page_title: 2018 24 Hours of Le Mans
section_title: Qualifying
hierarchical_section_title: 2018 24 Hours of Le Mans / Qualifying
caption_attribution_description: English: FIA World Endurance Championship 2012 Rd.7 6 Hours of Fuji: Kazuki Nakajima (Toyota Racing)
context_page_description: The 86th 24 Hours of Le Mans was an automobile endurance race for Le Mans Prototype and Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance cars held from 16 to 17 June 2018 at the Circuit de la Sarthe at Le Mans, France. It was the 86th running of the event, as organised by the automotive group, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest, since 1923. The race was the second round of the 2018–19 FIA World Endurance Championship, with 36 of the race's 60 entries contesting the series. Approximately 256,900 people attended the race. A test day was held two weeks prior to the race on 3 June.
  A Toyota TS050 Hybrid car shared by Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Fernando Alonso began from pole position after Nakajima recorded the fastest lap time in the third qualifying session. It and the sister Toyota of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María López exchanged the lead for most of the first half of the race until Buemi took a one-minute stop-and-go penalty for speeding in a slow zone that was enforced for an accident during the night. Alonso and Nakajima retook the lead from their teammates in the 16th hour and maintained it for the rest of the race to win.
context_section_description: The first qualifying session began late Wednesday night under dry conditions, as Toyota again led the time sheets early on with a lap from López, followed by Nakajima's 3 minutes, 17.270 seconds time after eight minutes to go fastest. Neither improved their lap times over the rest of the session, giving the No. 8 car provisional pole position. The fastest non-hybrid car was Sarrazin's SMP entry in third, following the Rebellion cars of Senna and Menezes. The fastest LMP2 lap was a 3 minutes, 24.956 seconds time from Chatin and early category pace setter Duval was second. Vergne, DragonSpeed's Pastor Maldonado and Nicolas Lapierre of the Signatech Alpine team were third to fifth in class. Porsche took the first two positions in the LMGTE Pro class with a lap of 3 minutes, 47.504 seconds from Bruni to reset the category lap record at his first attempt. Bruni lost control of the rear of the No. 92 car into the Dunlop Curves and spun through 180 degrees into a gravel trap soon after. Christensen in second was a tenth of a second faster than the Ford cars of Pla and Mücke. The fastest Ferrari was fifth after a lap by Per Guidi. Cairoli led the LMGTE Am class with a 3 minutes, 50.669 seconds lap, followed by his Dempsey-Proton teammate Matt Campbell and Barker.
  Thursday's first qualifying session was stopped three times for crashes. Sven Müller caused rear damage to the No. 94 Porsche against a tyre wall at Indianapolis corner. Priaulx spun at the entry to Tetre Rouge corner with his left-rear wheel on the grass and damaged his car's rear in a collision with a tyre barrier. He was able to restart the car but the damage to the barriers caused a red flag. This was followed by the right-rear suspension on Lapierre's car failing on a kerb and sending him into a gravel trap. He continued to the pit lane and the session was stopped for nine minutes to allow track marshals to clear gravel strewn on the circuit. The session ended with 38 minutes to go after Giorgio Sernagiotto crashed the No. 47 Cetilar Vilorba Corse Dallara car against a tyre barrier opposite the first Mulsanne chicane after a front-left puncture. Sernagiotto was unhurt and was transported to the medical centre for a mandatory check-up. Alonso led the session with a lap of 3 minutes and 18.021 seconds; he did not improve on co-driver Nakajima's lap from the first session. The two LMP1 entries to improve their lap times was the CEFC TRSM Ginetta G60-LT-P1 cars of Alex Brundle and Charlie Robertson. The IDEC team maintained its advantage in LMP2 as Porsche continued to lead in LMGTE Pro and Am. Fisichella's Spirit of Race Ferrari overtook the Gulf squad for third in LMGTE Am.
  With the multiple stoppages in qualifying, the third session was expanded by half an hour in order to give teams more time on the circuit. Early in the session Nakajima reset the fastest time to a 3 minutes, 15.377 seconds without slower traffic impeding him. He took Toyota's fourth pole position at Le Mans and Alonso's, Buemi's and Nakajima's first. The No. 7 Toyota team could not improve the car's fastest lap and began from second. The Rebellion team were third and fifth with Senna ahead of Laurent after officials invalidated the latter's fastest time for failing to stop at a red light instructing him to enter the scrutineering bay. Sarrazin's SMP car separated the duo in fourth. In LMP2, Duval took the category pole position from Chatin until his fastest time was deleted for missing a red light to enter the scrutineering bay. Berthon took second and Vergne was third. Porsche secured pole position in both of the LMGTE classes with Bruni securing it in Pro and Cairoli in Am courtesy of their laps from the first session. Per Guidi led the session to move the No. 51 Ferrari to fourth in LMGTE Pro as Barker improved the Gulf team's lap to be six-tenths of a second behind the Dempsey-Proton squad. A slow zone procedure was used after Matt Griffin beached the Clearwater Ferrari in a gravel trap at Indianapolis corner and track marshals extricated it.
caption: Kazuki Nakajima (pictured in 2012) took pole position for Toyota in the third qualifying session.
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 7D", "Image XResolution": "640", "Image YResolution": "640", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4.2 (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2012:10:19 01:38:05", "Image ExifOffset": "206", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "828", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "14410", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/250", "EXIF FNumber": "5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Shutter Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "400", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF RecommendedExposureIndex": "400", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2012:10:14 09:44:48", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2012:10:14 09:44:48", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "995723/125000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "290241/62500", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "1/3", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "37/8", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Partial", "EXIF Flash": "Flash fired, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "200", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "97", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "97", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "5184000/907", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "691200/119", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "0410504629", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[100, 400, 0/0, 0/0]", "EXIF LensModel": "EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM"}