Eight Hypercars representing five manufacturers, eight Oreca 07-Gibson LMP2s and eight LMGT3s built by a mind-boggling seven different carmakers qualified yesterday for tonight’s 30-minute dash to secure pole position in the three classes. Sadly for Hertz Team Jota, Callum Ilott’s crash in the final throes of the second free practice last night put the #12 Porsche 963 out of the running.
Estre at the death
With less than seven-tenths separating the top eight Hypercars in qualifying, it was anyone’s guess who was going to come out of Hyperpole on top of the pack. The fastest qualifier, the #15 BMW M Hybrid V8, led the pack out onto the track at 20:35 local time. On the first flying lap, Ferrari AF Corse put both cars at the top of the time chart ahead of Dries Vanthoor in the BMW. Sébastien Bourdais in the #3 Cadillac, however, leaped to the top on lap 3, but the Le Mans-born racer was just warming up for the following lap which he completed in 3:24.816, almost eight-tenths faster than Fuoco. With barely 07:41 left on the 30-minute countdown, Dries Vanthoor crashed out at Indianapolis, producing a red flag. His times were deleted, relegating BMW W Team WRT to last place in the Hyperpole field. Fuoco was left equally frustrated by the red flag as he was extremely well positioned to seize the top spot. There was barely the time to complete two laps as the session resumed, but the action was not over. Alessandro Pier Guidi in the #51 Ferrari leapfrogged Fuoco in the sister car into P2, before Alex Lynn in the #2 Cadillac and then Kévin Estre pulled out the fastest laps of the session on the final lap. The #6 works Porsche 963 will start the 92nd 24 Hours of Le Mans in pole position.
Hypercar standings
#6 Porsche 963 – Porsche Penske Motorsport – Estre*/Lotterer/Vanthoor – 3:24.634
#2 Cadillac V-Series.R – Cadillac Racing – Bamber/Lynn*/Palou – 3:24.782
#3 Cadillac V-Series.R – Cadillac Racing – Bourdais*/van der Zande/Dixon – 3:24.816
#51 Ferrari 499P – Ferrari AF Corse – Pier Guidi*/Calado/Giovinazzi – 3:25.156
#50 Ferrari 499P – Ferrari AF Corse – Fuoco*/Molina/Nielsen – 3:25.598
#35 Alpine A424 – Alpine Endurance Team – Chatin*/Habsburg-Lothringen/Milesi – 3:25.713
#12 Porsche 963 – Hertz Team Jota – Stevens/Nato/Ilott – DNS
#15 BMW M Hybrid V8 – BMW M Team WRT – Vanthoor*/Marciello/Wittmann – Times cancelled
Spike nails pole
Four Pro/Am crews lined up among the eight LMP2 qualifiers. Louis Delétraz recorded the quickest early mark for AO by TF on lap 3 in a time for 3:33.994, ahead of COOL Racing’s Malthe Jakobsen. After the late restart, Job Van Uitert stole top spot for IDEC Sport but “Spike” had the final word, as Delétraz regained the lead.
LMP2 standings
#14 Oreca 07-Gibson – AO by TF (PRO/AM) – Hyett/Delétraz*/Quinn – 3:33.217
#28 Oreca 07-Gibson – IDEC Sport – Lafargue/van Uitert*/de Gerus – 3:33.827
#65 Oreca 07-Gibson – Panis Racing (PRO/AM) – Sales/Beche*/Huffaker – 3:34.053
#23 Oreca 07-Gibson – United Autosports USA (PRO/AM) – Keating/Albuquerque/Hanley* – 3:34.221
#22 Oreca 07-Gibson – United Autosports – Jarvis*/Garg/Siegel – 3:34.270
#37 Oreca 07-Gibson – COOL Racing – Fluxá/Jakobsen*/Miyata – 3:34.773
#33 Oreca 07-Gibson – DKR Engineering (PRO/AM) – Mattaschull/Binder/Hörr* – 3:35.699
#10 Oreca 07-Gibson – Vector Sport – Cullen/Pilet*/Richelmi – 3:35.855
Iribe fastest in the Inception Racing McLaren
Reserved for Bronze category drivers to throw the spotlight on amateurs, the first-ever LMGT3 Hyperpole at Le Mans saw the #70 McLaren of Inception Racing dominate the early proceedings with the fastest time for Iribe before the American hit a kerb hard at the Raccordement on lap 4, as he was poised to improve his benchmark. He managed to maintain an eight-tenth of a second gap over Aliaksandr Malykhin in the Manthey PureRxcing Porsche through to the chequered flag.
LMGT3 standings
#70 McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo – Inception Racing – Iribe*/Millroy/Schandorff – 3:58.120
#92 Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3 – Manthey PureRxcing – Malykhin*/Sturm/Bachler – 3:58.928
#66 Ferrari 296 LMGT3 – JMW Motorsport – Petrobelli*/ten Voorde/Yoluc – 3:58.938
#77 Ford Mustang LMGT3 – Proton Competition – Hardwick*/Robichon/Barker – 3:59.443
#27 Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3 – Heart of Racing Team – James*/Mancinelli/Riberas – 3:59.655
#777 Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3 – D’Station Racing – Hoshino*/Bastard/Sørensen – 4:02.787
#82 Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R – TF Sport – Koizumi*/Baud/Juncadella – 4:03.681
#60 Lamborghini Huracán LMGT3 Evo2 – Iron Lynx – Schiavoni*/Cressoni/Perera – 4.06.495
* indicates the driver participating in Hyperpole
The #6 Porsche 963 will start the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans in pole position.
STEPHANE BATARIERE (ACO)