2018 1000Bulbs.com 500, Report, Background
Talladega Superspeedway, originally known as Alabama International Motor Superspeedway (AIMS), is a motorsports complex located north of Talladega, Alabama. It is located on the former Anniston Air Force Base in the small city of Lincoln. The track is a tri-oval and was constructed in the 1960s by the International Speedway Corporation, a business controlled by the France family. Talladega is most known for its steep banking and the unique location of the start/finish line that's located just past the exit to pit road. The track currently hosts the NASCAR series such as the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, Xfinity Series and the Camping World Truck Series. Talladega is the longest NASCAR oval with a length of 2.66-mile-long (4.28 km) tri-oval like the Daytona International Speedway, which also is a 2.5-mile-long (4 km) tri-oval.


2018 1000Bulbs.com 500, Final Practice
Kevin Harvick was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 46.889 seconds and a speed of 204.227 mph (328.671 km/h).


2018 1000Bulbs.com 500, Qualifying
Kurt Busch scored the pole for the race with a time of 48.906 and a speed of 195.804 mph (315.116 km/h).


2018 1000Bulbs.com 500, Media, Television
NBC Sports covered the race on the television side. Rick Allen, Jeff Burton and six-time Talladega winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. had the call in the booth for the race. Steve Letarte and Dale Jarrett called from the NBC Peacock Pit Box on pit road. Dave Burns, Parker Kligerman, Marty Snider and Kelli Stavast reported from pit lane during the race.


2018 1000Bulbs.com 500, Media, Radio
MRN covered the radio call for the race, which was simulcast on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.


2018 12 Hours of Sebring
The 66th Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts was an endurance sports car racing event held at Sebring International Raceway near Sebring, Florida from 15 to 17 March 2018. The race was the second round of the 2018 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, as well as the second round of the North American Endurance Cup.


2018 12 Hours of Sebring
The race was won by Tequila Patrón ESM's Nissan Onroak DPi driven by Pipo Derani, Johannes van Overbeek, and Nicolas Lapierre, ahead of the Cadillac DPi-V.R's of Wayne Taylor Racing and Whelen Engineering Racing. Porsche took GTLM honours with Nick Tandy, Frédéric Makowiecki, and Patrick Pilet behind the wheel of their 911 RSR. The GTD category was won by Paul Miller Racing's Corey Lewis, Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow in a GT3-spec Lamborghini Huracán.


2018 2. deild karla
The 2018 2. deild karla was the 53rd season of third-tier football in Iceland. Twelve teams contested the league. Play began on 5 May and conclude on 22 September.


2018 2. deild karla, Teams
The league will be contested by twelve clubs, eight of which played in the division during the 2017 season. There are four new clubs from the previous campaign:


2018 2. deild karla, Results
Each team plays every opponent once home and away for a total of 22 matches per club, and 132 matches altogether.


2018 2. divisjon
The 2018 2. divisjon (referred to as PostNord-ligaen for sponsorship reasons) was a Norwegian football third-tier league season. The league consisted of 28 teams divided into 2 groups of 14 teams.


2018 2. divisjon
The league was played as a double round-robin tournament, where all teams played 26 matches.


2018 2. divisjon, Promotion play-offs
The teams who finished in second place in their respective group qualified for the promotion play-offs, where they faced each other over two legs. The winner, KFUM Oslo, then played against the 14th placed team in 1. divisjon for a place in the 2019 1. divisjon.


2018 2000 Guineas Stakes
The 2018 2000 Guineas Stakes was the 210th running of the 2000 Guineas Stakes horse race. It was run over one mile on the Rowley Mile at Newmarket Racecourse on 5 May 2018, a hot and sunny day. The winner was the Japanese bred Saxon Warrior, trained by Aidan O'Brien and ridden by his son Donnacha O'Brien. Tip Two Win was in second place a length and a half behind and the favourite, Masar, was in third place.


2018 2000 Guineas Stakes, Full result
* The distances between the horses are shown in lengths. All the runners were three-year-old colts and carried 9 stone.


2018 2000 Guineas Stakes, Reaction
After the race winning jockey Donnacha O'Brien said of Saxon Warrior: "He's a very good horse, he's a proper horse."


2018 2000 Guineas Stakes, Race build-up
The Aidan O'Brien trained colt Gustav Klimt became an early ante-post favourite for the race after winning the Superlative Stakes at Newmarket in July 2017, but after an impressive win in the Vintage Stakes at Glorious Goodwood, Sir Michael Stoute's Expert Eye then took over as the market leader. Stoute stated it was "too early to tell if he's a Guineas horse" but jockey Andrea Atzeni was more positive, saying, "I don’t think I’ve ever sat on a two-year-old as good as this".


2018 24 Hours of Daytona
The 2018 24 Hours of Daytona (formally the 56th Rolex 24 at Daytona) was an International Motor Sports Association (IMSA)-sanctioned 24-hour automobile endurance race for Daytona Prototype and Grand Touring sports cars held at the Daytona International Speedway combined road course in Daytona Beach, Florida, on January 27–28, 2018. It was the first of twelve 2018 IMSA SportsCar Championship races, the 56th 24 Hours of Daytona, and the first in the four-round North American Endurance Cup.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona
Renger van der Zande for Wayne Taylor Racing started from pole position and led for most of the opening hour. Filipe Albuquerque of Mustang Sampling Racing took the lead after the first round of pit stops and kept it for five hours before losing it to Team Penske's Hélio Castroneves. Whelen Engineering Racing (WER), Penske and Mustang Sampling traded the lead several times over the next 12 hours.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona
Mustang Sampling's Albuquerque, Christian Fittipaldi and João Barbosa led the final third of the race to win in a record-breaking distance of 808 laps and 2,876.48 miles (4,629.25 km) and take the lead of the Prototype Drivers' and Teams' Championships. Mike Conway, Eric Curran, Stuart Middleton and Felipe Nasr were second in the sister WER car. Third were CORE Autosport's Jon Bennett, Colin Braun, Romain Dumas and Loïc Duval.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona
Ford Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR) drivers Scott Dixon, Ryan Briscoe and Richard Westbrook, won the Grand Touring Le Mans (GTLM) class, after passing the sister team of Sébastien Bourdais, Dirk Müller and Joey Hand at its final pit stop. The team led all bar nine laps in the category to claim CGR's 200th motor racing victory and the lead of the GTLM points lead. The pole-sitting Corvette Racing trio of Antonio García, Jan Magnussen and Mike Rockenfeller completed the class podium.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona
Having led the last four and a half hours, Mirko Bortolotti, Rik Breukers, Rolf Ineichen and Franck Perera of GRT Grasser Racing Team won the Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) category to claim Lamborghini's first 24-hour race victory and the lead of the class points standings, despite starting from the back of the grid for failing a mandatory post-qualifying stall test. Michael Shank Racing's A. J. Allmendinger, Trent Hindman, Katherine Legge and Álvaro Parente was second and Andrea Caldarelli, Bryce Miller, Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow placed Paul Miller Racing's car in third.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Background, Preview
NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., who built the Daytona International Speedway in 1959, conceived the 24 Hours of Daytona as a race to attract European sports car endurance racing to the United States and provide international exposure to Daytona. It is informally considered part of the "Triple Crown of Endurance Racing" with the 12 Hours of Sebring and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Background, Preview
International Motor Sports Association's (IMSA) president Scott Atherton confirmed the race was part of the schedule for the 2018 IMSA SportsCar Championship (IMSA SCC) in August 2017. It was the fifth consecutive year it was part of the IMSA SCC, and the 56th 24 Hours of Daytona. The 24 Hours of Daytona was the first of twelve scheduled sports car endurance races of 2018 by IMSA, and the first of four races of the North American Endurance Cup (NAEC). It took place at the 12-turn 3.56 mi (5.73 km) Daytona International Speedway combined road course in Daytona Beach, Florida, on January 27–28.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Background, Entry list
A total of 50 cars were officially entered for the 24 Hours of Daytona with most entries being in the Prototype and Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) categories. The 2017 race winner, Wayne Taylor Racing (WTR), returned to defend their title. Three existing teams, Action Express Racing (AER), Spirit of Daytona Racing and Extreme Speed Motorsports (ESM), each fielded two Daytona Prototype International (DPi) Cadillac DPi-V.R and Nissan Onroak DPi cars. WTR sent one Cadillac DPi-V.R chassis to Daytona.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Background, Entry list
Penske Racing made their full-time sports car racing comeback for the first time since the 2009 Rolex Sports Car Series, fielding two Honda-powered Acura ARX-05 DPis for 2018. Mazda returned to sports car racing after withdrawing with three races left in the 2017 season so their duo of RT24-Ps could be re-engineered by German outfit Team Joest. They were joined by ten global-specification Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) cars, represented by three out of the four major chassis: six Oreca 07s entered by JDC-Miller MotorSports, Jackie Chan DCR JOTA (two each), Performance Tech Motorsports (PTR), CORE Autosport (one each). a trio of Ligier JS P217s utilised by PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports (one) and United Autosports (two), and one Riley Mk. 30 from BAR1 Motorsports.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Background, Entry list
After the aging Prototype Challenge class was retired after 2017 due to declining interest from teams, Grand Touring Le Mans (GTLM) was made the highest-ranking class below the Prototype category in the IMSA SCC Championship. Nine cars from five manufacturers were entered for Daytona. The BMW M8 GTE made its racing competition debut at the track; Team RLL entered two chassis for 2018. Porsche fielded two 911 RSRs for the second successive season, and Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR) entered their two Ford GTs for the third consecutive year. Ferrari aligned with Risi Competizione for one 488 GTE.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Background, Entry list
Corvette Racing transported their two aging C7.Rs to Daytona. GTD featured 21 cars amongst 8 GT3 manufacturers. Ferrari was the most represented marque in GTD with four 488s: two by Scuderia Corsa and one each from Spirit of Race and Risi Competizione. A mix of teams and automotive brands made up the rest of the GTD field, including two GRT Grasser Racing Team-entered Lamborghini Huracáns with a third by Paul Miller Racing (PSR), and a trio of Riley Motorsports-entered Mercedes-AMGs.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Background, Entry list
Michael Shank Racing (MSR) and HART entered three Acura NSXs and a trio of Porsche 911 Rs with one each from Park Place Motorsports, Wright Motorsports and Manthey Racing. Other cars fielded were a duo of Audi R8 LMS from Magnus Racing and Land Motorsport, two Lexus RC Fs by 3GT Racing and a BMW M6 from Turner Motorsport.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Background, Entry list
Each car was driven by two drivers who contested the entire IMSA SCC season. They were joined by one NAEC racer and one or two extra drivers. These additional participants were recruited from a variety of racing categories, including the FIA World Endurance Championship (such as Gustavo Menezes for JDC-Miller MotorSports), the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (such as René Rast for Mazda Team Joest), and the IndyCar Series (such as Ryan Hunter-Reay for WTR) among others.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Background, Entry list
Some drivers competed at Daytona on a one-off basis, such as Fernando Alonso, a two-time Formula One World Champion, Williams driver Lance Stroll, Formula E racers Felix Rosenqvist and António Félix da Costa, A. J. Allmendinger, Justin Marks, Brendan Gaughan and Austin Cindric from NASCAR, and 2017 Formula Three European Champion Lando Norris. Stuart Middleton won the Sunoco Whelen Challenge by taking the GT4 category title in his debut year in the British GT Championship, earning him a seat with AER.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Background, Pre-event balance of performance changes
The week before the official three-day test session at the circuit, IMSA altered the balance of performance in all three categories to create parity in the classes. 10 kg (22 lb) of weight was added to the Cadillac DPi-V.Rs compared to 2017 but the decrease of handling abilities was countered by having the car's top speed raised by having its air restrictor increased by 1.8 mm (0.071 in).


