24 Hours of Le Mans Practice Report: Toyota Catches Fire

The first four hour practice session has wrapped, and there were some big surprises in the front runners even if the results do not show it. 

Anthony Davidson in the #8 Toyota TS030Toyota TS030 HYBRIDJapan, 2012 > present5 photos
2 videos
put in a 3:30.162 lap time on his fifth lap, which was the fastest lap of the race at the time. He pulled over on his sixth lap with smoke coming from the back of his car. Initial reports said that the car was on fire, but it was just smoking heavily. Davidson was able to return the car to the pits, and the team decided that it would have to replace the engine. The team said that it would take about 90 minutes to put the new engine in the car, and the #8 did not complete any more laps during the practice session. Davidson's time stood as the sixth fastest time overall for the session.

Teams only get two engines for the race meaning that if the #8 has any more engine problems, it will not be able to continue the race. The #7 car did not have any similar problems. Perhaps the problem was confined to the #8. 

In the end, the Audi's set times in order of car number - #1,#2,#3 and #4. André Lotterer set the fast time in the #1 Audi R18 E-tron QuattroAudi R18 e-tron quattroGermany, 2012 > present8 photos
2 videos
of 3:25.163. Allan McNish was over a second off his pace in second place with a 3:26.494 lap. The R18 UltrasAudi R18 ultraGermany, 2012 > present11 photos
2 videos
were third and fourth fastest with times of 3:27.494 and 3:27.885 respectively. 

The Toyotas performed well with fifth and sixth fastest overall. Nicholas Lapierre set the fast time in the #7 Toyota of 3:28.421, and the aforementioned Davidson was in sixth place. 

The times do not tell the whole story. It took the R18 hybrids over two hours to become the fastest cars on track. Early on the Toyotas and R18 Ultras were challenging each other for the fastest lap times. 

The fastest conventional LMP1 car was the #7 Strakka Racing HPD ARX-03AHonda HPD ARX 03aJapan, 2012 > present2 photos
1 video
driven by Nick Leventis with a 3:31.651 time. 

Honda also led the LMP2 class with the #44 Starkworks Motorsport ARX-03bHonda HPD ARX 03bJapan, 2012 > present2 photos
1 video
driven by Vincente Potolicchio with a 3:39.669 lap time. Behind him were two Nissan powered cars - the #38 JOTA Zytek Z11SN-NissanZytek Z11SNUnited Kingdom, 2012 > present1 photo
with a 3:40.161 in second and the #48 Murphy Racing Oreca 03-NissanOreca Oreca 03 NissanFrance, 2011 > present2 photos
with a 3:40.578. 

Where was the DeltawingNissan DeltaWingJapan, 2012 > present19 photos
3 videos
, you may ask? Well, it had problems with shifting that made it 14th fastest among  the LMP2 cars. It did a 3:43.576, though, which is still faster than it managed in the last practice session. 

In quite a surprise, the Aston MartinAston Martin Vantage GTEUnited Kingdom, 2012 > present4 photos
1 video
was the fastest car in the GTE-Pro class managing a 3:57.036 lap. The CorvetteChevrolet Corvette C6.RUnited States of America, 2012 > present3 photos
dominated during most of the session but fell to third by the end with a 3:57.508. Between them in second was the #59 Luxury Racing FerrariFerrari 458 Italia GTCItaly, 2011 > present5 photos
1 video
that did a 3:57.478 lap. As you can see less than half a second separated the top three cars in the GT field, which should lead to some great racing this weekend. 

Finally, Flying Lizard Motorsport PorschePorsche 911 GT3 RSRGermany, 2012 > present6 photos
led the GTE-Am class with a 3:58.267 lap, and they were actually the fifth fastest GT car overall. The second fastest in class was the #99 Aston Martin that did a 3:58.753 lap and the #50 Larbre Competition Corvette in third that did a 3:59.186 lap. 

You can view all of the practice standings including the number of laps that each car took here. 

The first qualifying session runs from 22:00 to 24:00 local time tonight. There will be two more qualifying sessions from 19:00 to 21:00 and from 22:00 to 24:00 tomorrow to determine the final running order.