Porsche Penske Motosport’s Kevin Estre set a lap right at the end of Hyperpole qualifying Thursday (June 13) at 148.955 mph win the pole for Saturday’s FIA World Endurance Championship 24 Hours of Le Mans. It is the first pole for the Penske-run team on the 8.467-mile road course.
Estre won the pole by .148 seconds over Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Lynn. Lynn’s teammate Sebastien Bourdais was third, then Ferrari AF Corse teammates Alessandro Pier Guidi and Antonio Fuoco.
Of note, Lynn’s No. 2 will not start second. It will start seventh due to a five-spot grid penalty given to the car after Earl Bamber‘s crash at Spa.
As a result, Bourdais’ No. 3 will start second, then the two Ferraris. Signatech Alpine’s Paul-Loup Chatin would assume fifth.
Qualifying was delayed due to a crash during the first Michelin Le Mans Cup race of the weekend that required significant barrier repairs. As a result, teams started the 30-minute Hyperpole session just after 8:30 p.m. local time, roughly 32 minutes behind schedule.
Bourdais put his Cadillac on the provisional pole with a lap at 148.822 mph halfway through the session. It looked good to hold on for the pole.
However, the session was red-flagged with just under eight minutes to go when Dries Vanthoor slid off into the gravel at Indianapolis and hit the tires. Much like Kamui Kobayashi on Wednesday, Vanthoor was stripped of his times and will start eighth on Saturday.
When the session resumed, Bourdais chose not to go back out. He had more than three-quarters of a second over Fuoco at the time and felt safe.
Fuoco left himself enough time to put down a fast lap. However, he got loose entering the Dunlop chicane just past the pits. That led him to violate track limits, ending any chance at pole.
However, Lynn was able to take the pole away from his teammate. It looked like a Cadillac 1-2 for a short bit before Estre took the pole for good.
In LMP2, AO by TF’s Louis Deletraz was on top for the majority of the session. However, on his last lap of the session, IDEC Sport’s Job van Uitert took it away. Deletraz was behind van Uitert at the time and took it back for good with a lap at 142.959 mph to win the class pole.
Deletraz’s lap was .610 seconds faster than van Uitert. Panis Racing’s Mathias Beche was third, then United Autosports teammates Ben Hanley and Oliver Jarvis.
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