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Background, Pre-event balance of performance changes
The duo of Nissan Onroak DPis and the two Acura ARX-05s had their weight increased to 940 kg (2,070 lb) to lower their performance, 10 kg (22 lb) more than the LMP2 chassis and the pair of Mazda RT24-Ps. The Nissan and Mazda engines were not altered because IMSA was satisfied with their performances, but the series changed the aerodynamic packages on some Prototypes which affected their handing abilities. The debuting BMW M8 GTE's weight was established at 1,250 kg (2,760 lb) and its turbocharger boost curve was revised over its predecessor, the BMW M6 GTLM. The Mercedes-AMG GTD car had its top speed raised slightly with the enlargement of its air restrictor by 1 mm (0.039 in).


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Testing
All 50 entries were involved in three days of testing divided into seven sessions held at the circuit from January 5–7. João Barbosa set the fastest time early in the first day's running with a time of 1 minute, 37.266 seconds for the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac. Co -driver Filipe Albuquerque later improved in the second session to a 1-minute, 37.196 seconds lap. The fastest LMP2 lap came from Colin Braun's No. 54 CORE Oreca in second, and the No. 10 WTR Cadillac of Renger van der Zande was third.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Testing
Tristan Vautier set the fourth-fastest lap for Spirit of Daytona in its No. 90 Cadillac. Ho-Pin Tung's No. 78 Jackie Chan Oreca 07 was fifth. Laurens Vanthoor led GTLM in the No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR with a 1-minute, 44.065 seconds lap in the second session, and teammate Nick Tandy's sister car was third. They were separated by Richard Westbrook's No. 67 CGR Ford. GTD was led by Rolf Ineichen's and later Franck Perera's No. 11 Grasser Lamborghini from Matteo Cairoli's No. 59 Manthey Porsche.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Testing
The second day's testing saw Felipe Nasr lead in the No. 31 AER Cadillac at 1 minute, 36.793 seconds. Jordan Taylor improved WTR's Cadillac best time to second. Albuquerue was slower than the day before and was third. Eddie Cheever III, driving the No. 90 Spirit Cadillac, was fourth-fastest by going faster than co-driver Vautier in the day's second session. The No. 78 Jackie Chan Oreca was the highest-placed LMP2 car in fifth with Alex Brundle aboard.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Testing
The No. 66 CGR Ford of Sébastien Bourdais moved to the top of GTLM with a lap of 1 minute, 43.795 seconds in the fourth session. Gianmaria Bruni was second-quickest in the No. 912 Porsche. Ryan Briscoe put the sister No. 67 CGR Ford third, and Alessandro Pier Guidi's No. 62 Risi Ferrari was fourth-fastest. GTD was still led by the No. 11 Grasser Lamborghini courtesy of Ineichen's lap on the first day. Manthey's No. 59 Porsche remained second; driver Sven Müller improved its best lap time.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Testing
The third and final day of testing featured a qualifying session to determine the locations of the team's pit stalls and garages for the race three weeks later. Nasr's No. 31 AER Cadillac set the fastest overall time with a 1-minute, 35.806 seconds lap. The second-fastest car was the No. 90 Spirit Cadillac of Vautier and Albuquerque putting the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac in third position. WTR were fourth after a lap by Van der Zande and Dane Cameron took fifth in the No. 6 Penske Acura ARX-05.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Testing
Joey Hand set the fastest overall GTLM time in the No. 66 CGR Ford with a 1-minute, 43.610 seconds lap. Oliver Gavin's No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R was second, followed by the sister No. 67 Ford GT driven by Briscoe. Ineichen's lap from the first day of testing was never bettered and the No. 11 Grasser Lamborghini remained the fastest GTD car. Cairoli's first session lap in the Manthey Porsche was fast enough to keep it second in class.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Testing
After testing, IMSA adjusted the balance of performance for the second time in all categories after analysing data of the car's performances. The Cadillac DPi-V.Rs had their fuel capacity enlarged by 1 l (0.22 imp gal; 0.26 US gal) along with their refuelling restrictors by 0.5 l (0.11 imp gal; 0.13 US gal) but their air restrictors were 0.6 mm (0.024 in).


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Testing
The size of the fuel tanks in the Acura ARX-05 and the Nissan Onroak DPis were increased by 4 l (0.88 imp gal; 1.1 US gal) and 2 l (0.44 imp gal; 0.53 US gal) with the size of both car's fuel restrictors increased by 1.5 mm (0.059 in). Nissan Onroak DPis boost pressure was increased to peak at 7,100 rpm. The Mazda RT24-Ps were 15 kg (33 lb) lighter. Its rev limit was raised to 8,600 rpm and its air restrictor was lengthened by 0.5 mm (0.020 in). The Acura, Nissan and Mazda DPis gurney flaps were adjusted for aerodynamic purposes.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Testing
All GTLM cars bar the Ferrari 488 GTE had the size of their fuel tanks adjusted. The Chevrolet Corvette's C7.R's top speed was lowered through rear wing angles alterations by two degrees, while the Ford GT's angles were increased by three degrees. The Porsche 911 RSRs performance was lowered as its fuel restrictors were reduced in size by 1 mm (0.039 in). In GTD, the Acura NSX GT3 lost 10 kg (22 lb) in weight and the Mercedes-AMG was made 15 kg (33 lb) heavier. Turbocharger adjustments were made to the Audi R8 LMS, Lamborghini Huracán, and the BMW M6 cars.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Practice and qualifying
Four practice sessions were held before the start of the race on Saturday, three on Thursday and one on Friday. The first two one-hour sessions were on Thursday morning and afternoon. The third held later that evening ran for 90 minutes; the fourth on Friday morning lasted an hour.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Practice and qualifying
Rast's No. 77 Mazda set the fastest lap of the first practice session at 1 minute, 37.428 seconds, 0.007 seconds faster than Vautier's Spirit's No. 90 Cadillac. Jordan Taylor put the No. 10 Wayne Taylo Cadillac in third overall. Albuquerue placed the No. 5 Mustang Sampling car fourth. The highest-placed LMP2 car was Brundle's No. 78 Jackie Chan entry in fifth place. Early in the session, Phil Hanson made an error on cold tires that put the front of the United Autosports Ligier into the turn five tire barrier.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Practice and qualifying
Practice was red-flagged for 8 minutes and 49 seconds so his car could be removed from the circuit. In GTLM, the No. 66 CGR Ford of Hand led with a lap of 1 minute, 44.571 seconds. Alessandro Pier Guidi put the No. 62 Risi Ferrari second. Vanthoor in the No. 912 Porsche was third. Miguel Molina's No. 82 Risi car was fastest in GTD. Pedro Lamy set the second-fastest class lap in Spirit of Race's No. 51 entry.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Practice and qualifying
In the second practice session, Hélio Castroneves in the No. 6 Penske Acura ARX-05 recorded the fastest lap of the day with a 1-minute, 37.096 seconds effort, ahead of the No. 22 ESM Nissan of Nicolas Lapierre and Albquerque's No. 5 Mustang Sampling car. The leading LMP2 car was Colin Braun behind the wheel of the No. 54 CORE car in fourth. Jonathan Bomarito was fifth in Mazda's No. 55 car. Patrick Pilet led GTLM in the No. 911 Porsche with a 1-minute, 43.902 seconds lap set late in the session. Jan Magnussen's No. 3 Corvette was second. Westbrook in the No. 66 CGR Ford was third in GTLM. Álvaro Parente's No. 86 MSR Acura-NSX GT3 was fastest in GTD, while Molina was 0.242 seconds slower in the No. 82 Risi Ferrari.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Practice and qualifying
Thursday afternoon's 75-minute qualifying session was divided into three groups. All three categories had 15-minute individual sessions, and regulations stipulated teams to nominate a single driver to qualify their cars. The competitors' fastest lap times determined the starting order with the grid arranged to put the Prototype and GTLM cars ahead of all GTD entries. Van Der Zande for WTR took the third pole position of his career, on his final lap with a time of 1 minute, 36.083 seconds; he ran deep at turn five through later braking. This was WTR's first pole position at Daytona since Max Angelelli in the 2010 event. He was joined on the grid's front row by Castroneves who had pole position for Penske in the closing minutes until Van der Zande's lap.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Practice and qualifying
On his final timed lap, Albuquerue qualified the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac third, and Patricio O'Ward took fourth in the No. 38 PTR Oreca to become the field's highest-placed LMP2 car. Early pace setter Vautier in Spirit's No. 90 car was fifth, and Robin Frijns' No. 78 Jackie Chan car was sixth. An electrical fault left Nasr seventh. Braun's No. 54 CORE car, Bomarito's No. 55 Mazda, and Cameron's No. 6 Penske were eighth to tenth.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Practice and qualifying
Lapierre set no lap time after he locked his brakes on his first timed lap and damaged the No. 22 ESM car's front-left suspension against the tyre barriers at the West Horseshoe. ESM's No. 2 entry did not participate due to a precautionary engine switch. Mazda's No. 77 car was absent because of a pre-qualifying data irregularity.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Practice and qualifying
In GTLM, Magnussen's No. 3 Corvette drafted his teammate Gavin to achieve his fourth class pole position, and bettered Hand's 2017 category lap track record with a time of 1 minute, 42.779 seconds. Magnussen was 0.019 seconds faster than Hand's second-placed No. 66 Ford. Following in third was Vanthoor's No. 912 Porsche, with the sister No. 911 car of Pilet fourth. Westbrook was fifth in GTLM in the slower Ford.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Practice and qualifying
Daniel Serra in the No. 51 Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 GT3 was the first driver to record a GTD lap time in the 1 minute, 46-second range midway through, securing his second career pole position, and his first in any class since the 2016 Monterey Grand Prix with a 1-minute, 46.407 seconds lap. Molina made it an all-Ferrari class front row in the No. 82 Risi car. Mirko Bortolotti's No. 11 GRT Lamborghini was third-fastest, but the car was demoted to the rear of the GTD field for failing a mandatory stall test at a post-qualifying technical inspection.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Practice and qualifying
Hence, Jack Hawksworth's No. 15 3GT Racing Lexus RC F GT3 started third. Alessandro Balzan's No. 63 Scuderia Ferrari started fourth, with Dominik Baumann's slower Lexus fifth. Two GTD cars failed to record a lap time: The No. 73 Park Place Porsche's tire punctured on its out lap, and P1's No. 73 Mercedes-AMG GT3 had brake problems.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Practice and qualifying
The third practice session ran at night and saw Vautier's No. 90 Cadillac set the fastest overall lap of 1 minute, 37.210 seconds. Castroneves was almost two-tenths of a second behind in second, with the No. 22 ESM Nissan of Pipo Derani third. Harry Tincknell in the No. 55 Mazda was fourth and Norris' quicker United Autosports car was fifth. Kyle Masson caused the session's first stoppage when his No. 38 PTR Oreca ran out of fuel on the track requiring recovery back to the pit lane.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Practice and qualifying
Later, Menezes' No. 99 JDC-Miller car right-rear tire failed entering turn six at high-speed. Though he controlled his car throughout and avoided hitting the wall, practice was stopped for 12 minutes. Ford occupied first and second in GTLM with Bourdais faster than his teammate Westbrook by two-tenths of a second. Bortolotti's No. 11 Grasser Lamborghini Huracán led GTD, and Sam Bird, in the No. 64 Scuderia Ferrari, was second in class.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Practice and qualifying
Mike Conway led the last practice session in the No. 31 WER car with a lap of 1 minute, 36.865 seconds. Stroll's No. 37 Jackie Chan car was second-fastest. The No. 90 Cadillac of Vautier set the third-quickest lap. Rast's No. 77 Mazda, along with Albuquerque's No. 5 Mustang Sampling car were fourth and fifth. Though the session passed relatively peacefully, the right-rear tire on the No. 32 United Autosports vehicle of Bruno Senna blew on the track. In GTLM, Hand was again fastest in the class with a lap of 1 minute, 44.602 seconds. Bruni was second-fastest in the No. 912 Porsche, and his teammate Pilet took third in the sister No. 911 car. Cairoli set the fastest time in GTD, followed by Jeroen Bleekemolen's No. 33 Riley Mercedes-AMG GT3 car.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Practice and qualifying, Pre-race
Tomy Drissi withdrew from the race due to business commitments, leaving the No. 20 BAR1 Riley Mk. 30 to operate as a four-person entry. The No. 2 ESM Motorsports, the No. 71 P1 Mercedes-AMG, and the No. 77 Mazda entries were sent to the rear of their respective class fields because their teams changed their respective starting drivers. Although PSR and Mazda changed engines in their respective cars (the No. 48 Lamborghini and the No. 77 RT24-P), they were not demoted any grid places since the race lasted more than six hours.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Practice and qualifying, Qualifying results
Pole positions in each class are indicated in bold. P stands for Daytona Prototype International, GTLM (Grand Touring Le Mans) and GTD (Grand Touring Daytona).


