Giovinazzi gives Ferrari pole for Lone Star Le Mans, as Aitken matches his lap time for second

Credit: Ferrari

Antonio Giovinazzi has given his No.51 Ferrari crew a last minute pole position, as he set the exact same lap time as Jack Aitken in the No.38 Jota Cadillac. The Ferrari man set his first, so he took pole position for the 2026 World Endurance Championship (WEC) Lone Star Le Mans.

Charles Milesi in the No.35 Alpine was third, just 0.029 back, with Harry Tincknell in the No.007 Aston Martin in fourth 0.050 off pole.

Qualifying

12 minutes were on the clock to decide the top 10 for the Hyperpole session. All 17 Hypercars took to the track for this session.

16 of those cars took to the track straight away, but Kamui Kobayashi in the No.7 Toyota waited an extra two and a half minutes before pulling out of his pit box. They would lose one lap of running, but their hope was that they would get the best of their tyres on a more rubbered in track.

Victor Martins in the No.36 Alpine went quickest early on, ahead of the No.19 and No.17 Genesis cars. Jack Aitken split them in the No.38 Cadillac with three and a half minutes to go, before Kobayashi went fourth in the late starting Toyota.

Nicklas Nielsen went from last to first with a 1:52.0, half a tenth quicker than Martins. In the drop zone with two minutes to go was the No.94 Peugeot, No.20 BMW, No.83 Ferrari, No.12 Cadillac, No.93 Peugeot and the No.007 and No.009 Aston Martins.

On the final lap though, Harry Tincknell in the No.007 Aston Martin found plenty of time on his best and went from second last to sixth in his Valkyrie. That knocked Charles Milesi in the No.35 Alpine out, but he was going quicker too and improved to fifth.

That put the No.15 BMW into 11th, with the championship leading No.20 (tied with No.7) down in 13th, almost a second off the pace set by Nielsen in the Ferrari.

Drop zone

11th No.15 BMW - Vanthoor

12th No.94 Peugeot - Jakobsen

13th No.20 BMW - Van der Linde

14th No.83 Ferrari - Kubica

15th No.12 Cadillac - Nato

16th No.93 Peugeot - Vandoorne

17th No.009 Aston Martin - Sorensen

Hyperpole

The top 10 were then given 10 minutes to set the grid for tomorrows race once and for all. It was still free driver choice, so the same drivers that competed Qualifying could also drive in this session.

It took the drivers about six minutes to get their eye in and get the tyres up to temperature. Aitken was quickest early on, with a 1:52.5, about half a second off what we saw in the earlier session.

Tincknell was second, half a second back, ahead of Martins in the Alpine. Nielsen bumped the Frenchman down one, but Antonio Giovinazzi in the No.51 Ferrari put in a big lap to go to the top with one minute to go. His 52.4 was a tenth clear of Aitken.

On his next lap, Aitken came on a better lap and managed to set the exact same lap time as Giovinazzi. The Italian set it first, so he held on to the top time. Tincknell improved in third, just half a tenth behind the top two.

Milesi made it even closer, going 0.029 of a second behind the top two in third place at the checkered flag. No one else could improve, so it was by virtue of who set the lap first that decided pole position.

Hyperpole

1st No.51 Ferrari - Giovinazzi

2nd No.38 Cadillac - Aitken

3rd No.35 Alpine - Milesi

4th No.007 Aston Martin - Tincknell

5th No.50 Ferrari - Nielsen

6th No.36 Alpine - Martins

7th No.8 Toyota - Hirakawa

8th No.17 Genesis - Jaubert

9th No.7 Toytoa - Kobayashi

10th No.19 Genesis - Jaminet