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Porsche Lead The Way – Next Stop the 2015 24 Heures du Mans

01.06.15
Following a rain hit second 4-hour session at the official test day in La Sarthe, Porsche heads into the 2015 24 Heures du Mans with the fastest cars. The red, no17 Porsche 919 hybrid topped the time sheets this afternoon, leading a 1-2 for the German marque.
24 Heures of le Mans - Porsche

While the track was dry Brendon Hartley set a 3m21.061, 0.9 seconds quicker than teammate Neel Jani’s best time in the no18 Porsche in the morning session and well inside last year’s pole position time 3m21789.  Hartley’s lap was 1.2 seconds quicker than the no19 Porsche of Nick Tandy, with the no7 Audi of Benoit Treluyer and no8 R18 of Loic Duval setting the third and fourth fastest times respectively.

Toyota finished the second session 7th and 8th, with the no1 TS040 of Kazuki Nakajima setting a 3m25.321 lap - the Japanese driver making a welcome return to the cockpit after is accident at Spa a month ago - five seconds quicker than the no2 Toyota of Alex Wurz.

Nissan's competitive debut in LMP1 saw the no22 GT-R LM NISMO finish the second session with a 3m50.713, 4.9 seconds ahead of the no23 Nissan.

The two Rebellion R-Ones were the quickest privateer cars with the no12 AER-powered car of Nicolas Prost posting a best time of 3m33.958, which was slower than this morning’s best time.

In LMP2 the top three cars were European Le Mans Series entrants, with the no48 Murphy Prototypes ORECA leading the class.  The no26 G-Drive Ligier was the best of the WEC runners with Roman Rusinov setting a 3m44.452 lap, just 0.1 seconds ahead of the no36 Signatech Alpine A450b-Nissan of Nelson Panciatici.

Aston Martin Racing bounced back after this morning to head both the LMGTE Pro and LMGTE Am time sheets.  In the Pro class Darren Turner set a 3m58.069 lap in the no97 Vantage V8, 1.09 seconds faster than the no64 Corvette of Tommy Milner, with the no71 AF Corse Ferrari third quickest.

Pedro Lamy took the top spot in the no98 Aston Martin with a 3m59.338 lap, 1.8 seconds fastest than the no86 Gulf Racing Porsche and the no55 AF Corse Ferrari.

Brendon Hartley - #17 Porsche 919 hybrid: “It feels fantastic to be back in Le Mans and out on track with our red number 17 for the first time. It was a productive start in the morning with testing in the dry, and then it was also good to gather experience in the wet. For the afternoon session we made a big step forward and the pace on the dry track was really good.”

The next time the cars will be on track will be on Wednesday 10 June at 16h00 for the first Free Practice session of the 83rd edition of the Le Mans 24 Hours.

CLICK HERE for the results from the second 4 Hour test session at the Official Test.