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Race, Start
Weather conditions at the start of the race were dry but cloudy. The air temperature throughout was between 64 and 77 °F (18 and 25 °C) and the track temperature ranged from 62 to 80 °F (17 to 27 °C); conditions were expected to remain consistent throughout the race, but a 70 per cent chance of rain was forecast for Sunday. CGR founder and owner Chip Ganassi waved the green flag at 14:40 Eastern Standard Time (UTC−05:00) to start the proceedings.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Race, Start
Fifty cars were due to take the start, but Robert Renauer spun on cold tyres and heavily damaged the left-hand quarter of the No. 58 Wright Motorsports car when he hit the turn five inside wall during the first formation lap. Extensive repairs to the car were carried out for the next two hours and eight minutes. Van Der Zande led from the start with Castroneves close behind. Nasr moved to third by the third lap and overtook Castroneves around the outside for second at turn seven. He lost third to Albuquerque two corners later.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Race, Start
The first round of green flag pit stops for fuel began on lap 17, with Van der Zande stopping two laps later. He lost first to Albuquerque after all pit stops were carried out. Hand took the GTLM lead from Magnussen in the opening minutes. Westbrook was also an early mover but fell to third after a slow pit stop to rectify brake issues. Jeffrey Schmidt's No. 29 Land Motorsport car moved to the front of GTD by passing Serra and having a faster pit stop than Molina who overtook Serra.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Race, Start
Early in the second hour, problems during the second pit stop phase affected several cars. The right-front wheel on Bomarito's No. 55 Mazda detached and rested on the Armco barriers lining the circuit. Bomarito slowed to 45 mph (72 km/h) on his way to the pit lane, putting him three laps behind the overall leader; Tincknell relieved him at his pit box. Oliver Jarvis' sister No. 77 car was then transported into its garage for a downshifting problem that put him behind the GTLM leaders and five laps behind the overall pace setters.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Race, Start
Santiago Creel relieved Molina in the No. 82 Risi Ferrari, but a flash fire affected the car  when fuel ignited at its pit stop after the nozzle was disconnected. The entry dropped 24 laps as it was tended to. Ricky Taylor's No. 7 Penske car was delayed by its left-hand door loosening due to a broken latch; he remained on the same lap as the overall leader. During this period, Vautier, Alonso and Barbosa all led outright. ESM gained the most positions: the No. 22 car of Derani had gained 15 places from starting 18th, while Olivier Pla's sister No. 22 entry overcame an earlier cut tire that necessitated an unscheduled pit stop to run in seventh.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Race, Start
Derani was gaining on Barbosa when the first full course caution period of the race was activated for 14 minutes. James French in the No. 38 PTR Oreca had stopped on the oval banking at turn seven halfway through the third hour because of no fuel. Barbosa kept first from Derani at the restart. Two Jackie Chan cars separated the pair allowing Barbosa to draw clear and re-establish his advantage upfront, which grew to seven seconds.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Race, Start
Derani fell out of contention in the battle for the lead soon after his right-rear tire burst, shredding the right-rear quarter of his car and sending him to pit road for repairs. Matt McMurry in the No. 90 Spirit of Race car was demoted to third when Hunter-Reay's No. 10 WTR entry, Simon Pagenaud's No. 6 Penske, and Middleton's No. 31 WER car got past him the lap after the restart. Middleton came into contact with Pagenaud at turn five; in spite of both remaining on the lead lap, Middleton earned a drive-through penalty. As night fell, James Calado's No. 62 Risi car, and Nunez' No. 77 Mazda, picked up punctures at the rear of their cars within 28 minutes of each other.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Race, Night
Before the fourth hour's end, Jordan Taylor's right-rear tire burst on the banking entering turn 12. Damage was minimal since he was near the pit lane and repairs took 29 seconds. Light rain began falling just as the fifth hour began and several cars in all categories were caught out by the change of conditions. Soon after, the rain intensified enough for most of the field to make pit stops for rain tyres. Marcel Fässler stayed on the circuit but was ten seconds slower than teammate Magnussen and was overtaken by Bourdais and Scott Dixon's Fords.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Race, Night
The rain later tapered off, but the disparity of drying of the banking and the infield sections was problematic for rain tyre equipped cars. The first major incident in GTLM came 4 hours and 42 minutes in when Bill Auberlen's No. 25 BMW M8's right-front tyre was cut 10 mm (1.0 cm) from debris on the banking leaving turn six. He stayed off the wall and returned to his garage to repair front-right bodywork damage. Pilet remained on dry tyres and took the GTLM lead but dropped to fourth by the end of hour six. In the meantime, Fittipaldi lost the overall lead to Castroneves before Conway took it after he made a pit stop two laps later than both drivers.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Race, Night
Norris was the best-placed LMP2 car and was sometimes the fastest overall and gained positions through superior fuel economy before Hanson took over the No. 23 vehicle. Despite a front nose change at his pit stop, Castroneves retook the lead after Curran took over from Conway when the No. 5 car stopped. Castroneves was soon being gained on by Albuquerque who relieved Fittipaldi. The two drew level when Albuquerque used his car's extra torque to get a better exit out of the turn three hairpin.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Race, Night
Albuquerque overtook Castroneves because the latter elected not to risk driving beside him entering the kink. Albuquerque opened up a five-second gap before handing the lead back to Castroneves ten minutes before the eighth hour ended on pit stop rotation. Don Yount lost control of the No. 96 Turner BMW M6's rear at the Bus Stop chicane and hit the tyre wall heavily. No caution was needed. Soon after, Hanson's right-rear tyre blew turning into the Bus Stop chicane, significantly damaging his car's bodywork. Hanson required an engine cover and rear wing replacement and Alonso took over from him.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Race, Night
Castroneves again lost the lead to Albuquerque when he overshot his pit box and was half a minute adrift into hour nine. Third-placed Van der Zande picked up another right-rear puncture on the No. 10 WTR car at the Bus Stop chicane; the carcass delaminated and deranged its bodywork and radiator line, forcing it into the garage for repairs. It dropped ten laps to the overall leader.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Race, Night
McMurry brought the No. 90 Spirit of Racing car into his garage with a misfiring engine and later retired. Nick Tandy got past Antonio García's No. 3 Corvette but clipped the curb at the Bus Stop chicane too hard and speared into the tyre barrier after losing control of his vehicle's rear leaving the turn. He returned to the pit lane with heavy car damage. As it turned January 28, Nasr's right-rear tire failed but had minimal car damage and went to the pit lane for a replacement wheel.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Race, Night
The lead of GTD went to Adam Christodoulou's No. 33 Riley Mercedes-AMG because IMSA deemed that Jeffrey Schmidt's No. 29 Land Audi had exceeded the maximum rate of permitted fuel flow (a balance of performance transgression) at the car's pit stops. IMSA ordered the team to serve a five-minute stop-and-hold penalty. The race's second full course yellow was activated for 18 minutes when Roberto González was on his out-lap on cold tyres and went straight into the tyre barrier at the third corner. Mustang Sampling Racing changed the brake discs on the No. 5 car during the caution, allowing Ricky Taylor and Pagenaud into first and second overall.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Race, Night
In GTD, Katherine Legge took over the class lead in the No. 86 MSR Acura NSX when the No. 33 Riley Mercedes-AMG served a stop-and-hold penalty for speeding in the pit lane. Legge lost it soon after to Perera's No. 48 PSR Lamborghini and Brekers took second place in the class for Grasser. Meanwhile, the top four overall cars were separated by six seconds and three cars were contesting the battle for second place. Barbosa sidedrafted Pagenaud with fourth-placed Nasr slipstreaming both cars on the approach to the Bus Stop chicane.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Race, Night
Nasr out-braked both vehicles and passed them for second overall. Graham Rahal was now in the No.7 Penske Acura but was overtaken by Barbosa and Nasr. Ten hours and 30 minutes in, Alonso drove No. 23 United Autosports car into the garage with a master brake cylinder failure and fell out of contention for a top ten finish. One second separated Barbosa, Nasr and Rahal with Pagenaud drawing slightly closer in fourth. Nasr lost second to Rahal in the 11th hour. Pagenaud took the lead for a short time during the pit stops for fuel. Rahal extended his lead as Barbosa and Nasr lost time on cold tyres, but Pagenaud gained first when Rahal spun and stalled at turn one.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Race, Morning
Conway regained first place through the next pit stop cycle. Tung slid the No. 78 Jackie Chan Oreca at the Bus Stop chicane and rear-ended the inside tire barrier. He made a pit stop for a replacement rear wing assembly and repairs to the car's front-left bodywork. The two Nissan DPis of ESM driven by Ryan Dalziel and Derani retired by hour 14 because of respective terminal gearbox and engine failures.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Race, Morning
Cameron led for three laps before his mechanics called him to pit road to inspect the No. 6 Penske car thoroughly for a suspected alternator problem that drained its battery. Cameron lost 25 laps to the leaders, and just three entries in the Prototype category were now on the lead lap. Curran led at the beginning of the 15th hour but lost it to teammate Albuquerque when his rear brake light failed to work. A rear wing replacement was mandated at his unscheduled pit stop as he fell off the lead lap.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Race, Morning
In the 16th hour's opening minutes, the third full course yellow flags were waved for 20 minutes. Jörg Bergmeister in the No. 73 Park Place Porsche had lightly hit the tire wall alongside the circuit and continued to the pit lane. Several cars in GTD took the opportunity to change brake discs during the caution.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Race, Morning
14 minutes after racing resumed, Castroneves and Nasr made contact, resulting in significant damage to the No. 7 Penske's left-hand side intercooler, radiator and bodywork, necessitating its return to the garage. It returned 25 laps adrift of the leader and out of contention for the overall win. Van der Zande's No. 10 WTR Cadillac sustained another right-rear puncture, this time at high speed. WTR owner Wayne Taylor retired the car for driver safety reasons, uncertain of the cause of the problem, and he wanted to stop using spare bodywork parts.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Race, Morning
Soon after, Bomarito's No. 55 Mazda retired at the West Horseshoe due to an exhaust problem that led the car to catch fire. The fourth (and final) full course yellow was activated for 22 minutes when Kyle Masson put Legge off the track; he ploughed through an advertising billboard and Styrofoam blocks, littering debris on the circuit. Legge narrowly avoided impacting Masson's side. Under caution, Fittipaldi brought the No. 5 vehicle onto pit road to rectify an overnight cooling issue by removing the engine cover and adding water. This allowed Conway back on the lead lap.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Race, Morning
Conway stayed close by Fittipaldi as Braun got the No. 54 CORE car past the latter to regain one of its laps. Conway could not pass his teammate to regain first overall. Midway through the 19th hour, Conway was called to pit road for a similar cooling issue that hindered the sister No. 5 car; he kept second because Paul di Resta's No. 32 United Autosports car had a clutch pressure problem that temporarily prevented him from leaving pit road. He lost three laps to Fittipaldi.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Race, Morning
The No. 11 Grasser Lamborghini took the lead in GTD after trading the position with the No. 33 Riley Mercedes-AMG for the past few hours. Meanwhile, teams scheduled their final pit stops and prepared their fastest drivers for their last stints. The leaders of two of the three categories were close by each other without over risking. Overheating concerns slowed Nasr and fell to third behind Loïc Duval's No. 54 CORE car. Nasr retook second when Duval made a scheduled pit stop by the end of hour 22.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Race, Finish
Unhindered after relieving Fittipaldi in the final two hours, Albuquerque took the chequered flag for Mustang Sampling Racing in a record-breaking distance of 808 laps and 2,876.48 miles (4,629.25 km), overtaking the record set by John Paul Jr., John Paul Sr. and Rolf Stommelen in a Porsche 935 at the 1982 race. It was Barbosa and Fittipaldi's third outright victory at Daytona and Albquqerue's first. Middleton's No. 31 WER car followed 1 minute and 10.544 seconds later in second, and Braun's No. 54 CORE Oreca was the highest-placed LMP2 vehicle in third.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Race, Finish
In GTLM, the No. 67 Ford of Briscoe, Dixon and Westbrook passed the sister No. 66 Ford of Hand, Dirk Müller and Bourdais in its final pit stop. It crossed the start-finish line after 783 laps to achieve CGR's 200th motor racing victory, and the team's second consecutive win, by 11.180 seconds after leading all but nine laps. It was Dixon's third Daytona victory, Briscoe's second, and Hand's first. The No. 3 Corvette of Garcia, Magnussen and Mike Rockenfeller completed the class podium in third.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Race, Finish
Bleekemolen's No. 33 Riley Mercedes-AMG closed to within a second of Bortolotti's No. 11 GRT Lamborghini in the final half-hour. A pit stop for fuel for Bleekemolen with 15 minutes left allowed Bortolotti to claim victory in GTD and Lamborghini's maiden 24-hour race win. Parente got the No. 86 MSR Acura NSX to second and PSR's No. 23 Lamborghini took third with Andrea Caldarelli driving the final stint.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Post-race
Continental Tire, one of the IMSA SCC's two tire suppliers, suggested the increased competition in the Prototype category, teams double stinting their tires (the same sets brought by the company to Daytona for the past five years), and running them outside of their recommended air pressures and camber settings, were factors in several cars sustaining right-rear punctures during practice and the race. Warm track temperatures, the highest in five years, led teams to lower tire air pressures to stop them from over-inflating once they reached their optimum running temperatures.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Post-race
Furthermore, according to Continental Tire, they cautioned three teams over not receiving more sets of tires because they had not brought their limits in line with the company's recommendations. One team reported to Continental Tire that their tyre failures occurred after increasing their tyre pressures to the company's prescribed limits. Regardless, at the 12 Hours of Sebring, Continental Tire debuted a more durable slick tyre which allowed for more aggressive setups and enhanced the likelihood that incidents such as the multiple punctures seen at Daytona would not reoccur in the future.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Post-race
The No. 29 Land Audi was impounded at technical inspection for three hours after the race. The team's refuelling equipment was deemed to comply with IMSA regulations, but a discrepancy in the fuel data provided to the series and the team was discovered. Starting at Sebring, IMSA established minimum refuelling times for all classes, overriding all refuelling restrictor starting sizes issued to teams. This was listed in the category-wide balance of performance tables to counter the controversy.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Post-race
Jarvis expressed his surprise that the race had just four caution periods compared to 21 in 2017, "We always talk about Daytona as [being about] staying out of trouble, staying on the lead lap – and if you do have a problem, don't worry, because you get laps back. But it just hasn't happened. I've never seen a Daytona 24 with such big gaps [between the leading cars]. It's a shame really because in the prototype class there hasn't been much of a race on, it's just survival to the finish."


