#6 Porsche Penske took a last-gasp red flag-affected pole in FIA WEC Le Mans 24 Hours in Hypercar ahead of Cadillac pair.
Hypercar –
- No.6 Porsche Penske 963 driven by Kevin Estre takes sensational last gasp pole position with an incredible 3m24.634s lap at Le Mans
- The French ace beats Alex Lynn driven No.2 Cadillac by just 0.148s after Lynn had himself just beaten the sister No.3 Cadillac of Sebastien Bourdais of what looked to have been the pole lap before Estre blasted over the line
- Bourdais had for a while looked to have taken pole after setting an initial fastest lap of 3m24.816s in the yellow Caddy
- The local ace beat his own early benchmark of 3m25.294s to head the two Ferrari AF Corse 499 Hypercars but had to sit out the final seven minutes after a red flag flew when Dries Vanthoor spun his BMW Hypercar
- Alessandro Pier Guidi in the No.51 Ferrari 499P took fourth place to ensure that the Prancing Horse is in good position to defend its Le Mans crown this weekend
- The sister No.50 Ferrari 499P of Antonio Fuoco places fifth meaning that Fuoco loses out on back-to-back poles after being unable to challenge on an out and push last gasp challenge
- No.35 Alpine A424 driven by Paul-Loup Chatin rounds out top six after a fine effort in the new Alpine A424 Hypercar
- Dries Vanthoor in the No.15 BMW M Team V8 Hypercar speared off the track at Indianapolis and in to the gravel trap while on quick lap. This brings out the red flag stopping the clocks and splitting the session to 22 minutes and a final 7 minute sprint. As a result Vanthoor had lap times cancelled
- Only seven Hypercars take part in session after No.12 Hertz Team Jota Porsche 963 is going through a rebuild after FP2 accident on Wednesday evening
LMP2 –
- Louis Deletraz in the AO by TF Sport ‘Spike’ Oreca Gibson takes thrilling last gasp pole in LMP2 with a bets lap of 3m33.217s
- That laps is 0.6s faster than the IDEC Sport Oreca-Gibson driven by Job van Uitert
- Third is the Panis Racing entry qualified by Matthias Beche, while the No.23 United Autosports in hands of Ben Hanley also starts on the second row of the grid in fourth
- The No.37 Cool Racing car of Malthe Jakobsen grabs fifth position, and the No.22 United Autosports car with Oliver Jarvis aboard completes the top six
- The DKR Engineering LMP2 car driven by Laurens Horr places seventh and Patrick Pilet takes the Hyperpole position in eighth.
LMGT3 –
- Brendan Iribe in the Inception Racing McLaren LMGT3 takes the first ever pole position for McLaren at Le Mans and the first in the LMGT3 category
- Iribe sets a best of 3m58.120s to beat his pursuers by 0.8s but spins at final corner while on potential faster lap
- Those challengers are led by the No.92 Manthey PureRxcing Porsche 911 RSR driven by Alex Malykhin
- JMW Automotive Ferrari driven by Giacomo Petrobelli grabs third place for the ELMS regular entry and former Le Mans class winner
- Ryan Hardwick driven No.77 Proton Ford Mustang places fourth ahead of Ian James Heart in the Heart of Racing Aston Martin making it five different manufacturers in the first five positions
- The rest of the grid position from sixth to eighth are filled out by Satoshi Hoshino in the D’Station Aston Martin, Hiroshi Koizumi in the No.82 TF Sport Corvette and the No.60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini with Claudio Schiavone
Results: http://fiawec.alkamelsystems.com/
Rest of the places pre-Hyperpole: http://fiawec.alkamelsystems.com/
More to come
[Note: The story is as per press release]