BMW M Team RLL’s Dries Vanthoor set a lap in the closing minutes of qualifying Wednesday (June 12) at 149.078 mph. That lap held up to claim the provisional pole for this weekend’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.
BMW’s pace is quite surprising. In the three previous WEC races this year, the team has only managed to qualify in the top 10 twice out of six possible efforts. The No. 15 that Vanthoor is driving has been the slower of the two cars for much of the season. Their best qualifying effort to this point has been 13th at Imola.
Vanthoor’s lap was .177 seconds faster than Chip Ganassi Racing’s Sebastien Bourdais, who is from Le Mans and always wants to do his best there. Ferrari AF Corse’s Antonio Fuoco was third, then Toyota GAZOO Racing’s Kamui Kobayashi and Signatech Alpine’s Paul-Loup Chatin.
The session ended a couple of minutes early when Kobayashi spun into the gravel exiting the Porsche Curves while on a quick lap, bringing out the red flag. The Toyota was not damaged. However, Kobayashi had all of his times deleted by officials. As a result, the team will start at the back of the Hypercar class in 23rd.
As a result, Chatin moves up to fourth in the final order. Alex Lynn in the second Cadillac inherits fifth. Additional drivers that will advance to Hyperpole are Alessandro Pier Guidi in the second factory Ferrari, Kevin Estre in the best of the factory Porsches and Nicolas Lapierre in the second Alpine.
Of note, Lynn’s No. 2 Cadillac cannot start from pole no matter what happens in Hyperpole. Teammate Earl Bamber was judged to be solely responsible for this huge crash at Spa that brought out the red flag in the last WEC race.
WEC officials assessed the team a five-spot grid penalty for Le Mans as a result of the crash. Bamber also had penalty points assessed to his license.
In LMP2, COOL Racing’s Malthe Jakobsen was fastest with a lap at 143.220 mph, 24th overall. Jakobsen’s lap was .307 seconds faster than AO by TF’s Louis Deletraz in “Spike,” a car with a livery that looks like a dragon. United Autosports’ Ben Hanley was third fastest, then Panis Racing’s Mathias Beche. IDEC Sport’s Job van Uitert was fifth.
Deletraz is the fastest driver in the LMP2 Pro-Am subclass over Hanley and Beche. DKR Engineering’s Laurents Hoerr was fourth in the subclass, then AF Corse’s Nico Varrone.
In LMGT3, Proton Competition’s Ben Barker was fastest in his Ford Mustang GT3 with a lap at 129.562 mph. The lap was .143 seconds faster than the McLaren of Inception Racing’s Frederic Schandorff. TF Sport’s Daniel Juncadella was third, then Iron Lynx’s Franck Perera and the Porsche of Pure Rxcing’s Klaus Bachler.
FIA World Endurance Championship 24 Hours of Le Mans Qualifying Practice Results
The field is not officially set at this point. Anyone below eighth in their class will be set into their starting spots for the race on Saturday. For Hypercar teams, this would be positions 9-23 on the grid. LMP2 teams will be set in positions 32-39, while LMGT3 teams will be set in positions 48-62 on the grid.
The remainder of the starting positions will be set during the 30-minute Hyperpole session. That is scheduled for Thursday at 8 p.m. local time. The Hyperpole session will be streamed live on Max’s B/R Sports Add-on starting at 1:45 p.m. ET.
About the author
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.
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