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Post-race
Duval said the low number of cautions lessened his team's chances of the overall victory, because the day before it began they anticipated more than 20, adding: "We tried to put some pressure on the guys [ahead] but it was a bit too late, they were a bit too far ahead."


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Post-race
Since it was the season's first race, Albuquerue, Barbosa and Fittipaldi led the Prototype Drivers' Championship with 35 points each. Conway, Curran, Middleton and Nasr were in second with 32 points. Bennett, Braun, Dumas and Duval were third with 30 points. Westbrook, Dixon and Briscoe took the GTLM points standings lead with their teammates Bourdais, Hand and Müller placing second. Garcia, Magnussen and Rockenfeller rounded out the top three. Bortolotti, Perera, Rik Breukers and Inechen led the GTD Drivers' Championship, followed by the second-placed Allmendinger, Parente, Legge and Hindman. Caldarelli, Sellers, Miller and Snow were third. Mustang Sampling Racing, CGR and GRT Grasser Racing Team became the leaders of their respective class Teams' Championships. Cadillac, Ford and Lamborghini assumed the lead of their respective Manufacturers' Championships with 11 races left in the season.


2018 24 Hours of Daytona, Results
Class winners are denoted in bold. P stands for Daytona Prototype International, GTLM (Grand Touring Le Mans) and GTD (Grand Touring Daytona).


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans
The 86th 24 Hours of Le Mans (French: 86e 24 Heures du Mans) was an 24 hour automobile endurance race for Le Mans Prototype and Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance cars held from 16 to 17 June 2018 at the Circuit de la Sarthe, close to Le Mans, France. It was the 86th running of the event, as organised by the automotive group, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO), since 1923. The race was the second round of the 2018–19 FIA World Endurance Championship, with 36 of the race's 60 entries contesting the series. Approximately 256,900 people attended the race. A test day was held two weeks prior to the race on 3 June.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans
A Toyota TS050 Hybrid car shared by Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Fernando Alonso began from pole position after Nakajima recorded the fastest lap time in the third qualifying session. It and the sister Toyota of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María López exchanged the lead for most of the first half of the race until Buemi took a one-minute stop-and-go penalty for speeding in a slow zone that was enforced for an accident during the night.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans
Alonso and Nakajima retook the lead from their teammates in the 16th hour and maintained it for the rest of the race to win. It was Alonso, Buemi and Nakajima's first Le Mans win and Toyota's first in its 20th try. The sister Toyota of Conway, Kobayashi and López finished two laps behind in second, and a Rebellion R13 vehicle driven by Thomas Laurent, Gustavo Menezes and Mathias Beche completed the podium in third.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans
The Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class was led for 360 consecutive laps by the G-Drive Racing Oreca 07 car of Roman Rusinov, Andrea Pizzitola and Jean-Éric Vergne and was the first team to finish the race. It was later disqualified for running an illegal refuelling component and G-Drive lost an appeal. The class victory was taken by the Signatech Alpine team of Nicolas Lapierre, Pierre Thiriet and André Negrão.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans
A Graff-SO24 team of Vincent Capillaire, Jonathan Hirschi and Tristan Gommendy was second and a United Autosports Ligier JS P217 car driven by Hugo de Sadeleer, Will Owen and Juan Pablo Montoya third.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans
On its 70th anniversary Porsche won both of the Le Mans Grand Touring Professional (LMGTE) categories with Michael Christensen, Kévin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor's No. 92 car ahead of the No. 91 911 RSR car of Richard Lietz, Gianmaria Bruni and Frédéric Makowiecki in Le Mans Grand Touring Professional (LMGTE Pro) and Dempsey-Proton's trio of Matt Campbell, Christian Ried and Julien Andlauer in Le Mans Grand Touring Amateur (LMGTE Am).


