24h Le Mans
Golden hour produced a golden performance from the gold Hertz Team JOTA Cadillacs, as British driver Alex Lynn with a 03:23.166 stole the show in the #12 V-Series R to take pole for the 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans. Lynn leads a Hyperpole front-row lockout for the American brand, with the sister #38 car of Earl Bamber slotting in just 0.167 behind.
All eyes were on the track. Circuit de la Sarthe came to a standstill for the Hyperpole sessions following the climatic qualifying session yesterday evening - whetting the appetite for tonight's feast. Hyperpole 1 was to reduce the Hypercars to 10 and LMGT3 and LMP2 to eight a piece before Hyperpole 2, which was to be a no-holds-barred, final shootout. - Quickest would seal the 2025 Hyperpole. With that in mind, teams went to war with each other and the clock.
In Hyperpole 1 - the fastest 15 cars from Wednesday went head-to-head in low fuel qualifying trim and sparks were to fly! The #5 Porsche which went quickest in FP3 earlier today set the benchmark on the first round of competitive flying laps with a 03:23:979 yardstick. The second flying lap, and the #20 BMW M Hybrid V8 and #50 Ferrari 499P looked to also be on the pace - all three within a tenth of a second.
Drama was to unravel in the first Hyperpole as the #5 Porsche that was top of the times - on the approach to the pitlane lost the rear-right wheel in dramatic fashion - luckily making it into the final session… just!
Alpine gave the home fans hope, as Mick Schumacher was top of the tree before a wave of times came through. First, the #20 BMW, then the #38 Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac and before too long, Jack Aitken led Hyperpole 1 in the #311 Whelan developed Cadillac with a blistering target of 03:22.742.
Sadly for British fans, the lone #009 Aston Martin Valkyrie could only manage 15th. Joining the Aston Martin Thor Team on the sideline for the final session was the #101 WTR Cadillac, #35 Alpine and perhaps the biggest shock of the week so far - the #83 AF Corse Ferrari that had been at the sharp end in many of the sessions and 2023 winners - the #51 Ferrari AF Corse also did not make the final cut.
In Hyperpole 2, Sébastien Buemi at the wheel of the #8 Toyota had his heart in his mouth as the Toyota struggled to stop coming into one of the biggest braking zones in world motorsport - the run to the bottom of the Mulsanne. Luckily, the gravel trap slowed his progress, and he was able to dart out of the loose surface and rejoin the race track - but this excursion denied Le Mans legend Toyota a shot at the top spot in 2025.
The stage was all for Cadillac. Alex Lynn showed his Wednesday qualifying pace wasn’t a flash in the pan and rocketed to the summit of the times with a remarkable 03:23.166. Teammate Earl Baber was tenth at this point - the pressure was on! The New Zealander dug deep and almost matched his British stablemate, bu tit was enough to solidify a front row lock-out for the American marque for the first time in Le Mans history.
“Everytime you get the chance to drive a low fuel Hypercar at Le Mans is an honour and privilege, and to do it in front of this crowd is special,” said a jubilant Alex Lynn. “Cadillac has worked so hard and fully deserves this result. It’s a special feeling to do it on a magical night and magical circuit such as Le Mans - a place I love. Now we only have 24 hours to do! A good sleep tonight and reset for the big one Saturday.”
Nerves began to jangle as a Red Flag was called upon to safely rescue the #54 Vista AF Ferrari LMGT3 at the Porsche Curves - stopping the clock with a little over 11 minutes left. Meanwhile the #78 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus took a trip through the gravel at the Dayonta chicane on the Mulsanne straight.
When the session went green it was a straight fight in LMP2 between the #199 AO by TF and #22 United Autosports cars for top-spot until the #43 Inter Europol Competition performed a textbook run to gap the pack by 0.641 seconds. Leaving the party in Hyperpole 1 were #28 IDEC Sport, #45 Algarve Racing, #48 VDS Panis Racing and the other Algarve Pro Racing machine - this time the #25.
In LMGT3 the #46 Team WRT completed Hyperpole 1 on top - a carbon copy of qualifying 24 hours ago, giving Valentino Rossi a shot at going for pole, while the #81 TF Sport Corvette showed a step-up in pace just three tenths behind. Sean Gelael in the #95 United Autosports McLaren 720S was the last car on the road and with a last chance saloon run threw caution to the wind to pop into the final Hyperpole 2 spot - dumping out the #193 Ziggo Sport Tempesta Ferrari 296, #88 Proton Competition Ford Mustang, #54 Vista AR Corse Ferrari 296 and sister #59 McLaren 720S which was last seen parked up on an access road on the Mulsanne straight.
