Esteban Masson set the fastest time in LMP2 during tonight’s Hyperpole session for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but due to an outstanding penalty from yesterday’s Qualifying, it’ll be the #28 IDEC Sport ORECA 07-Gibson which will start up front in its class on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Mattia Drudi put the #27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3 on pole position for the second year in a row.
15 LMP2 and 15 LMGT3 cars fought in the first 20-minute segment to secure their place among the top 10 who’d fight for pole in the second stage, with different drivers than the Bronze and Silver drivers they used yesterday.
CrowdStrike Racing by APR’s Laurin Heinrich and Forestier Racing by Panis’ Oliver Gray traded the top times in LMP2, only to be usurped by reigning LMP2 race winner Tom Dillmann at Inter Europol Competition. The Frenchman put the #43 ORECA on the top of the leaderboard with a 3:33.762
Meanwhile, both United Autosports cars missed the cut for Q2; Grégoire Saucy in the #22 missed out on a place in Hyperpole 2 by nearly four-tenths, ahead of the #222 (Oliver Jarvis); also missing out was the #26 Vector Sport (Vladislav Lomko), the #37 CLX Motorsport (Theodor Jensen), and #9 Proton Competition (Kakunoshin Ohta) cars.
Jensen’s progress was stunted by a spin down at the second Mulsanne Chicane, while Ohta was unable to set a representative lap.
In LMGT3, Heart of Racing Team’s Zacharie Robichon put the #27 Aston Martin Vantage on top with a 3:53.177, two-tenths clear of Augusto Farfus in the #32 Team WRT BMW, and Timur Boguslavskiy in the #91 Manthey DK Engineering Porsche not far behind in third.
Formula 1 alumnus Logan Sargeant was bumped out of a Hyperpole 2 Place at the chequered flag by his Proton Competition Ford teammate Sebastian Priaulx, who fought his way to safety on the final lap.
Sargeant in the #88 Proton Ford joined the #62 (Julian Hanses) and #61 (Rui Andrade) Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMGs, the #54 Vista AF Corse Ferrari (Francesco Castellacci), and last year’s winning entry, the #92 The Bend Manthey Porsche (Riccardo Pera) as the other cars missing out on a chance to fight for pole.
Onto the 15-minute Hyperpole 2, another change of drivers, and Job van Uitert for IDEC Sport looked like the early favorite to take ‘P1’, setting a 3:33.689.
But the young Frenchman Masson was rapid in the #29 Forestier Racing by Panis ORECA, taking provisional pole with a 3:33.107, then improving on his last lap to a 3:32.855.
However, the #29 Forestier/Panis car will have to drop to second on the grid for tomorrow’s race, after co-driver Louis Rousset was handed a one-place grid drop penalty for impeding an LMGT3 car during yesterday’s time trial.
That promoted the #28 IDEC Sport ORECA to pole position, the team’s second LMP2 pole in the last three years. Van Uitert’s best lap would be a 3:33.242.
The #24 Nielsen Racing car qualified third thanks to a great run from F1 alumnus Jack Doohan, and Nick Yelloly put last year’s winning #43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA fourth on the grid.
“It was an incredible job to get in this position, getting the car into Hyperpole 2 was already an achievement. The session was messier than I’d like, but to be up at the pointy end in P3 is great. Our focus now shifts to the 24 Hours ahead,” Doohan said.
Alex Quinn qualified fifth in the leading LMP2 Pro/Am entry, the #4 CrowdStrike Racing by APR ORECA.
Rounding out the top ten were the #30 Duqueine Team (Julien Andlauer), #14 TDS Racing (Kévin Estre), #99 AO by TF (Dane Cameron), #183 AF Corse (Matthieu Vaxivière), and #343 Inter Europol (Reshad de Gerus) cars.
Over in LMGT3, the Italian dynamo Drudi was only impeded when his first flying lap of 3:52.410 was struck due to a track limits infringement. But he pulled out another rapid lap in the #27 Aston Martin, not quite as fast, but no other driver would get within a second of the 3:52.433 pole time from Drudi.
“It was a good lap!” Drudi told DSC. “It was good that I could repeat it, because my first lap was deleted. I was also lucky on my second because I got a tow from the Ford. The car is amazing though. We’ve worked hard on race pace, because we knew over one lap the car was quick.”
Alessio Rovera came closest, putting the #21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari second on the grid with a 3:53.412.
Behind him were the two Akkodis ASP Lexus, the #87 of José Maria Lopez, and the #78 of Jack Hawksworth, whose session was delayed a bit due to an issue with the driver-side door. The two Team WRT BMWs qualified fifth and sixth with their Silver-graded drivers, Sean Gelael in the #32 ahead of Parker Thompson in the #69.
Kessel Racing’s #74 Ferrari was the best of the wildcard LMGT3s in seventh thanks to Dennis Marschall, followed by the #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin (Jonny Adam), the #91 Manthey Porsche (Ayhancan Güven), and the #77 Proton Competition Ford (Ben Tuck).
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