The Audi V6 uses a flywheel to return stored energy from regenerative braking to the front wheels.
The first qualifying session for the 80th running of the Le Mans 24 Hour endurance race saw an Audi with hybrid drive set the fastest time. In an historic moment in racing that occurred shortly after midnight, last year’s winner André Lotterer in the R18 e-tron Quattro diesel hybrid designated as car #1 set a time of 3m 25.453s in the first qualifying session. This beat last year’s pole position time by 0.285 seconds.
Two Toyota TS030 hybrids were on the 13.629 km-long Sarthe circuit. When the chequered flag fell at midnight, the #7 TS030 HYBRID of Alex Wurz, Nicolas Lapierre and Kazuki Nakajima was fourth. Nicolas set its best time of the session; 3mins 27.191s. The #8 TS030 HYBRID of Stéphane Sarrazin, Anthony Davidson and Sébastien Buemi ended the session in sixth, although traffic severely disrupted its fastest lap. Anthony set its fastest time of 3mins 28.295s.The pole position is not of great importance in any 24 race, of course. It was a terrific showing for the new racing effort.
Last year, Benoît Tréluyer took the first spot on the grid for Audi 30 minutes before the end of the final qualifying session on Thursday night. Audi has so far started from the pole position six times at Le Mans and has won the French endurance classic ten times since 2000.
Le Mans record winner Tom Kristensen posted the second-fastest time at the wheel of the #2 R18, so both diesel hybrids from Audi provisionally occupy the front row of the grid. (See Le Mans Test Day – Audi and Toyota Hybrids, Nissan DeltaWing)
