ELMS Qualifying and starting grid for 24 Hours of Le Mans

Wednesday's first free practice session was mainly about providing all the competitors with the chance to fine-tune their set ups, for some an opportunity to learn the track a little better, and for others to put everything in place to be ready for the race.  This session was disrupted by a serious accident involving Loïc Duval (No.1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro), from which the driver fortunately emerged unscathed. This accident led to driver changes in two teams, one of which was from the ELMS. Following the nomination of Marc Gené at Audi, to replace Loïc Duval who was not authorised medically to race, 2013 ELMS driver Oliver Turvey has re-joined his team of last year, JOTA Sport (see news here).

The first qualifying session was held on Wednesday night, but it was also interrupted by several cars leaving the track and red flags, just as the second session was on Thursday evening.  It wasn't until Thursday night at midnight that the starting grid for the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2014 was finally set.

Overall pole position was claimed by Toyota Racing's Kazuki Nakajima, the Japanese becoming the first driver from his country in the history of the 24 Hours of Le Mans to start from pole.  It also gave Toyota the track record in qualifying for a hybrid car.  For its big return to top level endurance racing,  Porsche's Romain Dumas will be starting from the front row of the grid – the No.14 Porsche 919 Hybrid lining up alongside the No.7 TS040 Hybrid.

ELMS teams are not here to make up the numbers!

Of the 17 cars for the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the LMP2 category, 11 are involved in the European Le Mans Series and the first two places on the LMP2 grid will be occupied by ELMS prototypes.

Thiriet by TDS Racing, currently leading the ELMS season rankings, put on a stunning show.  The new Ligier JS P2 of the French team set the best lap time in the class (3:37.609), the No.46 in the hands of Tristan Gommendy. The French driver made a bit of history for Ligier by claiming a first pole position for a new manufacturer on its first participation, but it was also a first pole position at Le Mans for the Thiriet by TDS Racing team.

Tristan Gommendy: "We are very happy; it's more symbolic than anything else but it is important to Onroak Automotive, Ligier, the whole team and for me. This rewards the work of the entire team. A few months ago we were fully adapted to the Morgan and then we got a Ligier which nobody knew very well. We had no references for it and that meant we had to be very strong mentally. It's a real team result!"

Alongside him will be another European Le Mans Series car, the No.38 Zytek Z11SN. Young Harry Tincknell and his JOTA Sport team, currently lying second in the ELMS points' standings set the second best time on the LMP2 grid for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The team underwent a last minute change by reinstalling Oliver Turvey in its line-up, but it didn't seem to have taken any time as Oliver is already very comfortable in a car he had not driven for several months.

On the second row in LMP2 we find OAK Racing and G-Drive (WEC), while the No.36 Signatech Alpine A450b takes the third row thanks to Nelson Panciatici's best lap. Paul-Loup Chatin, 2013 ELMS LMPC champion had already shown that the French rookie can be relied on by setting the second best time in the first session. More honed to endurance racing than his British teammate Oliver Webb, but still a rookie, the work done in the first two on track e naturally encompasses learning the track, running at night and all that goes into "Le Mans."  Nelson, ELMS LMP2 Champion in 2013, was at the wheel at the beginning of the last qualifying session and set a best lap of 3:38.089, but wasn't able to improve later in the session because of a yellow flag.

Philippe Sinault, Team Principal of Signatech-Alpine:  "These sessions were particularly hectic. I congratulate our drivers who didn't put a foot wrong.  We tried to go for a better place on the grid just before midnight but that didn't work. However, this was not the main objective. We are starting to get to know the Dunlop tyres, the crew is working harmoniously and the Alpine A450b suits our three drivers. We did a good job."

The No.48 Murphy Prototypes ORECA 03R Nissan will start from the same row.  The only Frenchman within the Irish team, GP2 driver and another Le Mans rookie, Nathanaël Berthon, set a fast lap of 3:38.207 during the second qualifying session, placing the ORECA a full half a second from the first LMP2 entry. Karun Chandhok went out at night to try and achieve a better lap but was victim of an accident at Indianapolis, ending the team's session, but the Murphy Prototypes team is confident its car will be on the starting grid at 15h00 tomorrow.

Always smiling, Nathanaël Berthon, told us how he feels going into tomorrow's race:  "I'm really pleased with the work we have done and I know that we could do even better if I hadn't been held up in traffic. The car is good, I feel good and we are bonding into a great team!"

Entries from NewBlood by Morand Racing, Race Performance, Caterham Racing and Sébastien Loeb Racing fill the 8-11th places on the LMP2 grid, while Pegasus Racing is 14th. The French team suffered a huge accident while the youngest French driver at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Leo Roussel (18) was at the wheel.  In order to avoid the accident-damaged No.1 Audi, which was slowly returning to the pits, Leo was wrong-footed by the direction taken by the Audi and had to swerve to get out of the way.  He went off track and crashed into a concrete wall. The team already knows what comes next: they will be on the grid tomorrow!

"The driver is fine and this is obviously the most important thing", explained Julien Schell last night. "Leo was lucky not to hit the Audi.  As for the car, a preliminary analysis suggests that the tub is intact. With the help of Onroak Automotive we have found all the parts necessary to put our Morgan back together in order to take part in Saturday morning's warm-up at 09h00. Before the crash, the car was really good, despite our lack of experience, and we were in a good rhythm. I hope now that our bad luck is behind us and we'll get to the finish of this race."

Larbre Competition's Morgan Judd will start 16th on the LMP2 grid in front of the No.41 Greaves Motorsport Zytek Z11SN.

In the LMGTE Pro class Ferrari and Corvette are on the front row with AF Corse's No.51 ahead of the No.73 Corvette Racing.

In LMGTE Am there are six other ELMS teams.  While Ferrari and Aston Martin will share the front row with two teams from the FIA WEC, the first ELMS entry will start from 5th place with the No.72 F458 Italia of SMP Racing being qualified by Italian Andrea Bertolini.  The No.66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari will start from 10th place, just ahead of the No.76 IMSA Performance Matmut Porsche 911 GT3 RSR. Soheil Ayari qualified the No.58 SOFREV ASP Ferrari in which Fabien Barthez will participate in his first 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The second Porsche from IMSA Performance Matmut and the No.62 AF Corse Ferrari will start from the last row of the grid. 

The 24 Hours of Le Mans is a long race and start position is not all-important, with little impact in general on what happens next. Stay tuned for tomorrow's start of the 82nd edition of the greatest endurance race in the world at 15h00.