BMW M Team WRT’s Dries Vanthoor won the overall pole Thursday (June 11) for this weekend’s 24 Hours of Le Mans with a lap at 150.477 mph. However, the pole came under controversial circumstances.
Vanthoor was not the fastest driver in the session. Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA’s Jack Aitken was.
Aitken won the pole on the road with a lap at 150.481 mph, a mere five-thousandths of a second faster than Vanthoor. However, the team had spent the entirety of Hyperpole No. 2 under investigation.
Sure enough, after the No. 38 team had already had their podium celebration, they were stripped of the overall pole and moved down to the back of Hyperpole No. 2 after it was determined that the car was released to the fast lane in the pits more than three minutes prior to the start of the session.
Vanthoor won the pole by .514 seconds over the second JOTA Cadillac of Will Stevens. Signatech Alpine’s Antonio Felix da Costa was third, followed by the second BMW of Robin Frijns. Wayne Taylor Racing’s Filipe Albuquerque was fifth in his Cadillac.
Hypercar
Cadillac had shown the best single-lap pace in Wednesday’s opening qualifying session and the first three free practice sessions. Hyperpole No. 1 was no different at first.
Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA’s Earl Bamber topped the opening round with a lap at 149.613 mph. That was beaten by BMW M Team WRT’s Sheldon van der Linde.
Signatech Alpine’s Charles Milesi was fastest in the first session with a lap at 150.140 mph. That lap was .073 seconds faster than Bamber. Genesis Magma Racing’s Mathys Jaubert (the only silver-rated driver in the class) was third, then Wayne Taylor Racing’s Ricky Taylor. Van der Linde was fifth.
There were a couple of surprises here. Both Toyotas failed to make the top 10 and were eliminated. Ferrari AF Corse’s Antonio Fuoco also did not advance.
Following a brief delay, teams went out at 9:45 p.m. local time to battle for the overall pole. Here, BMW M Team WRT came out to play.
On his first lap at speed, Vanthoor put himself on provisional pole with a lap at 150.343 mph, a mere three-thousandths of a second slower than the overall pole from last year. This was a different tactic from everyone else as he chose to go for it immediately instead of taking a second warmup lap.
Vanthoor then improved his time to take the overall top spot. No one else was seemingly able to compete with the time except for Aitken. He was able to jump from ninth to beat out Vanthoor on his final lap of the session. Unfortunately, the penalty took it away.
LMP2
In LMP2, Inter Europol Competition’s Tom Dillmann was fastest in Round No. 1 of Hyperpole with a lap at 142.594 mph in his ORECA 07-Gibson. That lap was .127 seconds faster than CrowdStrike Racing by APR’s Laurin Heinrich in the best LMP2 Pro-Am entry. Forestier Racing by Panis’ Oliver Gray was third, followed by Nico Mueller in the second Inter Europol car. TDS Racing’s Mathias Beche was fifth.
Hyperpole No. 2 is only 15 minutes in length. Not a lot of time to get much done. By the time the first timed laps were posted, there were only seven minutes remaining.
Duqueine Team’s Julien Andlauer was fastest the first time by in his No. 30. However, the second lap saw Forestier Racing by Panis’ Esteban Masson go to the top at 143.032 mph.
That lap by itself would have been enough for the class pole. However, Masson put a cherry on top by improving to 143.202 mph to win the class pole.
Masson won the pole by .387 seconds over IDEC Sport’s Job van Uitert. Nielsen Racing’s Jack Doohan qualified third, then Inter Europol Motorsports’ Tom Dillmann. CrowdStrike Racing by APR’s Alex Quinn was fifth.
LMGT3
The Heart of Racing’s Zacharie Robichon was fastest in Round No. 1 of Hyperpole with a lap at 130.727 mph. The lap was .171 seconds faster than the BMW of Team WRT’s Augusto Farfus. Manthey Racing’s Ayhancan Guven was third in his Porsche, then Eduardo Barrichello in the second Heart of Racing Aston Martin. Akkodis ASP Team’s Hadrien David was fifth.
Hyperpole No. 2 saw the Akkodis ASP Team’s No. 78 Lexus have serious issues with the driver’s door. Quite simply, it came off and the team spent the better part of 10 minutes trying to get it back on. That cost Jack Hawksworth three minutes of the session.
The Heart of Racing’s Mattia Drudi set the top time early on, but he lost it due to a track limit violation. That meant that Vista AF Corse’s Alessio Rovera claimed the top spot at first.
Despite the track limit violation, Drudi was able to come back around and set the fastest LMGT3 lap of the entire weekend at 131.140 mph. This lap was nearly two seconds ahead of anyone else in the class at the time it was set.
From there, the rest of the LMGT3 contenders took their shots at Drudi’s time, but none of them came close. The big lap held up to give Drudi his second straight LMGT3 pole.
Drudi won the pole by .979 seconds over Rovera. Akkodis ASP Team’s Jose Maria Lopez was third, while Hawksworth recovered from his door issue and a lack of a draft to qualify fourth. Team WRT’s Sean Galael was fifth.
FIA World Endurance Championship 24 Hours of Le Mans Starting Grid
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the Frontstretch email 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 Frontstretch 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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