Taking it up a notch in intensity and knocking five minutes off the clock - Hyperpole 2. Four different cars all occupied the top position, with each crossing the line in dramatic fashion. #29 TDS Racing who went fastest in FP3 this afternoon held their nerve to go overall fastest with a terrific run by Mathias Beche, however celebrations where put on hold as Louis Deletraz made it past the timing beam before the clock hit zero - all eyes were on Deletraz and Spike - the dragon liveried #199 AO by TF car. Green sector times put him in the hunt - but a few spectacular power slides on cooked tyres could only put the purple car in third behind the #43 Inter Europol Competition car of Tom Dillmann.
In LMGT3 Valentino Rossi couldn’t make it a hatrick of session topping performances, but a spirited run in the infamous #46 BMW run by WRT saw them clock third behind the #21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari in second and a jubilant Heart of Racing who took a historic pole position for their #27 Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3.
1. Cadillac V-Series.R #12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA – Will Stevens / Norman Nato / Alex Lynn – 03.23.166
2. Cadillac V-Series.R #38 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA – Earl Bamber / Sébastien Bourdais / Jenson Button – 03.23.333
3. Porsche 963 #5 Porsche Penske Motorsport – Julien Andlauer / Michael Christensen / Mathieu Jaminet – 03.23.475
4. BMW M Hybrid V8 #15 BMW M Team WRT – Dries Vanthoor / Raffaele Marciello / Kevin Magnussen – 03.23.659
5. Porsche 963 #4 Porsche Penske Motorsport – Felipe Nasr / Nick Tandy / Pascal Wehrlein – 03.23.983
6. BMW M Hybrid V8 #20 BMW M Team WRT – Rene Rast / Robin Frijns / Sheldon van der Linde – 03.24.009
7. Ferrari 499P #50 Ferrari-AF Corse – Antonio Fuoco / Nicklas Nielsen / Miguel Molina – 03.24.213
8. Cadillac V-Series.R #311 Cadillac Whelen – Jack Aitken / Felipe Drugovich / Frederik Vesti – 03.24.380
9. Alpine A424 #36 Alpine Endurance Team – Mick Schumacher / Frédéric Makowiecki / Jules Gounon – 03.24.398
10. Toyota GR010 Hybrid #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing – Sébastien Buemi / Brendon Hartley / Ryo Hirakawa – No time
1. Oreca 07-Gibson #29 TDS Racing – Rodrigo Sales / Mathias Beche / Clément Novalak (LMP2 Pro/Am) – 03.35.062
2. Oreca 07-Gibson #43 Inter Europol Competition – Jakub Smiechowski / Tom Dillmann / Nick Yelloly – 03.35.333
3. Oreca 07-Gibson #14 AO by TF – PJ Hyett / Dane Cameron / Louis Delétraz (LMP2 Pro/Am) – 03.35.421
4. Oreca 07-Gibson #23 United Autosports – Daniel Schneider / Oliver Jarvis / Benjamin Hanley (LMP2 Pro/Am) – 03.35.459
5. Oreca 07-Gibson #22 United Autosports – Renger Van Der Zande / Pietro Fittipaldi / David Heinemeier Hansson – 03.35.615
6. Oreca 07-Gibson #37 Cool Racing – Aliaksandr Malykhin / Tom Blomqvist / Tristan Vautier – 03.36.184
7. Oreca 07-Gibson #183 AF Corse – François Perrodo / Matthieu Vaxiviere / Antonio Felix Da Costa (LMP2 Pro/Am) – 03.36.993
8. Oreca 07-Gibson #16 RLR M Sport – Michael Jensen / Ryan Cullen / Patrick Pilet (LMP2 Pro/Am) – 03.38.922
1. Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3 #27 Heart Of Racing – Ian James / Mattia Drudi / Zacharie Robichon – 03.52.789
2. Ferrari 296 LMGT3 #21 Vista AF Corse – François Heriau / Simon Mann / Alessio Rovera – 03.53.085
3. BMW M4 LMGT3 #46 Team WRT – Ahmad Al Harthy / Valentino Rossi / Kelvin Van Der Linde – 03.54.966
4. Mercedes-AMG LMGT3 #61 Iron Lynx – Martin Berry / Lin Hodenius / Maxime Martin – 03.54.998
5. Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3 #92 Manthey 1ST Phorm – Ryan Hardwick / Riccardo Pera / Richard Lietz – 03.55.140
6. Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R #81 TF Sport – Tom Van Rompuy / Rui Andrade / Charlie Eastwood – 03.55.740
7. McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo #95 United Autosports – Darren Leung / Sean Gelael / Marino Sato – 03.55.965
8. Lexus RC F LMGT3 #78 Akkodis ASP Team – Arnold Robin / Jack Hawksworth / Finn Gehrsitz – 4.03.660
The track action doesn’t stop there. The final Free Practice session - FP4 starts at 23:00 local time for some final moonlight magic before the big day. Join us for the final dress rehearsal before the big one.
