Set back during the first free practice (fifth), the crew led by the Briton Mike Conway, the Argentinian José Maria Lopez and the Japanese Kamui Kobayashi was the fastest at the start of the evening.
From the start of the session, Kobayashi completed the lap in 3 min 27 sec 247/1000, improving the trio's time by three seconds.
Half an hour after the start of qualifying, all the drivers had to return to the pits after the accident of the Porsche N.93 driven by Fassbender, which hit the rail at the entrance to the first chicane of the Hunaudières.
The actor, who is competing at Le Mans for the first time, was safe and sound but disappointed when he saw that his car could not continue.
When the race resumed, a heavy shower fell on the Sarthe circuit, reducing the grip of the track and making it difficult to improve the lap times.
The last half hour did not bring any change in the ranking.
After dominating most of the first practice in the afternoon, the two Glickenhaus confirmed their position as outsiders by finishing a few tenths behind the Toyota N.7: Olivier Pla clocked a time of 3 min 27 sec 355 /1000 at the wheel of Glickenhaus N.708, just ahead of its sister car N.709 (3 min 27 sec 978/1000).
A technical problem on the right flank kept the Toyota N.8 – which had set the fastest time in the first free practice session – in the pits during the first part of qualifying.
This qualifying session was not a challenge for the five hypercars, since it aimed to qualify the six fastest vehicles in their category for the hyperpole.
But beware of this kind of mechanical glitches this weekend, when the slightest mistake can be costly.
On the contrary, the Alpine reassured itself by improving its previous time by three seconds, this time falling below 3 min 30 sec (3 min 29 sec 656/1000).
In the LMP2 category, the onset of rain prevented the Richard Mille N.7 driven by Sébastien Ogier, Lilou Wadoux and Charles Milesi from finishing in the top six.
The LMP2s generally drove faster and it is the WRT N.31 which will start first after dropping below 3 min 30 sec.
Wednesday evening will take place free practice 2, at night, from 22:00 to 00:00.
The classification of qualifying practice:
1. Mike Conway - Kamui Kobayashi - Jose Maria Lopez (GBR-JPN-ARG/Toyota N.7/Hypercar/Hybrid) 3:27.247
2. Olivier Pla - Romain Dumas - Felipe Derani (FRA-FRA-BRE/Glickenhaus N.708/Hypercar) 3:27.355
3. Ryan Briscoe - Richard Westbrook - Franck Mailleux (AUS-GBR-FRA/Glickenhaus N.709/Hypercar) 3:27.978
4. André Negrao - Matthieu Vaxivière - Nicolas Lapierre (BRE-FRA-FRA/Alpine/Hypercar) 3:29.656
5. Sean Gelael - Robin Frijns - Rene Rast (IDN-NLD-DEU/WRT N.31/LMP2) 3:29.898
...
30. Michael Christensen - Kevin Estre - Laurens Vanthoor (DNK-FRA-BEL/Porsche N.92/LMGTE Pro) 3:50.999
...
36. Paul Dalla Lana - David Pittard - Nicki Thiim (CAN-GBR-DNK/Northwest N.98/LMGTE Am) 3:52.559
© 2022 AFP