He had struggled to qualify for the Hyperpole, yet when it was time to make his move he didn’t miss the call: Kévin Estre took pole position for the 93rd 24 Hours of Le Mans which starts on Saturday 15 June at 4pm. The Frenchman he was the last to pass under the checkered flag with his official Porsche 963 number 6, the one leading the championship: he outwitted the two official Cadillacs of Alex Lynn and Sébastien Bourdais at the last second. However, car number 2 will start seventh due to the penalty received at Spa-Francorchamps by Earl Bamber for the accident that caused the red flag. The two Ferraris thus gain a position and will find themselves starting from the second row, with the 51 of Pier Guidi-Calado-Giovinazzi ahead of the 50 of Fuoco-Molina-Nielsen. Disappointment especially for the Calabrian driver, who took pole last year: his best lap was stopped by a red flag caused by Dries Vanthoor’s BMW going off the track and subsequently he was no longer able to improve. Also noteworthy are the best times of Louis Delétraz on the Oreca of AO by TF in LMP2 and of Brendan Iribe on the McLaren of Inception Racing in LMGT3.
Ferrari in the second row With the penalty to Lynn-Bamber-Palou’s No.2 Cadillac, the two Ferrari 499Ps will start from a good second row. This is a small step backwards compared to the last edition, where the two Reds had set the two best times, but the times seen throughout the week suggest that the race will be truly balanced, with very minimal gaps between the different brands. Fifth position on the grid thus went to the Alpine N.35 of Chatin-Habsburg-Milesi, with the BMW N.15 relegated to sixth place for having caused the red flag, the Cadillac N.2 seventh after the penalty and the Porsche N. 12 of Jota who did not take part in the session after the accident in free practice on Wednesday evening and the chassis change: he will start eighth. Let us remember instead that the two Toyotas were both excluded from the Hyperpole: the No.8 starts eleventh, while the No.7 will start 23rd and last among the Hypercars after the red flag caused in qualifying.
The other classes
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In LMP2, reserved for less fast prototypes, the Oreca No.14 of AO by TF scored pole with Louis Delétraz ahead of the No.28 of IDEC Sport (Lafargue-van Uitert-De Gerus) and the No.65 of Panis Racing (Sales-Beche-Huffaker). Among the LMGT3s, however, as per the regulations, the non-professional drivers took charge of the qualification: the winner was the Inception Racing McLaren N.70 of Iribe-Millroy-Schandorff, ahead of the championship leaders of Manthey Purerxcing on the Porsche N .92 (Malykhin-Sturm-Bachler) and to the JMW Motorsport Ferrari N.66 of Petrobelli-Yoluc-Ten Voorde. Of note is the twelfth place in class for the BMW M4 N.46 of Valentino Rossi, Ahmad Al-Harthy and Maxime Martin who failed to enter the Hyperpole and will be forced into a comeback race.
The ranking
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This is the ranking of the top eight of the Hyperpole in the Hypercar class, with the penalties already applied (the first driver scored is the one who achieved the time):
1. Kévin Estre – André Lotterer – Laurens Vanthoor (FRA-GER-BEL/Porsche 963 N.6) 3’24”634
2. Sébastien Bourdais – Renger van der Zande – Scott Dixon (FRA-OLA-NZL/Cadillac V.Series-R N.3) 3’28”816
3. Alessandro Pier Guidi – James Calado – Antonio Giovinazzi (ITA-GB-ITA/Ferrari 499P N.51) 3’25”156
4. Antonio Fuoco – Miguel Molina – Nicklas Nielsen (ITA-SPA-DAN/Ferrari 499P N.50) 3’25”598
5. Paul-Loup Chatin – Ferdinand Habsburg – Charles Milesi (FRA-AUT-FRA/Alpine A424 N.35) 3’25”713
6. Dries Vanthoor – Raffaele Marciello – Marco Wittmann (BEL-SVI-GER/BMW M Hybrid V8 N.15) no time
7. Alex Lynn – Earl Bamber – Alex Palou (GB-NZL-SPA/Cadillac V.Series-R N.2) 3’24”782
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8. Callum Ilott – Will Stevens – Norman Nato (GB-GB-FRA/Porsche 963 Jota N.12) no time