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans
The result increased Alonso, Buemi and Nakajima's lead in the LMP Drivers' Championship to 20 points over their teammates Conway, Kobayashi and López. Beche, Laurent and Menezes retained third place and Lapierre, Thiriet and Negrão's victory in LMP2 moved them to fourth. In the GTE Drivers' Championship Christensen and Estre took the lead from Billy Johnson, Stefan Mücke and Olivier Pla. Toyota further extended their lead over Rebellion Racing in the LMP1 Teams' Championship to 27 points as Porsche went further ahead of Ford in the GTE Manufacturers' Championship with six races remaining in the season.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Background
The 24 Hours of Le Mans is considered one of the world's most prestigious motor races and is part of the Triple Crown of Motorsport. It was proposed by the automotive journalist Charles Faroux to Georges Durand, the president of the automotive group, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) and the industrialist Emile Coquile for car manufacturers to test vehicle reliability, equipment and fuel-efficiency. The dates for the 2018 24 Hours of Le Mans were confirmed at a meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council in its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland on 19 June 2017. It was the 86th edition of the event, and the second of eight automobile endurance races of the 2018–19 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Background
Before the race Toyota drivers Fernando Alonso, Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima led the LMP Drivers' Championship with 26 points, eight ahead of their teammates Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María López and a further three in front of Mathias Beche, Thomas Laurent and Gustavo Menezes of the Rebellion team. The ByKolles trio of Tom Dillmann, Dominik Kraihamer and Oliver Webb were fourth with 12 points and SMP Racing's Mikhail Aleshin and Vitaly Petrov were fifth with 10 points.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Background
In the GTE Drivers' Championship Billy Johnson, Stefan Mücke and Olivier Pla of Ford Chip Ganassi Racing led with 25 points, ahead of the Porsche duo of Michael Christensen and Kévin Estre in second and AF Corse's Davide Rigon and Sam Bird third. Toyota (26 points) led the LMP1 Teams' Championship by 11 points over Rebellion in second. The ByKolles team was a further three points behind in third as Porsche led Ford by four points in the GTE Manufacturers' Championship.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Circuit changes
After the 2017 24 Hours of Le Mans, modifications were made to the Porsche Curves section of the Circuit de la Sarthe to increase safety. Barriers on the inside of the final right-hand corner were dismantled and relocated further away from the circuit, allowing for the construction of paved run-off area and escape roads. This same alteration had been done on the barriers outside the corner in 2017. This modification re-profiled the corner slightly, shortening the lap distance by 3 m (9.8 ft). The ACO also constructed a new starting line gantry 145 m (476 ft) further up the main straight to increase the capacity for cars at the start of the race. The finish line and all timing beacons remained at the previous starting line at the exit of the Ford Chicane.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Entries, Automatic entries
Automatic entry invitations were earned by teams that won their class in the 2017 24 Hours of Le Mans. Invitations were also sent to teams who had won championships in the European Le Mans Series (ELMS), Asian Le Mans Series (ALMS), and the Michelin GT3 Le Mans Cup. The second-place finisher in the ELMS Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance (LMGTE) championship earned an automatic invitation as well. Finally, the ACO choose two participants from the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship (WTSC) to be automatic entries regardless of their performance or category.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Entries, Automatic entries
As invitations were granted to teams, they were allowed to change their cars from the previous year to the next but not their category. The LMGTE class invitations from the European and ALMS were allowed to choose between the Pro and Am categories. European Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) champion was required to field an entry in Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) while the ALMS LMP3 champion could choose between LMP2 or LMGTE Amateur (LMGTE Am). The Michelin Le Mans Cup LMP3 champion did not receive an automatic entry and the Grand Touring 3 (GT3) champion was limited to the LMGTE Am category.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Entries, Automatic entries
The ACO announced its initial list of automatic entries on 5 February 2018. The Porsche LMP Team did not continue in the WEC after the 2017 season while the FIST-Team AAI squad opted to concentrate on their GT3 entries. The JDC-Miller Motorsports team, which was invited via driver Misha Goikhberg winning the Jim Trueman Award as "the top sportsman" in the Daytona Prototype International (DPi) category of the 2017 WTSC, told ACO officials on 9 February that it would forgo its automatic invitation due to financial trouble concerning its entry.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Entries, Entry list
In conjunction with the announcement of entries for the 2018–19 FIA World Endurance Championship and the 2018 European Le Mans Series, the ACO announced the full 60 car entry list, plus nine reserves during a press conference at the Rétromobile Show in Paris on 9 February. In addition to the 36 guaranteed entries from the WEC, 13 came from the ELMS, seven from the WTSC, three from the ALMS and a single one-off entry only competing at Le Mans. The field was split evenly with 30 cars in each of the combined LMP and LMGTE categories.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Entries, Garage 56
The ACO intended to continue the Garage 56 concept, started in 2012. Garage 56 allows a 56th entry to test new technologies at the race. Panoz and Green4U Technologies announced during the 2017 24 Hours of Le Mans weekend they intended to enter its Green4U Panoz Racing GT-EV car in the 2018 race. The all-wheel drive car intended to utilise two electric motors on each of its axles with a swappable battery lasting between 90 to 110 mi (140 to 180 km) within a tandem style LMP body. On 8 February, the ACO confirmed the Garage 56 concept would not be continued for 2018 due to a lack of feasible options.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Entries, Reserves
Nine reserves were initially nominated by the ACO, limited to the LMP2 (six cars) and LMGTE Am (three cars) categories. ARC Bratislava announced the termination of its ELMS LMP2 programme on 11 February after its Ligier JS P217 car was placed eighth in the reserves list and leaving the team unlikely to be promoted to the race entry. Six days later, IDEC Sport withdrew its reserve JS P217 entry so that the team could concentrate on improving the performance of its entered No. 28 car. By the test day, two reserves remained on the list after five of the seven entries withdrew: KCMG's Dallara P217 entry and a Racing Engineering Oreca 07 car.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Pre-race balance of performance changes
The FIA Endurance Committee altered the equivalence of technology in the LMP classes and the balance of performance in the LMGTE categories to try and create parity within them. All non-hybrid LMP vehicles had their fuel flow of petrol per hour reduced from 110 kilograms per hour (243 lb/h) to 108 kilograms per hour (238 lb/h). The Toyota TS050 Hybrid cars had no performance alterations.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Pre-race balance of performance changes
For the LMGTE categories the Aston Martin Vantage GTE vehicles received an extra 5 kg (11 lb) of weight and a minor reduction in turbocharger boost pressure as The BMW M8 GTE had 13 kg (29 lb) of weight added and a reduction of power to lower their performances.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Pre-race balance of performance changes
The Porsche 911 RSR received a reduction in performance with a 0.6 mm (0.024 in) smaller air restrictor on the intake of its engine, the Ferrari 488 GTE vehicles had an extra 11 kg (24 lb) of weight added to it and the Ford GT was made 12 kg (26 lb) heavier and an increase in turbocharger boost pressure. In the LMGTE Am class the Aston Martin and Porsche vehicles had their top speeds lowered with a smaller air restrictor and the Ferrari had its turbocharger boost pressure reduced.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Testing
A test day was held on 3 June and required all race entrants to participate in eight hours of track time divided into two sessions. Toyota led the morning session with a 3 minutes, 21.468 seconds lap from Alonso's No. 8 TS050 car. The fastest non-hybrid car was Laurent in the No. 3 Rebellion R13 vehicle, ahead of Conway's Toyota, the sister Rebellion team of Bruno Senna, and the No. 17 SMP BR Engineering BR1 car driven by Stéphane Sarrazin.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Testing
Oreca vehicles led the LMP2 category with seven cars at the top of the timing charts, with the No. 26 G-Drive entry driven by the team's reserve driver Alexandre Imperatori seven-tenths of a second ahead of the No. 48 IDEC Sport car of Paul-Loup Chatin. Ford took the first four positions in the LMGTE Pro class, the No. 67 car of Andy Priaulx leading Mücke's No. 66 entry with a 3 minutes, 53.008 seconds lap.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Testing
Late in the session, the No. 95 Aston Martin of Marco Sørensen and Harrison Newey's No. 35 SMP Dallara vehicle made contact in traffic between Mulsanne and Indianapolis corners, causing Sørensen to crash heavily against a barrier beside the circuit and prematurely end the session with 51 minutes to go. Sørensen was unhurt; he was transported to the circuit's medical centre for a precautionary check before being released and Aston Martin switched to a spare chassis. The Clearwater Racing Ferrari car was fastest in the LMGTE Am category with a lap of 3 minutes, 58.967 seconds from driver Keita Sawa.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Testing
The second test session started half an hour earlier than scheduled to give teams more time on the circuit. Toyota again led from the start with a lap from Kobayashi in the No. 7, followed by Alonso's 3 minutes, 19.066 seconds time to top the session. Beche improved the No. 3 Rebellion's lap to duplicate its first session result in second place. The second Rebellion car of André Lotterer set a lap late on to go fourth, ahead of Vitaly Petrov's No. 11 SMP car.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Testing
Nathanaël Berthon improved the fastest lap in LMP2, moving the DragonSpeed team ahead of Chatin and G-Drive's Jean-Éric Vergne and Matthieu Vaxivière. Patrick Pilet in the No. 93 Porsche and Gianmaria Bruni's No. 91 car passed Priaulx's No. 66 and Olivier Pla's No. 67 Ford cars in LMGTE Pro. Another Porsche in LMGTE Am, driven by Julien Andlauer for the Dempsey-Proton team, overtook Sawa's fastest time from the morning session to be ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella's Spirit of Race Ferrari. Two safety car periods were required after separate crashes by Alessandro Pier Guidi's No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari at Tetre Rouge corner and António Félix da Costa's No. 82 BMW in the Porsche Curves.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Testing, Post-testing balance of performance changes
Following testing the ACO altered the balance of performance for a second time in the LMGTE Pro and Am categories. The Aston Martin Vantage GTE received an increase in performance with its turbocharger boost pressure raised and a 4 l (0.88 imp gal; 1.1 US gal) increase in maximum fuel volume. BMW and Ford had their car's performance raised with a minor increase in turbocharger boost ratio; the Ford's fuel allocation was lowered to 2 l (0.44 imp gal; 0.53 US gal). The Chevrolet Corvette C7.R, BMW and Ford vehicles received weight increases. Porsche had no performance changes. In LMGTE Am the Aston Martin Vantage was given an increase of 2 l (0.44 imp gal; 0.53 US gal). Porsche and Ferrari had no performance alterations.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Practice
A single four-hour free practice session on 13 June was available to the teams before the three qualifying sessions. Rain forecast for 14 June prompted several teams to set laps at full racing speed in anticipation of the first qualifying session determining the race's starting order. Toyota led from the start once again, with Kobayashi going fastest in the final 20 minutes at 3 minutes, 18.718 seconds, half a second faster than Buemi in second. Laurent and Ben Hanley of the DragonSpeed team were third and fourth and Jenson Button for the SMP squad completed the top five. Oreca cars took the first five positions in the LMP2 category with a lap of 3 minutes, 26.529 seconds from Vergne, followed by Chatin, Loïc Duval of the TDS Racing team, Berthon and Tristan Gommendy for the Graff squad.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Practice
The No. 37 Jackie Chan car of Nabil Jeffri sustained right-front corner damage in a crash at Indianapolis corner mid-way through the session and the car did not return to the circuit. Porsches led the first three positions in LMGTE Pro with a lap of 3 minutes, 50.819 seconds from Laurens Vanthoor's No. 92 RSR leading the class until his teammate Pilet overtook him with 20 minutes to go. Pla was the fastest non-Porsche in fourth and Miguel Molina's No. 71 AF Corse Ferrari was fifth.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Practice
Matteo Cairoli helped Porsche to be fastest in LMGTE Am, ahead of Ben Barker's Gulf car and Fisichella. Pilet had an accident at the exit to the first Mulsanne Chicane, damaging the No. 93 car against a tyre wall and scattering debris on the circuit. A local slow zone was required after Michael Wainwright beached the No. 86 Gulf Porsche in a gravel trap at the Dunlop Curve.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying
The first qualifying session began late Wednesday night under dry conditions, as Toyota again led the time sheets early on with a lap from López, followed by Nakajima's 3 minutes, 17.270 seconds time after eight minutes to go fastest. Neither improved their lap times over the rest of the session, giving the No. 8 car provisional pole position. The fastest non-hybrid car was Sarrazin's SMP entry in third, following the Rebellion cars of Senna and Menezes. The fastest LMP2 lap was a 3 minutes, 24.956 seconds time from Chatin and early category pace setter Duval was second.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying
Vergne, DragonSpeed's Pastor Maldonado and Nicolas Lapierre of the Signatech Alpine team were third to fifth in class. Porsche took the first two positions in the LMGTE Pro class with a lap of 3 minutes, 47.504 seconds from Bruni to reset the category lap record at his first attempt. Bruni lost control of the rear of the No. 92 car into the Dunlop Curves and spun through 180 degrees into a gravel trap soon after. Christensen in second was a tenth of a second faster than the Ford cars of Pla and Mücke. The fastest Ferrari was fifth after a lap by Per Guidi. Cairoli led the LMGTE Am class with a 3 minutes, 50.669 seconds lap, followed by his Dempsey-Proton teammate Matt Campbell and Barker.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying
Thursday's first qualifying session was stopped three times for crashes. Sven Müller caused rear damage to the No. 94 Porsche against a tyre wall at Indianapolis corner. Priaulx spun at the entry to Tetre Rouge corner with his left-rear wheel on the grass and damaged his car's rear in a collision with a tyre barrier. He was able to restart the car but the damage to the barriers caused a red flag. This was followed by the right-rear suspension on Lapierre's car failing on a kerb and sending him into a gravel trap.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying
He continued to the pit lane and the session was stopped for nine minutes to allow track marshals to clear gravel strewn on the circuit. The session ended with 38 minutes to go after Giorgio Sernagiotto crashed the No. 47 Cetilar Vilorba Corse Dallara car against a tyre barrier opposite the first Mulsanne chicane after a front-left puncture. Sernagiotto was unhurt and was transported to the medical centre for a mandatory check-up. Alonso led the session with a lap of 3 minutes and 18.021 seconds; he did not improve on co-driver Nakajima's lap from the first session.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying
The two LMP1 entries to improve their lap times was the CEFC TRSM Ginetta G60-LT-P1 cars of Alex Brundle and Charlie Robertson. The IDEC team maintained its advantage in LMP2 as Porsche continued to lead in LMGTE Pro and Am. Fisichella's Spirit of Race Ferrari overtook the Gulf squad for third in LMGTE Am.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying
With the multiple stoppages in qualifying, the third session was expanded by half an hour in order to give teams more time on the circuit. Early in the session Nakajima reset the fastest time to a 3 minutes, 15.377 seconds without slower traffic impeding him. He took Toyota's fourth pole position at Le Mans and Alonso's, Buemi's and Nakajima's first. The No. 7 Toyota team could not improve the car's fastest lap and began from second.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying
The Rebellion team were third and fifth with Senna ahead of Laurent after officials invalidated the latter's fastest time for failing to stop at a red light instructing him to enter the scrutineering bay. Sarrazin's SMP car separated the duo in fourth. In LMP2, Duval took the category pole position from Chatin until his fastest time was deleted for missing a red light to enter the scrutineering bay. Berthon took second and Vergne was third.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying
