In a dramatic qualifying session, New Zealand driver Brendon Hartley secured pole position for the 2022 24 Hours of Le Mans race this weekend.
Driving for the Toyota Gazoo Racing team, Hartley placed the #8 GR010 Hybrid he shares with Sebastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa on the front row with a time of 3:24.408.
The #7 Toyota shared by Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria-Lopez came up just 0.117 seconds shy of the Hartley’s Toyota with a time of 3:24.585.
That means both Toyotas lock out the front row for this weekend’s 24-hour race with Hartley leading the two.
It was looking promising for the #36 Alpine Hypercar of Nicolas Lampierre during the closing stages of the 30-minute qualifying session until their fastest time was deleted due to track limit infringements.
There was pressure from both Glickenhaus hypercars as well until their times were hindered by traffic leaving them in 4th and 5th.
The LMP2 class saw the Team WRT Oreca 07-Gibson driven by Robin Frijns score pole (6th overall) with more than a second between himself and the team’s sister car driven by Norman Nato.
Pole for the GTE-Pro class went to Corvette Racing’s Nick Tandy in their Corvette C8.R shared by Alexander Sims and Tommy Milner.
Also competing in the GTE-Pro class this weekend is kiwi driver Shane Van Gisbergen driving the #74 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo for Riley Motorsport. The team qualified 39th overall, and 7th in the GTE-Pro class.
Rounding out the pole sitters was GTE-Am driver Vincent Abril who placed the AF Corse Ferrari first in class with a time of 3:52.594.
The 90th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans gets underway at 2:00AM NZST on June 12.
Main image: Toyota Gazoo Racing Twitter
