UPDATED: BMW on pole for Le Mans after No.38 Cadillac loses pole lap time during celebrations
- Aaron Carroll
- 2 hours ago
- 4 min read
UPDATE: The No.38 Cadillac has lost their best lap time, meaning the No.15 BMW is on pole position for Le Mans. It is believed that the penalty comes as the Cadillac crew joined the fast lane of the pit lane too early before the start of Hyperpole 2.
Jack Aitken has given the No.38 Cadillac Team Jota pole position for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with a stellar last lap to pip Dries Vanthoor in the No.15 BMW by 0.005 of a second.
Hyperpole 1
After LMP2 and LMGT3 decided their grids for Saturdays 24 Hours of Le Mans, it was Hypercars turn to set the overall pole. First though, 15 had to become 10 in the first 20 minute session.
The teams once again had free choice of driver, so it was the balance of trying to get into the top 10, but perhaps saving the quickest driver for the final top 10 shootout.
The first laps came in and it was Earl Bamber in the No.38 Cadillac that was quickest, ahead of Mathieu Jaminet in the No.19 Genesis and Ricky Taylor in the No.101 Wayne Taylor Cadillac.
In the drop zone was the No.51 Ferrari of Antonio Giovinazzi, the No.007 Aston Martin of Ross Gunn, the No.50 Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco, the No.009 Aston of Marco Sorenson and Kamui Kobayashi in the No.7 Toyota who was offset from the rest, and hadn't set a lap.
He went sixth when he did get one in, knocking Norman Nato in the No.12 Cadillac into the drop. The Ferraris were on mediums, while the rest were on softs, so they started going quicker on the second lap. Fuoco went up to sixth, putting Sheldon van der Linde in the No.20 BMW down.
Many of those on the softs pit in the middle of the session for a fresh set, so the session did lull slightly whilst they all got up to speed once again. With five minutes to go, the Ferrari's both pivoted from mediums to softs.
Van der Linde improved from 11th to first on his penultimate lap, but Bamber re-took the top spot before Mathys Jaubert in the No.17 Genesis beat him by 0.06.
The Aston Martins went sixth and seventh, putting the No.7 Toyota, No.50 Ferrari, No.15 BMW, No.8 Toyota and No.51 Ferrari in the drop zone.
Ryo Hirakawa was 14th in the No.8 and backed out of his lap at the end of sector 1, ending their qualifying session. Raffaele Marciello in the No.15 BMW went fourth, dropping the No.35 Alpine of Charles Milesi into 11th.
Giovinazzi went to sixth in the No.51 from last, and Fuoco could only manage 11th as Milesi went top. No one else could improve so that was the session finished. Milesi finished top, less than a tenth ahead of Bamber and just a fraction ahead of Jaubert.
Hypercar Hyperpole 1 Drop Zone
11th No.007 Heart of Racing Aston Martin
12th No.50 Ferrari AF Corse
13th No.36 Alpine Endurance Team
14th No.7 Toyota Racing
15th No.8 Toyota Racing
Hyperpole 2
The final 10 took their places at the end of the pit lane, ready to do battle for pole position. 15 minutes were on the clock, so not too many laps for the drivers to get it right.
The session was delayed by a couple of minutes, as race control were checking that they ''had the right cars in Hyperpole 2'', so potentially looking at some potential track limits infringements that amounted to nothing.
Both Genesis cars and the No.38 Cadillac of Jack Aitken came into the pits at the end of the out lap, scrubbing a set of tyres and using heat soak from the brakes to get the absolute peak of the tyres on their push laps.
Dries Vanthoor in the No.15 BMW was the first to set a time and set the fastest lap of the weekend with a 3:22.745. He was 1.1 seconds quicker than Robin Frijns in the sister car. No one else did a 100% push lap, so still plenty of tyre prep going on with more than half the session gone.
Vanthoor backed out of his second lap, as did Frijns. Antonio Felix Da Costa in the No.35 Alpine went second, but still 1.1 away from Vanthoor's lap. Will Stevens in the No.12 Cadillac stole P2, six tenths off of Vanthoor.
Paul-Loup Chatin in the No.19 Genesis put his GMR-001 into fifth on his first lap, with Aitken and Andre Lotterer in the sister car not setting representative lap times.
On his penultimate lap, Vanthoor found another two tenths on his best lap to extend the gap at the top. Frijns improved from fourth to third, with Felipe Albuquerque in the No.101 slotting into fourth. But Da Costa came through quicker than both, going into third.
Next up was Stevens with a purple sector 1, but he couldn't do it in the final sector. He stayed half a second back from the BMW as the checkered flag came out, he was the last one to get another lap.
Aitken put in a monster final lap in the No.38 Cadillac to go fastest by 0.005 of a second.
Chatin finished the session seventh, with the sister No.17 10th at the end. No one else could improve, so Aitken took a shock pole on the very last lap of qualifying.
Hypercar Hyperpole 2 Results
1st No.38 Cadillac Team Jota
2nd No.15 WRT BMW
3rd No.12 Cadillac Team Jota
4th No.35 Alpine Endurance Team
5th No.20 WRT BMW
6th No.101 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac
7th No.19 Genesis Magma Racing
8th No.009 Heart of Racing Aston Martin
9th No.51 Ferrari AF Corse
10th No.17 Genesis Magma Racing