Porsche secured pole position in both of the LMGTE classes with Bruni securing it in Pro and Cairoli in Am courtesy of their laps from the first session. Per Guidi led the session to move the No. 51 Ferrari to fourth in LMGTE Pro as Barker improved the Gulf team's lap to be six-tenths of a second behind the Dempsey-Proton squad. A slow zone procedure was used after Matt Griffin beached the Clearwater Ferrari in a gravel trap at Indianapolis corner and track marshals extricated it.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying, Post-qualifying
Following qualifying, the ACO altered the balance of performance in the LMGTE categories for the third time. 10 kg (22 lb) of ballast was removed from the BMW M8 and the Aston Martin Vantage while the Corvette C7.R car was made 5 kg (11 lb) lighter. The Porsche 911 car had its weight increased by 10 kg (22 lb) and the Ford GT vehicles were lightened by 8 kg (18 lb). The Ferrari 488 received an 1 l (0.22 imp gal; 0.26 US gal) increase in fuel capacity.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying, Post-qualifying
In LMGTE Am, Aston Martin received a 10 kg (22 lb) decrease of weight and Porsche had 10 kg (22 lb) added to their cars. Ferrari had no performance changes. The world governing body of motor racing, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), restricted all LMGTE Pro cars to a maximum of 14 laps per stint.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying, Qualifying results
Pole position winners in each class are indicated in bold. The fastest time set by each entry is denoted in gray.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Warm-up
A 45-minute warm-up session was held on Saturday morning and took place in dry and sunny weather. Kobayashi set the fastest lap of 3 minutes, 18.687 seconds in Toyota's No. 7 car, ahead of his teammate Buemi in second. Hanley's DragonSpeed BR1 was third and the fastest non-hybrid LMP1 car. The No. 17 SMP car and the No. 1 Rebellion vehicle were fourth and fifth. The fastest LMP2 lap was recorded by Ricky Taylor in Jackie Chan's No. 34 Ligier car at 3 minutes, 29.466 seconds to demote Vergne from the lead of the class. Lapierre was second for the Signatech Alpine team. Scott Dixon, driving the No. 69 Ford GT car, was the quickest driver in LMGTE Pro with Jeroen Bleekemolen in Keating Motorsport's Ferrari fastest in LMGTE Am.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Start and first hours
The conditions on the grid were dry and sunny before the race; the air temperature was between 15 to 22 °C (59 to 72 °F) and the track temperature ranged from 14 to 31 °C (57 to 88 °F). Approximately 256,900 people attended the event. The French tricolour was waved at 15:00 Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00), by multiple Grand Slam tennis champion Rafael Nadal to start the race, led by starting pole sitter Buemi.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Start and first hours
At the start of the parade lap, a misfiring engine and a subsequent spin on cold tyres at the Dunlop Curve dropped Tom Dillmann's No. 4 ByKolles car to the rear of the field. A mounting failure detached the front bodywork on Lotterer's No. 1 Rebellion vehicle and removed downforce from the car entering the Dunlop Curve. It struck the rear of Hanley's DragonSpeed BR1 car. Both cars dropped down the race order. Conway passed Buemi to lead the first four laps until Buemi passed him on the fifth lap.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Start and first hours
Rain fell during this period though it was not heavy enough to affect the race. Laurent passed Sarrazin's No. 17 BR1 car for third on the Mulsanne Straight before Sarrazin returned to third place by slipstreaming past Laurent into Mulsanne corner. The first hour ended with Vergne passing Duval for the lead of LMP2 and Chatin fell to third. The Porsches of Bruni and Estre duelled for first place in LMGTE Pro as Barker overtook Carioli for the top of LMGTE Am.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Start and first hours
Buemi relinquished the lead to his teammate Conway after the No. 8 Toyota made an unscheduled pit stop to have its rear crash structure replaced and the car rejoined the race in second position. Berthon ceded fourth place in LMP2 after a front-right wheel detached on the approach to Arnage corner and lost three laps as a new wheel hub assembly was installed onto the car.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Start and first hours
1 hour and 40 minutes in, Wainwright's No. 86 Gulf Porsche lost control under braking and crashed into an Armco steel barrier on the outside at Indianapolis turn with its left-hand corner, requiring a slow zone between Mulsanne and Arnage corners to recover the car and to repair the barrier. Conway used the slow zone and a routine pit stop from his teammate Buemi to return to the lead on lap 32.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Start and first hours
As the second hour ended, Sébastien Bourdais's No. 68 Ford, which moved to second place in LMGTE Pro after a pit stop sequence, was passed by Frédéric Makowiecki's No. 92 Porsche entering the Mulsanne corner and the No. 77 Dempsey-Proton led in LMGTE Am. He continued to advance through the order and overtook his Porsche teammate Vanthoor for the lead of LMGTE Pro with the two cars running nose-to-tail. During a pit stop to relieve Buemi, television footage appeared to show Alonso reversing in the pit lane to pass a LMGTE vehicle parked ahead of him. Footage released later confirmed Alonso had not reversed but was moved back by mechanics, preventing the car from being disqualified.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Start and first hours
In the fourth hour, Alonso overtook his teammate López in the Porsche Curves to retake the lead in the No. 8 Toyota. Bourdais used a battle between the Porsche duo of Vanthoor and Makowiecki on the Mulsanne Straight to take the lead of LMGTE Pro. Not long after the left-rear tyre on Gabriel Aubry's No. 38 Jackie Chan Oreca failed on the Mulsanne Straight, littering the track with debris and removing the car's front-left fender.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Start and first hours
Aubry retained control of the vehicle to allow him to return to the pit lane and the incident required the deployment of the safety cars to slow the race. The safety cars were withdrawn after 15 minutes and racing resumed. The safety cars had separated the LMGTE Pro field, the No. 92 Porsche led by more than a minute from the sister No. 91 due to Richard Lietz being required to remain in the pit lane.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Start and first hours
Although López made an unscheduled pit stop to replace a left-rear puncture, he took the lead from his teammate Alonso and led by 41⁄2 seconds. Antonio Giovinazzi in the No. 52 AF Corse Ferrari overtook Dixon on the outside for second in LMGTE Pro. Soon after Dominik Kraihamer was lapping slower LMGTE cars in the Porsche Curves when the rear of the No. 4 ByKolles car and the front of the No. 80 Ebimotors Porsche made contact. Kraihamer's rear wing was removed sending him into a collision against a concrete wall at Corvette corner. Kraihamer was unhurt; the crash caused the deployment of the safety cars for half an hour as marshals repaired the barrier and cleared the track of debris.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Early evening to night
As the safety car period ended the Toyota cars of López and Alonso scythed their way through heavy traffic. Toyota then invoked team orders on López to return the lead to Alonso entering Arnage turn one lap later. The safety cars had divided the field in LMGTE Pro, leaving Nick Catsburg's No. 81 BMW in second place and the two class Porsches of Earl Bamber and Lietz in third and fourth. Juan Pablo Montoya, driving the No. 23 United Autosports car, crashed into a tyre barrier at Indianapolis corner and activated a local slow zone.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Early evening to night
Marshals extricated the car from the gravel and Montoya continued. Pierre Thiriet was caught out by the exit of the slow zone. He lost control of the rear of the Signatech car at Mulsanne turn and fell to fourth in LMP2. In the seventh hour, Pilet and Bruni overtook Martin Tomczyk's BMW car for second and third in LMGTE Pro as Romain Dumas' No. 94 vehicle slowed in the Porsche Curves and retired with a front-right suspension bracket failure.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Early evening to night
Not long after Paul Dalla Lana was en route to the pit lane when he lost control of the No. 98 Aston Martin and crashed against a tyre barrier at the entrance to the Porsche Curves. The damage to the car caused its retirement and required a local slow zone. Vergne used the slow zone to increase his lead over the LMP2 field to almost two minutes and Kobayashi closed to within less than a second of Nakajima.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Early evening to night
As night fell, Kobayashi passed Buemi to return to the lead of the race. The No. 91 Porsche of Makowiecki was elevated to second in LMGTE Pro ahead of the No. 93 of Nick Tandy after a routine sequence of pit stops. Matevos Isaakyan had an anxious moment with a rear suspension failure on the No. 17 SMP car at the entrance to the Porsche Curves. The car speared backwards into a tyre barrier to the outside of the track and sustained damage.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Early evening to night
Isaakyan could not get the car moving and contacted his team for advice on how it could be made mobile. Marshals pushed the car behind a barrier and repairs were made to its rear. Isaakyan retired after an engine bay fire. The retirement of the SMP vehicle elevated the Rebellion cars of Laurent and the recovering Lotterer to third and fourth and Vergne's LMP2-leading G-Drive car to fifth overall. Porsche's control on the first three positions in LMGTE Pro was broken after Tandy's No. 93 car was forced into the garage with an electrical problem.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Early evening to night
Early in the tenth hour, the No. 8 Toyota of Buemi incurred a one-minute stop-and-go penalty for speeding in a slow zone, dropping the car two minutes, ten seconds behind Conway's No. 7 car. Philipp Eng's No. 81 BMW relinquished its hold on third place in LMGTE Pro due to a broken damper losing him 11 minutes in the garage.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Early evening to night
As the race approached its midway point, Alonso lowered the deficit to the race-leading No. 7 Toyota to 1 minute and 16 seconds and Roman Rusinov's G-Drive car led by one lap over Lapierre in LMP2. Christensen in the No. 92 Porsche was 1 minute, 53 seconds ahead of his teammate Bruni in LMGTE Pro and Andlauer's No. 77 Dempsey-Proton held sway over Bleekemolen's Keating Ferrari in LMGTE Am. During the 13th hour, Menezes drove the No. 3 Rebellion car to the garage for a nine-minute repair to its underfloor. He ceded third place to Jani's No. 1 car.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Early evening to night
José Gutiérrez crashed the No. 40 G-Drive car at the exit to the Porsche Curves and ricocheted onto the circuit facing oncoming traffic. Gutiérrez was unhurt; the damage to the car caused its retirement and a local slow zone was enforced. The slow zone increased López's lead over Alonso to two minutes. Soon after Jani came to the pit lane to repair his car's underbody and emerged after a nine-minute pit stop in fourth place, behind his teammate Menezes. Fisichella brought the Spirit of Race Ferrari into third in LMGTE Am drivers and drew closer to Bleekemolen in second.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Morning to early afternoon
In the early morning Kobayashi led his teammate Nakajima by around ten to twelve seconds. Nakajima eliminated the time deficit to retake the lead from Kobayashi at the Mulsanne corner and a series of fast lap times put Buemi ahead by more than half a minute. BMW lost one of their two LMGTE Pro entries when Alexander Sims slid on oil laid on the track in the Porsche Curves and damaged the rear of the No. 82 car in a collision against a barrier.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Morning to early afternoon
At the conclusion of the 16th hour, Cairoli was in fifth in LMGTE Am when he lost control of the No. 88 Dempsey-Proton Porsche car due to a suspension failure and crashed into a tyre barrier at the Ford Chicane. The car was retired due to the heavy damage sustained to it and a slow zone was enforced in the area. Both of the Toyota cars were observed speeding in the area and incurred separate one-minute stop-and-go penalties; their multi-lap lead over the Rebellion team kept them in first and second positions.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Morning to early afternoon
Further down the order, the No. 10 DragonSpeed BR1 had an accident when Hanley lost control of the car in the Porsche Curves and retired. Fifth place in the LMGTE Pro became a battle between the No. 63 Corvette of Mike Rockenfeller and Dixon's No. 69 Ford with the two exchanging position before Dixon claimed it.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Morning to early afternoon
Several LMGTE cars took the opportunity to change brake discs at this point in the morning to ensure that cars would finish the race, including the leading car in LMGTE Pro, the No. 92 Porsche. Antonio García drove the No. 63 Corvette car past Ryan Briscoe's No. 69 Ford and gradually drew closer to the No. 68 Ford. Traffic loosened a drain cover built into a kerb at the outside of the Tertre Rouge corner and its metal casting was launched onto a verge.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Morning to early afternoon
It required the deployment of the safety cars to allow workers to refit the grill and make it safe to drive over. As the safety cars were recalled after half an hour, Alonso fell behind Conway until he overtook him for the lead in slower traffic on the Mulsanne Straight. The LMGTE Pro field closed up with Bruni's No. 92 Porsche car and Müller's No. 68 car close by for second place in class.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Morning to early afternoon
Not long after Paul di Resta lost control of the No. 23 United Autosports Ligier in the Porsche Curves and the car's front-left corner struck an unprotected concrete barrier. The car slid onto the grass and stopped. Di Resta vacated the car unhurt and was transported to the medical centre for a precautionary check-up as the car was retired. The accident required the intervention of a fourth safety car period. When racing resumed the Dempsey-Proton team's lead in LMGTE Am was lowered to less than half a minute and Makowiecki fell behind Bourdais and Priaulx to fourth place in LMGTE Pro. The No. 39 Graff vehicle of Vincent Capillaire overtook François Perrodo's TDS car for fourth in LMP2.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Morning to early afternoon
The No. 23 Panis Barthez Ligier car of Will Stevens, which had held second place in the LMP2 category, entered the pit lane to undergo repairs to its clutch and promoted the Signatech Alpine team to the position. López lost control of the No. 7 Toyota at the exit to the Dunlop Curve and lost 16 seconds to the race-leader Alonso.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Morning to early afternoon
The IDEC car forfeited second place in LMP2 to Capillaire due to a cracked gearbox casing forcing its retirement, as Makowiecki and Bourdais exchanged second in LMGTE Pro; Makowiecki avoided punishment from the stewards for defensive driving preventing Bourdais from overtaking him. Ben Keating, whose No. 85 Keating Ferrari was second in LMGTE Am, lost control of the rear of the car under braking and was beached in a gravel trap at Mulsanne corner. The car relinquished its hold on second place to the Spirit of Race team and fell one lap behind the class leading No. 77 Dempsey-Proton car.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Morning to early afternoon
Kobayashi, in second and within 80 minutes of the finish, missed the entry to the pit lane and Toyota required him to slow to 80 km/h (50 mph) by engaging the full course yellow flag limiter to conserve fuel. The No. 7 car lost one lap to the No. 8 entry; it incurred two ten-second stop-and-go penalties for exceeding the number of laps permitted for a single stint by a LMP1 hybrid car and fuel allowance.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Finish
Unhindered in the final hours of the race, Nakajima achieved victory for the No. 8 Toyota team, which completed 388 laps and was two laps ahead of Kobayashi's No. 7 Toyota. Rebellion, unable to match the pace of the Toyota cars, finished third and fourth with the No. 3 R13 ahead of the No. 1 car. It was Alonso, Buemi and Nakajima's first Le Mans victory, and Toyota's first on its 20th try.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Finish
Toyota became the first Japanese manufacturer to win at Le Mans since Mazda in 1991 and Alonso completed a second leg of the Triple Crown of Motorsport (the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Indianapolis 500 and the Monaco Grand Prix). The G-Drive team led the final 360 laps with the No. 26 Oreca to be the first car to finish the race in LMP2, provisionally earning the team and its drivers Andrea Pizzitola, Rusinov and Vergne their first class victories. Signatech Alpine were the highest-placed full-season WEC team in second and the Graff Racing squad completed the class podium.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Finish
On its 70th anniversary Porsche took its first win in the LMGTE Pro category since 2013 with the No. 92 car ahead of the No. 91 entry, and the German marque won in LMGTE Am with the No. 77 Dempsey-Proton car winning by 1 minute, 39 seconds over the No. 54 Spirit of Race Ferrari. There were 25 lead changes amongst two cars during the race. The No. 7 Toyota's 205 laps led was the most of any car with the race-winning No. 8 leading 13 times for a total of 183 laps.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Post-race
Obviously it has been a long time dream for me to be there and to experience Le Mans. It's great to have the first opportunity and be in a competitive team as Toyota, to dominate free practice, qualifying and the race. It was a competition between the two of our cars in the garage. In the end we got a little bit more lucky and a little bit more better set up.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Post-race
Fernando Alonso talking about his maiden experience at the 24 Hours of Le Mans


