Le Mans Pole Time Destroyed, Toyota Fastest In LM24 Qualifying

[Vincent.C]

Kamui Kobayashi was amazing !

 

[Patrick van der Meulen]

Just a lot of chance, an almost complete clear lap.(very rare in LeMans)
in 2015, the Porsche 919 with such a clear lap and in these conditions would have done the lap in 3,13 min imo.

excuse my english guys.

The never ending problem of "what if?"

Don't underestimate the tactics. Sure, luck is always a factor, but being there at the right moment is for the greater part tactics and only just a small tiny bit luck imho.

 

[Andrew Harper]

Looking forward to the race on Saturday, any one of those five LMP1's could win overall so I think it's going to be a great battle up front. They are absolute rocket ships and last nights pole lap was awesome.

Don't be so hard on the Bykolles. It's a privateer team, it's also non-hybrid so it's losing 600hp to the LMP-H cars on corner exit and around the lap so to get within 6 seconds of the slowest factory car is actually a pretty good achievement. They were struggling badly at Silverstone (they were being passed by LMP2 cars) so they appear to have developed reasonably well. The acid test will be the LMP1 privateer cars next year so we'll see how they do then. Just a shame there is only one privateer car this year but that's the way it goes sometimes. The real danger for them is reliability, last year they suffered for almost the entire race and I think for a small team that is going to happen again. Just checked and the Nissan LMP1 did a 3m36s with the same engine so at least the powerplant went to some good use!

LMP2 is again going to be a big fight amongst that top ten in class, any one of those could take the victory.

GTE is looking very close, looks like Aston have been working hard with Dunlop to develop a great tyre for the track as their pace hasn't been great so far this year so developments on the car and working with the tyres has yielded great results. Will be interesting to see how the race develops. Well done to Larbre Competition for their pole position in GTE-AM.

In all though, my favourite race of the year and just wishing everyone has a safe event

 

[Grand Tourist]

I made a thread in the paddock club about kobayashi's record lap with a pole attached wether it will be broken this weekend or not. Share your opinion on this matter, if you like to

The shocking accute retrieval of Audi out of Le Mans series is just so sad and with just 2 brands in the LMP-H and just one other in LMP1 (I know, same class, but huge difference) this is becoming more a show off event than a competition at the top level class. If you look at the budget spend (+€100,000,000) then its not really a surprise though. If we want faster LMP1 cars each year, we can't get a 20 car grid of them too.

That being said, I love the hybrids' power plant. An unbelievable performance. And the speed of which they attack the Porsche curves (275kmh!! ) is just mind boggling.

Imagine also 20 cars with that power, it would become really unsafe for the GT and LMP drivers and very difficult to judge all those rockets speeding by. just look at the crashes in the next vid...that's with only a few LMP-H cars on track.

 

[Jan Larsen]

I heard Allan McNish as commentator tell that they do the lift a lot before braking to let the hybrid system to charge with electric power during this coasting before braking.

He said this actually give more speed in the end because they use that energy to accelerate faster out of the corner on exit

Thats true. They sacrifice braking to recharge energy to use out of corners and gain more time accelerating vs. braking later. Its odd really, but with hybrid, its the faster way.

 

[thepharcyde]

lol what's point with quali with a 6 LMP1 cars and 24 hours to race; seems somewhat pointless haha

 

[4 8 15 16 23 42 108]

I don't think its lifting, one of the commentators said that to not overuse the quota of Hybrid Toyota and Porsche are allocated they have are down on power in certain parts of the track. Pre-determined by the engineers. If they go over that quota its then deemed a break in the rules and they are reprimanded. Maybe they lift before heavy braking zones to make back the quota? I don't know... Just making assumptions

Well, indeed they are lifting [as you later said]. The problem is, they are only allowed to use so much (fossil) energy per lap, but are allowed to produce 6 or 8 MJ per lap. But this recharging, as I learned it, can only work by letting off the throttle. Why ever that is...it only recharges while using it as a brake?

No audi or bmw enteries in either GT Pro or AM this yr?

Audi have never entered a GT-LM car, BMW not since the GT2 days. [no GT3s allowed here]

in 2015, the Porsche 919 with such a clear lap and in these conditions would have done the lap in 3,13 min imo.

I personally don't think so. The time does come from the development of the hybrid power, in 2015 fuel consumption and electrical energy would not allowed this time imo. But don't trust me, I'm an hardcore expert.

Don't be so hard on the Bykolles. It's a privateer team, it's also non-hybrid so it's losing 600hp to the LMP-H cars on corner exit and around the lap so to get within 6 seconds of the slowest factory car is actually a pretty good achievement.

Well, I like Colles and his team. But what I know is they got 650 hp and aero rules close to the works cars. That's what differentiates those classes. I am from Germany and I still think they need to do better. It's NO achievement to drive around in the LMP2 field. Not in an LMP1 car!

 

[Monstro]

The never ending problem of "what if?"

Don't underestimate the tactics. Sure, luck is always a factor, but being there at the right moment is for the greater part tactics and only just a small tiny bit luck imho.

My english is limited , my thought is, if i can clarify my message: Kamui is not a legend driver, it is not an offense to recognize that, maaany drivers in the world are faster than Kamui.
The LMP1 from 2015 WEC were faster than actual LMP1 ( 1or 2 sec per lap depending of the track )
I guess 2015 WEC teams have theirs tactics too to perform clear lap, so "tiny luck" not agree.
I repeat, such a clear lap in LeMans is very very rare.

So ,not the best driver by far, not the fastest Car (2015 WEC LMP1 were faster) , but lap record.
so, i think we can assume that this lap time is due to more than "tiny luck", but a lot of it (imo ) => the rare chance/ privilege to perform an almost clear lap in LeMans,
he met only 2 cars by the way on his lap record , and where ?
in the straights, the "Hunaudieres"

but, it doesn't change a fact, Kamui did a very good job, no doubt, beautiful lap



excuse my english.

 

[Nick Gregory]

lol what's point with quali with a 6 LMP1 cars and 24 hours to race; seems somewhat pointless haha

That's how many of them showed up haha.