While the #8 Toyota has been on it's A-Game in 2014, having swept both FIA World Endurance Championship races to date but leading the field to the green flag tomorrow will be it's sister #7 TS040 Hybrid. Alexander Wurz looks for his third Le Mans victory while Stéphane Sarrazin looks for his elusive first and Kazuki Nakajima looks to join Masanori Sekiya and Seiji Ara as the third Japanese driver to win overall at Le Mans. The #7 set the fastest time in the third qualifying session with a lap of 3:21.789.
The #14 Porsche 919 Hybrid shared by Romain Dumas, Neel Jani and Marc Lieb will start second after falling 0.357 seconds short of pole. The #8 Toyota of FIA WEC points leaders Anthony Davidson, Nicolas Lapierre and Sébastien Buemi will start third. Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber and Brendon Hartley start fourth driving the #20 Porsche.
The Audis will start in reverse numerical order in positions 5-7. The trio with the least Le Mans experience, Felipe Albuquerque, Marco Bonanomi and Oliver Jarvis will start fifth with two-time Le Mans winners Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer and Benoît Tréluyer in sixth. The #1 Audi saw a driver change midweek after an accident forced Loïc Duval to step out of the car. Marc Gené will move out of the #38 Jota Sport Zytek-Nissan in LMP2 to join Tom Kristensen and Lucas di Grassi. They will start seventh. The two non-hybrid Rebellion LMP1 entries with start 8th and 9th with the #12 of Nicolas Prost, Nick Heidfeld and Mathias Beche leading the #13 of Dominik Kraihamer, Andrea Belicchi and Fabio Leimer.
European Le Mans Series points leaders Thiriet by TDS Racing won pole in LMP2 with a time of 3:42.730. Drivers of the #46 Ligier-Nissan Pierre Thiriet, Ludovic Badey and Tristan Gommendy will start tenth overall. Despite losing their senior statesman, Jota Sport qualified second in LMP2 with former GP2 driver and McLaren test driver Oliver Turvey take over for Gené and joining Simon Dolan and Harry Tincknell. Jota Sport missed LMP2 pole by 0.065 seconds. The #35 Ligier-Nissan of OAK Racing driven by Alex Brundle, Jann Mardenborough and Mark Shulzhitskiy will start third in class. The #26 G-Drive Morgan-Nissan of Romain Rusinov, Olivier Pla and Julien Canal start four in LMP2 with Oliver Webb, Nelson Panciatici and Paul-Loup Chatin rounding out the top five in LMP2 in the #36 Alpine-Nissan of Signatech Alpine.
AF Corse swept the poles in GTE-Pro and GTE-Am. The #51 Ferrari of defending world champion Gianmaria Bruni, Toni Vilander and Giancarlo Fisichella set the fastest time at 3:54.754 and will start 28th overall. Immediately behind them was the GTE-Am pole winners, the #81 Ferrari of Sam Bird, Michele Rugolo and Stephen Wyatt, 0.965 seconds back.
The #73 Corvette of four-time Le Mans class winner Jan Magnussen, three-time Le Mans class winner Antonio García and Jordan Taylor was second in GTE-Pro with the #97 Aston Martin of Darren Turner, Stefan Mücke and Bruno Senna split the #73 from it's sister #74 and drivers Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner and Richard Westbrook.
The #52 Ram Racing Ferrari rounded out the top five in GTE-Pro with drivers Matt Griffin, Álvaro Parente and Federico Leo. The defending GTE-Pro winner at Le Mans, the #92 Porsche of Richard Lietz, Marco Holzer and Frédéric Makowiecki starts sixth in GTE-Pro ahead of the #91 Porsche of Patrick Pilet, Jörg Bergmeister and Nick Tandy. Davide Rigon, Olivier Berreta and Pierre Kaffer round out the GTE-Pro field in the #71 AF Corse Ferrari. Kaffer replaces James Calado after the Brit was not cleared after an accident. The #99 Aston Martin of Alexander MacDowell, Darryl O'Young and Fernando Rees was slated to start eighth in GTE-Pro but was withdrawn after an accident in Wednesday qualifying.
Starting second in GTE-Am behind the #81 AF Corse Ferrari will be the #98 Aston Martin of Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Christoffer Nygaard. The three Danes David Heinemeier Hansson, Kristian Poulsen and Nicki Thiim start third in class in the #95 Aston Martin. Luíz Pérez Companc, Marco Cioci and Mirko Venturi start fourth in the #61 AF Corse Ferrari. Rounding out the top five in GTE-Am is the Russian #72 SMP Racing Ferrari of Andrea Bertolini, Victor Shaitar and Aleksey Basov.
Other notables from qualifying, the #0 Nissan ZEOD RC will start 27th, 28.396 seconds back of the overall pole winning #7 Toyota and 3.515 seconds ahead of the #51 AF Corse Ferrari, the fastest GT car.
The #42 Caterham Racing Zytek Nissan of three-time Le Mans class winner Tom Kimber-Smith, Chris Dyson and 16-year old Matthew McMurry will start tenth in LMP2. The #77 GTE-Am Porsche of Dempsey Racing and drivers Patrick Dempsey, Joe Foster and Patrick Long starts seventh in class and 41st overall. Defending GTE-Am class winners at Le Mans, IMSA Performance Matmut starts 12th in class, 48th overall with drivers Raymond Narac, Nicolas Armindo and David Hallyday.
In what could only be one of the most intriguing stories in recent Le Mans history, the #79 WeatherTech ProSpeed Competition Porsche of Cooper MacNeil and Jeroen Bleekemolen will compete as a GTE-Pro car, not a GTE-Am car as it was originally entered as. Bret Curtis suffered an accident in Thursday qualifying, destroying the car and ending Curtis' weekend due to a concussion. The team was unable to find another bronze rated driver, a requirement for each team competing in and amateur class. The #79 Porsche will start ninth in GTE-Pro
With the withdrawal of the #99 Aston Martin, fifty-four cars are scheduled to take the Tricolour when the 82nd edition of the French classic begins at 9:00 a.m. ET.
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