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Post-race
The top three teams in each of the four classes appeared on the podium to collect their trophies and spoke to the media in a later press conference. Alonso said he was worried about his car having a mechanical issue preventing him from winning the race, "Right now I'm maybe still in a little bit [of] shock because we were so focused on the race and so stressed at the end watching the television. I'm not used to watching my car racing, I'm normally in it."


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Post-race
Nakajima said he believed Toyota was calmer than in previous years, "To win this race has been a dream of Toyota's since 1985, and there are so many guys still here that have been involved in the project so long, I’m so proud to be here to represent them." Buemi said the one-minute stop-and-go penalty he took made his team uncertain whether they would win, "All the preparation that goes behind that day, all of us, all six drivers, we’ve been driving for many days, in the nights, and finally when you win it, it's something really big."


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Post-race
After all of the non-hybrid cars were unable to challenge the Toyota team, Jani called the race "a procession" and said the Rebellion R13 car lost more than ten seconds per lap to the TS050 Hybrid, "Our spread between our quickest lap and our average is huge, their spread is a lot smaller because they can be flexible with how they overtake cars in a straight line." Lotterer reiterated his teammate's view and said he believed the FIA and the ACO would address the issue, "We didn't stand a chance.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Post-race
Let's face it, it was one of the boring editions of the Le Mans 24 Hours. I have to admit that it was difficult to get the most out of every lap. How do you stay motivated?" Oliver Webb agreed with Lotterer and said he felt the following 6 Hours of Silverstone would suit the car's high-downforce configuration.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Post-race
Frank-Steffen Walliser, the head of Porsche Motorsport, said he felt comments from Bourdais over a perceived view that Makowiecki had inadequate driving standards during a battle for second in LMGTE Pro were invalid, "Firstly, this is not a pony farm; secondly, in my view, it was hard but fair at all times. The scenes when Fred himself was pushed into the grass were not shown on TV. Apart from that – what do you expect when two Frenchmen fight for second place in the biggest French race? Is that supposed to be peace, joy, pancakes? I don't think so!"


