Both Porsche 919 Hybrid in front after first qualifying

With a strong performance the two Porsche 919 Hybrids came first and second in the first of three qualifying sessions for the 2016 Le Mans 24 Hours. The best lap time for the field of 60 cars was achieved by Neel Jani on Wednesday night. Early into the session, the Swiss lapped the 13.629 kilometre long circuit in 3:19.733 minutes. He shares the (662 kW) 900 HP number 2 prototype with Romain Dumas (FR) and Marc Lieb (GER). Timo Bernhard (GER) achieved the second fastest time today in 3:20.203 minutes, he partners Brendon Hartley (NZ) and Mark Webber (AUS) in the number 1 sister car.

“Timo did a mega job to start with,” commented Hartley. “He did two best sector times and definitely was on the way to do a top time, but then he was very unfortunate with traffic several times in the last sector. But that’s the story here in qualifying with 60 cars on the track and we have two more sessions tomorrow. It was good to familiarise myself with this unique track in the dark again. Everything is running smoothly, and P1 and P2 is a great team effort for today.”

In Le Mans three qualifying sessions are held with each of them lasting for two hours. The best lap time achieved in these six hours is the one that decides each car’s grid position. Because the weather conditions are currently tending to be changeable, it is not clear what Wednesday’s time sheets from the dry session may be worth in terms of grid positions. The session was red flagged for about 13 minutes, but not extended. It also saw frequent incidents and yellow flags, which made it difficult to find a clear lap. The second qualifying session for the 24 Hours will take place on Thursday from 19:00-21:00 hrs, with the third and final one following from 22:00-24:00 hrs.

The one and only free practice session of the event was held from 16:00 to 20:00 hrs and also saw Porsche in positions one and two. The fastest laps were achieved by Jani (3:22.011 mins) and Hartley (3:22.550 mins). The four-hour session was hampered partly by rain and interrupted several times because of accidents.