Brendon Hartley will start tomorrow’s Le Mans 24 Hour from the front row as the Kiwi landed the second-fastest time in Hyperpole this morning.
The two-time Le Mans winner was tasked with steering the No.8 Toyota in the 30-minute shootout, which features the fastest six cars from each class.
The Kiwi’s first tour was far from perfect, and he ended up over a second behind Kamui Kobayashi in the No.7 Toyota.
A crash for Kevin Estre in a GTE-Pro then brought out a red flag, and the session was stopped.
When time resumed, Hartley closed to within 0.295s of Kobayashi, but he couldn’t better his teammate’s time.
Thus, Kobayashi claimed his fourth Le Mans pole position as Toyota swept the front row.
Alpine’s grandfathered LMP1 starts a distant third with a best lap 1.6s slower than Kobayashi.
Glickenhaus rounded out the Hypercar division and starts P4 and P5.
In LMP2, Antonio Felix da Costa scored pole for the JOTA team.
Dries Vanthoor starts on pole in GTE-Pro for the HubAuto Porsche outfit.
When Estre crashed out midway through the session, the remaining five cars were given a freekick as the favourite for pole was eliminated.
Porsche will also head the GTE-Am field thanks to Julien Andlauer in the No.88 Dempsey-Proton car.