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Post-race
During post-race scrutineering, the technical delegates discovered that the LMP2-winning No. 26 G-Drive and the No. 28 TDS cars had modified refuelling rigs in their fuel system assemblies extending to the dead man valve and inside the cone of the fuel restrictor to lessen the time spent in the pit lane, causing the stewards to disqualify the cars. Both teams filed an appeal to the penalties with the FIA International Court of Appeal.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Post-race
The tribunal met on 18 September and delayed giving a verdict because the judges on the panel wanted extra time to review the appeal and informed the team's lawyers of this. On 2 October, the tribunal heard the G-Drive and TDS team's appeal. G-Drive argued the modified component was a "commendable technical innovation" with no specific regulation about modifications between the fuel flow restrictor and the dead man's valve established. The court upheld the stewards' decision by deeming the introduction of an additional component protruding the fuel flow restrictor a regulation transgression. The Signatech Alpine team took the win in LMP2, the No. 39 Graff car was second and the No. 32 United Autosports vehicle completed the class podium in third.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Post-race
The result increased Alonso, Buemi and Nakajima's lead in the LMP Drivers' Championship to 20 points over their teammates Conway, Kobayashi and López in second. Beche, Laurent and Menezes remained in third place. Lapierre, André Negrão and Thiriet's victory in LMP2 moved them from seventh to fourth and Jani, Lotterer and Senna were fifth. Christensen and Estre took the lead of the GTE Drivers Championship from Johnson, Mücke and Pla. Bruni and Lietz were in third position. Toyota increased their lead over the Rebellion squad in the LMP1 Teams' Championship to 27 points. The ByKolles and SMP Racing teams retained third and fourth. Porsche moved further away from Ford by 44 points in the GTE Manufacturers' Championship and Ferrari maintained third place with six races remaining in the season.


2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Post-race, Race classification
The minimum number of laps for classification (70 per cent of the overall winning car's race distance) was 272 laps. Class winners are in bold.


2018 24 Hours of Nürburgring
The 2018 ADAC Zurich 24 Hours of Nürburgring was the 46th running of the 24 Hours of Nürburgring. It took place over 10–13 May 2018.


2018 24 Hours of Nürburgring
The #912 Manthey Racing team won the race in a Porsche 911 GT3 R.


2018 24 Hours of Spa
The 2018 Total Spa 24 Hours was the 70th running of the Spa 24 Hours endurance race. It was also the fourth round of the 2018 Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup and was held on 28 and 29 July at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium.


2018 24 Hours of Spa, Entry list
The following drivers will attend the 2018 24 Hours of Spa:


2018 24H GT Series
The 2018 24H GT Series powered by Hankook is the fourth season of the 24H Series with drivers battling for championship points and titles and the eleventh season since Creventic, the organiser and promoter of the series, organised multiple races a year. The races are contested with GT3-spec cars, GT4-spec cars, sports cars and 24H-Specials, like silhouette cars.


2018 24H Proto Series
This is the current revision of this page, as edited by 2a02:2f0d:e61a:bc00:8f1:3a:a43d:844a (talk) at 13:25, 19 March 2020 (→Entry List). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this version.


2018 24H Proto Series
The 2018 24H Proto Series powered by Hankook is the second season of the 24H Proto Series. Creventic is the organiser and promoter of the series. are contested with Le Mans Prototype and Group CN cars, as well as some special prototypes.


2018 24H TCE Series
The 2018 24H Touring Car Endurance Series powered by Hankook is the third season of the Touring Car Endurance Series (TCES). Creventic is the organiser and promoter of the series. The races will be contested with touring cars.


2018 3. deild karla
The 2018 3. deild karla (English: Men's Third Division) was the 6th season of fourth-tier Icelandic football in its ten team league format. The league began on 11 May and concluded on 15 September.


2018 3. deild karla, Teams
The league was contested by ten clubs. Six remained in the division from the 2017 season, while four new clubs joined the 3. deild karla:


2018 3. deild karla, Results grid
Each team plays every opponent once home and away for a total of 18 matches per club, and 90 matches altogether.


2018 3. divisjon
The 2018 3. divisjon (referred to as Norsk Tipping-ligaen for sponsorship reasons) was a fourth-tier Norwegian football league season. The league consisted of 84 teams divided into 6 groups of  teams and began on 13 April 2018.


2018 3. divisjon
The league was played as a double round-robin tournament, where all teams played 26 matches.


2018 37 Kind Days 250
The 2018 37 Kind Days 250 was the 6th stock car race of the 2018 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season, and the 18th iteration of the event. The event was held on Friday, May 11, 2018 in Kansas City, Kansas at Kansas Speedway. The race rook 167 laps to complete. Noah Gragson of Kyle Busch Motorsports would dominate the race, and eventually win the race, the first and only win of the season and the second of his career. To fill out the podium, Kyle Busch of Kyle Busch Motorsports and Stewart Friesen of Halmar Friesen Racing finished 2nd and 3rd, respectively.


2018 37 Kind Days 250, Background
Kansas Speedway is a 1.5-mile (2.4 km) tri-oval race track in Kansas City, Kansas. It was built in 2001 and hosts two annual NASCAR race weekends. The NTT IndyCar Series also raced there until 2011. The speedway is owned and operated by the International Speedway Corporation.


2018 37 Kind Days 250, Practice, First and final practice
The first and final practice was held on 10:35 AM CST. Matt Crafton of ThorSport Racing would set the fastest time in practice with a 30.401 and an average speed of 177.626 miles per hour (285.861 km/h).


2018 37 Kind Days 250, Qualifying
Qualifying would take place on Friday, May 11, at 4:05 PM CST. Since Kansas Speedway was at least 1.5 miles (2.4 km), the qualifying system was a single car, single lap, two round system where in the first round, everyone would set a time to determine positions 13-32. Then, the fastest 12 qualifiers would move on to the second round to determine positions 1-12.


2018 37 Kind Days 250, Qualifying
While Noah Gragson would not the set the fastest time in Round 1 (the honor would go to Matt Crafton of ThorSport Racing), he would set a time fast enough to advance into Round 2. He would proceed to set the fastest time in Round 2 and win the pole for the race.


2018 37 Kind Days 250, Qualifying
Myatt Snider of ThorSport Racing would be the only driver not to set a time. During his pole lap, he would spin off of Turn 4. While no damage was caused to the vehicle, he would not set the lap, and take the last starting position.


2018 37 Kind Days 250, Qualifying
Camden Murphy of TJL Motorsports would be the only driver not to qualify, finishing just under 3 seconds off of a guaranteed spot and just under 8 tenths of the second to last qualifier, Kyle Donahue of MB Motorsports.


2018 4 Hours of Le Castellet
The 2018 4 Hours of Le Castellet was  an endurance motor race that took place at the Circuit Paul Ricard near Le Castellet, France between 13 and 15 April 2018, and served as the opening round of the 2018 European Le Mans Series.


2018 4 Hours of Le Castellet
The overall race victory was taken by the LMP2-class Oreca 07 of Racing Engineering, with Norman Nato, Paul Petit and Olivier Pla winning on the teams' debut in the series.


2018 4 Hours of Le Castellet, Qualifying, Qualifying result
Pole position in class is denoted with a yellow background.


2018 4 Hours of Monza
The 2018 4 Hours of Monza was an endurance motor race that took place at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza near Monza, Italy between 11 and 13 May 2018, and served as the second round of the 2018 European Le Mans Series.


2018 4 Hours of Monza
The overall race victory was taken by the LMP2-class Oreca 07 of G-Drive Racing, with Andrea Pizzitola, Roman Rusinov and Jean-Éric Vergne winning one week after the same driver line-up took LMP2 class victory in the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.


2018 4 Hours of Monza, Qualifying, Qualifying result
Pole position in class is denoted with a yellow background.


2018 4 Nations Cup
The 2018 4 Nations Cup was a women's ice hockey tournament held in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. It was the 23rd edition of the 4 Nations Cup.


2018 4 Nations Cup, Statistics, Scoring leaders
Only the top ten skaters, sorted by points, then goals, are included in this list.


2018 4 Nations Cup, Statistics, Scoring leaders
GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalties in Minutes; POS = PositionSource:


2018 4 Nations Cup, Statistics, Goaltending leaders
Only the top four goaltenders, based on save percentage, who played at least 40% of their team's minutes, are included in this list.


2018 4 Nations Cup, Statistics, Goaltending leaders
TOI = Time on Ice (minutes:seconds); SA = Shots Against; GA = Goals Against; GAA = Goals Against Average; Sv% = Save Percentage; SO = ShutoutsSource:


2018 4. divisjon
The 2018 season of the 4. divisjon, the fifth highest association football league for men in Norway.


2018 4. divisjon
Between 22 and 26 games (depending on group size) are played in 24 groups, with 3 points given for wins and 1 for draws.


2018 6 Hours of Fuji
The 2018 6 Hours of Fuji was an endurance sports car racing event held at the Fuji Speedway in Oyama, Japan on the 12–14 October 2018. Fuji served as the fourth round of the 2018-19 FIA World Endurance Championship, and was the seventh running of the event as part of the championship. The race was won by the #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid.


2018 6 Hours of Fuji, Qualifying, Qualifying Results
Pole position winners in each class are marked in bold.


2018 6 Hours of Fuji, Qualifying, Qualifying Results
- All of José María López's lap times were deleted for speeding in the pit lane, resulting in only one driver of the No. 7 Toyota Gazoo Racing being classified as setting a lap time


2018 6 Hours of Fuji, Race, Race Result
The minimum number of laps for classification (70% of the overall winning car's race distance) was 161 laps. Class winners in bold.


2018 6 Hours of Shanghai
The 2018 6 Hours of Shanghai was an endurance sports car racing event held at the Shanghai International Circuit, Shanghai, China on 16–18 November 2018. Shanghai served as the fifth round of the 2018-19 FIA World Endurance Championship, and was the seventh running of the event, all part of the championship. The race was won by the #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid.


2018 6 Hours of Shanghai, Qualifying, Qualifying Results
Poles position winners in each class are marked in bold


2018 6 Hours of Shanghai, Race, Race Result
The minimum number of laps for classification (70% of the overall winning car's distance) was 80 laps. Class winners in bold


2018 6 Hours of Silverstone
The 2018 6 Hours of Silverstone was an endurance sports car racing event held at the Silverstone Circuit in Northamptonshire, England on 17–19 August 2018. Silverstone served as the third round of the 2018-19 FIA World Endurance Championship, and was the seventh running of the event as part of the championship. The race was won by the #3 Rebellion R13, after the #8 and #7 TS050 Hybrids were disqualified due to excessive wear on their Skid Planks.


2018 6 Hours of Silverstone, Qualifying, Qualifying Results
Pole position winners in each class are marked in bold.


2018 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race
Upon starting the Rebellion R-13s were caught out by the No. 17 SMP car, and also, contact in LMGTE Am caused carnage on the first lap, similar to the previous races. On lap 23, Aleshin's engine failed and the car retired. Shortly afterward, the No. 10 suffered a supposed suspension issue, as stated by Hanley. The No. 54 had an issue that tossed off the rear wing, bringing out a yellow. Binder was caught out by slowing LMP2 cars, causing him to spin. The car could not start and retired.


2018 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race
Egor Orudzhev's No. 17 lost grip and made contact with Molina, and the No. 71 brought out the safety car for tire debris. The No. 71 ultimately finished second to last, because after the safety car period, the No. 95, from near the LMGTE Pro lead, had a brake repair. The No. 82 had a suspension failure, forcing its retirement, and an FCY to recover it. Late in the race, Sarrazin stopped in the pit lane and had to be pushed to its box.


2018 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race
The No. 7 ran wide at Stowe and got a puncture, and the No. 8 took the lead. Lotterer had an unstable rear end and came in for a rear wing change. In the final 30 minutes, the No. 92 of Christensen hit Priaulx's Ford, giving it a penalty even so on the road it was 3rd in class.