Motorsport: Stanaway sets Le Mans pace

auranga driver Richie Stanaway in the number 99 Aston Martin Vantage V8 has claimed provisional pole position for the GTE-Pro class ahead of the Le Mans 24 Hours this weekend.

Tauranga's Richie Stanaway and Aston Martin Racing did not need to make a late night final run to retain provisional pole position in the GTE-Pro class for this weekend's Le Mans 24 Hours.

Stanaway, who is making his Le Mans race debut, set the pace for GTE cars early in the Wednesday night qualifying session, lapping the 13.6km circuit in 3m 54.928s with the number 99 Aston Martin Vantage V8. He will share the car with Brazilian Fernando Rees and British racer Alex MacDowall as part of a five-car Aston Martin effort.

The GTE class at Le Mans features production-based Aston Martin, Porsche, Ferrari, Corvette and Viper entries split into pro (three professional drivers) and am (two amateur drivers) sub-classes.

Qualifying continued with two more Thursday sessions and Stanaway was prepared to make a final run shortly before qualifying finished as a threat loomed from reigning FIA World Endurance GTE-Pro champion Gianmaria Bruni (Italy).

Bruni upped the pace of his Ferrari 458 Italia in the final session and closed Stanaway's pole-winning margin to just 0.097secs.

Four New Zealand drivers are competing in the Le Mans race from 1am tomorrow (NZ time) and all have qualified strongly.

Porsche dominated qualifying in the LMP1 Hybrid class with its three cars filling the top three places on the grid.

The pole-winning Porsche 919 Hybrid of Neel Jani (Switzerland), Marc Lieb (Germany) and Romain Dumas (France) set a qualifying record of 3m 16.887secs on Wednesday while the Porsche of Palmerston North's Brendon Hartley and teammates Mark Webber (Australia) and Timo Bernhard (Germany) secured the other front row position.

Wanganui driver Earl Bamber and teammates Nick Tandy (GB) and Formula 1 racer Nico Hulkenberg (Germany) qualified third for Porsche.

In the LMP2 prototype class, New Zealand's GP2 Series race winner Mitch Evans (Auckland) is making his Le Mans debut with the Jota Sport team. The British squad won the LMP2 class last year and has qualified fourth in the 19-car LMP2 class with its Gibson 015S Nissan open cockpit prototype.