Brendon Hartley’s #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing team will start this weekend’s 24 Hours of Le Mans from 11th, while Scott Dixon and Earl Bamber’s Cadillac Racing entries progressed to the Hyperpole shootout from this morning’s qualifying session.
BMW led the way in the opening qualifying outing, which ended early when Kamui Kobayashi stranded the #7 Toyota Gazoo Racing entry in the dirt in the final minutes.
Dries Vanthoor, partnering with Raffaele Marciello and Marco Wittmann, set a 3:24.465 in the #15 M Hybrid V8, the fastest time in the hour-long session on the famed 13.626km circuit.
Five manufacturers make up the top eight of a record 23-strong Hypercar field to progress to the Hyperpole shootout, with the sole BMW joined by two Cadillacs, two Ferraris, two Porsche and a sole Alpine.
Less than one second separated the top eleven teams.
Vanthoor’s time, which was almost two seconds faster than the quickest time of the earlier practice, which Hartley set, came with less than 10 minutes remaining in the session.
Sebastien Bourdais, partnering Scott Dixon and Renger van der Zande at Cadillac Racing in the #3 V-Series.R, was second fastest, 0.177 seconds behind.
Antonio Fuoco piloted the #50 Ferrari to third, ahead of the fastest Alpine, the #35 A424, driven by Paul-Loup Chatin.
Kobayashi initially sat fourth entering the final minutes but spun into the dirt at the karting corner after hard contact with the inside kerb.
The subsequent red flag saw his lap times invalidated for causing the delay, and he and teammates Jose Maria Lopez and Nyck De Vries will start from the rear of the Hypercar field.
Race control decided not to restart the session with only three minutes left on the clock, allowing BMW to hold on to their provisional pole.
Alex Lynn, the driving partner of Earl Bamber and Alex Palou, qualified the #2 Cadillac V-Series.R in fifth, ahead of the 2023 Le Mans-winning #51 Ferrari, which was driven by Alessandro Pier Guidi.
The #2 Cadillac will serve a five-place grid penalty at the start of the race for causing a lengthy red-flag delay after crashing out in May’s 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.
Kevin Estre qualified the #8 Penske Porsche factory car in seventh, ahead of Callum Illott in Jota’s Porsche 963.
Nicolas Lapierre finished the session in ninth in the second Alpine, missing out on the Hyperpole Shootout by just 0.133 seconds.
The #5 Porsche 963 of Australian Matt Campbell, Michael Christensen and Frédéric Makowiecki completed the top 10.
Hartley took control of the #8 Toyota GR010-Hybrid but had three of his laps compromised by traffic. A rare mistake also saw him spin on another flyer.
The first of the Lamborghini SC63s starts 13th, two places ahead of the quickest Peugeot.
The Hyperpole Shootout begins at 6.00 am (NZST) on Friday.
The 24 Hours of Le Mans begins at 2.00 am on Sunday and can be watched live in New Zealand with a paid subscription to the World Endurance Championship’s streaming platform.
Header Image: Chip Ganassi Racing
