2016 Road to Le Mans
United Autosport's Martin Brundle and Christian England shared a Ligier JS P3-Nissan car and began from pole position after Brundle set the fastest overall lap time in qualifying.
The GT3 category was won by SMP Racing's Aleksey Basov and Viktor Shaytar in a Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 from FFF Racing Team by ACM's McLaren 650S GT3 shared by Hiroshi Hamaguchi and Adrian Quaife-Hobbs after Mentos Racing's Porsche 911 GT3 R of Klaus Bachler and Egidio Perfetti served a ten-second stop-and-go penalty for speeding in the pit lane.
A support race for the 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans was reported in October 2015,[1] and formally announced the next month.
[2] Euan Hankey and Salih Yoluç led the Drivers' Championship with 25 points after winning the season-opening round at Imola, seven ahead of Hiroshi Hamaguchi and Adrian Quaife-Hobbs in second and ten ahead of Nicolas Misslin and Matthieu Vaxivière in third.
[2][6][7] All current GT3 Le Mans Cup full-season entries were automatically accepted while the ACO reserved the right to invite additional LMP3 and GT3 cars to the race.
55 FFF McLaren 650S GT3 to effect their handling while the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 was made 10 kg (22 lb) lighter.
48 PS Racing car stopped at the Esses with its front-left wheel detached on his out-lap.
Poirier was unhurt and exited the car unaided, but the barriers needed substantial repair and marshals removed excess oil from the circuit.
11 By Speed Factory Ligier stopped at the pit lane entry, prompting a six-minute Slow Zone at the Ford chicane to recover the vehicle.
19 Audi had to be driven slowly to the pit lane with a flat rear tyre.
[14] On the evening of 16 June, a 30-minute qualifying session was held to set the race's starting order.
2 United Autosports entry was second for most of qualifying until improving his lap time to 3:55.748 at the end to claim overall pole position and his second at Le Mans after the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans.
24 OAK Racing Ligier slid into the gravel trap at Tertre Rouge corner, crashing into the barriers midway through qualifying.
[18][19] Qualifying was stopped for the first time due to debris on the circuit but Nicolet returned to the pit lane.
55 FFF Racing Team by ACM McLaren took third, ahead of Misslin's No.
[20][21] A second stoppage ended qualifying two minutes early, as Hamaguchi spun into the tyre barriers at Karting Corner.
[24] The race commenced at 11:10 Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00),[2][6] which was led by the starting polesitter Brundle.
[25] Second-place starter Robertson battled Brundle as he crested the hill approaching the Dunlop chicane and braked later on the inside to take the race lead, despite Brundle appearing to have caught Robertson off guard when the race began.
[26][27] Winslow began quickly, moving from sixth to third before passing Brundle for second at the Mulsanne corner.
34 TF Sport Aston Martin until Yoluç's driver error while attempting to pass Hamaguchi at the Forza chicane gave him a temporary reprieve, allowing him to pull way slightly.
[26][29] On lap four, when Robertson began to pull away from the rest of the race, Brundle was close behind Winslow and passed him to retake second place overall.
44 Tockwith Audi driven slowly to the pit lane due to a failed front right tyre, while Martins overtook Basov for second in GT3 at the Indianapolis corner, but Basov retook the position at the same corner the following lap.
[26][29] Roberto Lacorte caused the race's first Slow Zone by going into the gravel trap at the Forza chicane.
7 Scuderia Villoriba Corse car was recovered after five minutes and the Slow Zone was lifted.
[29] At this point, cars began making mandatory pit stops to allow teams to change drivers.
[29][31] Robertson and Brundle made their pit stops on the same lap, however both drivers lost a significant amount of time to DC Racing's No.
85 team, and Laurent took the overall lead after the pit stops, having relieved his co-driver Alexandre Cougnaud who was fourth during his stint.
88 Mentos Porsche received a ten-second stop-and-go penalty for speeding in the pit lane.
34 TF Aston Martin following the Dunlop chicane when scything his way by slower LMP3 cars.
[26][30] Both Quaife-Hobbs and Bachler gained second and third in GT3 when Vaxiviere's Classic and Modern Ferrari sustained a puncture on the final lap.
