising our package. The technicians, engineers and drivers – the entire team worked directly in the same direction and did a fabulous job. The result is a real pleasure and makes me proud of the team. I’m very much looking forward to the race.”
The 83rd running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans will start on Saturday at 15:00 CEST (14:00 UK time).
