WEC LMGT3 Qualifying: Aston Martin front-row lock-out for Lone Star Le Mans

Credit: Aston Martin Racing

The No.23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin leads an all Aston Martin front row of the grid for the 2026 World Endurance Championship (WEC) Lone Star Le Mans. Gray Newell and Eduardo Barrichello set the laps necessary to make their crew the first repeat pole sitters in LMGT3 this year.

Qualifying

First up was the Bronze driver only session for our 18 LMGT3 cars. 12 minutes for the drivers to sort out a top 10 order for Hyperpole.

At the beginning of the session, all of the cars piled out of the pit lane at the same time, creating somewhat of a cat and mouse game for track position as we went onto the second of the warm-up laps, where the speed started rising.

As the first push laps began, the No.21 Ferrari of François Heriau broke late into turn 1, and hit the rear corner of the No.58 McLaren of Alexander West. Both cars had a half spin on the exit of the hairpin, but were able to keep going.

Steffano Gattuso in the No.88 Ford was quickest earlier on, with his teammate Eric Powell in the No.77 making it a 1-2 for the Mustangs very briefly, before Heriau and West jumped between them alongside James Cottingham in the No.92 Manthey Porsche.

Martin Berry joined them in the No.61 Mercedes, as eyes turned to the drop zone with two minutes to go. That included the No.10 McLaren, both Lexus, the No.92 Porsche, both Corvettes, the No.69 BMW and the No.79 Mercedes.

Petru Umbrarescu in the No.87 Lexus went ninth, knocking Thomas Flohr in the No.54 Ferrari into the drop zone. Yasser Shahin in the No.92 Porsche was the only one going quicker as the checkered flag flew, but he didn't have enough to get into Hyperpole. He jumped from 16th to 13th.

Gattuso ended up fastest from Berry and West. But those time didn't matter anymore. The top 10 headed through to Hyperpole with a clean slate, and it was the turn of the Silver drivers to fight it out for pole position.

Drop Zone

11th No.54 Ferrari - Flohr

12th No.34 Corvette - Dempsey

13th No.92 Porsche - Shahin

14th No.10 McLaren - Au

15th No.78 Lexus - Van Rompuy

16th No.69 BMW - McIntosh

17th No.33 Corvette - Keating

18th No.79 Mercedes - Zelger

Hyperpole

10 minutes for this session rather than 12 in the previous session, but the shorter time limit didn't bother the two Aston Martin's or the No.87 Lexus, who stayed in the pits for around 60-90 seconds longer than the rest of the field.

Eduardo Barrichello was quickest early on in the No.23 Aston Martin, with his teammate Zachaire Robichon making it an Aston 1-2 in the sister No.27. Timur Boguslavsiky was third in the No.91 Porsche, with Ben Tuck in the No.77 slotting into fourth on his second effort.

Barrichello extended his gap at the top by about half a tenth on his next go, with no one else looking like they could challenge it with two minutes to go.

The drivers seemed to have taken the best out of the tyres early on in the session, so not many improvements came through. Tuck stayed fourth, but improved to the exact same lap time as Boguslavisky. He stayed behind having set it later in the session.

Tuck was up in the first sector on his next lap, but he lost the tyres from under him with a big snap in the essess section.

That was all the remaining 10 LMGT3 cars had in them, meaning the two Heart of Racing Aston Martins sealed a front-row lock-out, led by the No.23.

Hyperpole

1st No.23 Aston Martin - Barrichello

2nd No.27 Aston Martin - Robichon

3rd No.91 Porsche - Boguslavisky

4th No.77 Ford - Tuck

5th No.58 McLaren - Gehrsitz

6th No.21 Ferrari - Mann

7th No.32 BMW - Gelael

8th No.61 Mercedes - Andrade

9th No.88 Ford - Leverato

10th No.87 Lexus - Schmid