Penske Porsche dramatically snatch Le Mans pole from Cadillac pair

Penske Porsche shattered Cadillac’s dreams of a shock pole for the Le Mans 24 Hours as the number six car snatched pole in the final moments.

The number three Cadillac had sat on provisional pole position in the final minutes thanks to Sebastien Bourdais, until its sister number two car beat it at the chequered flag only to be upset by a stunning final lap by Kevin Estre.

A total of 23 cars participated in the hyperpole session – eight from each of the three classes of Hypercar, LMP2 and LMGT3, but with the number 12 Jota Porsche missing due to ongoing rebuilding work to its new chassis following its huge Wednesday practice crash. The number 12 car was only due to be in the session after the number seven Toyota had all of its times deleted from qualifying after Kamui Kobayashi spun.

A heavy accident in the Road to Le Mans support series race on the run to the Indianapolis corner led to extensive barrier repairs which delayed the start of the session by 35 minutes. Eventually the session began with a light threat of rain building.

After the initial runs, the two factory Ferraris of number 50 and number 51 were the early pace setters with Antonio Fuoco putting the number 50 on provisional pole with a 3’25.598. But that was then beaten by Bourdais who took the top spot by three tenths of a second in the number three Cadillac.

Bourdais improved on his own provisional pole lap by four tenths a second while the Ferraris returned to the pits. BMW pitted their number 15 car from the softs onto fresh mediums, but Dries Vanthoor ran off the track at Indianapolis, sliding into the tyre barriers and bringing out the red flags.

With seven-and-a-half minutes remaining in the session, there was plenty of time for the field to head back out for at least one final push lap. However, with teams only allowed to use two tyre sets for each car and most teams having been running on a second set of tyres when the red flag came out, Cadillac chose not to send the number three car back out for a final run.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Ferrari sent both their cars out together, but Fuoco made an error at the first chicane, ending his chances for pole. Rather than offer a slipstream to his team mate number 51 car, Fuoco pulled over before Terte Rouge to allow Alessandro Pier Guidi through. Pier Guidi improved to go second but was unable to beat the best time of the number two Cadillac.

With Ferrari sure not to repeat their pole position feat from last season, it was a question of whether Cadillac, Porsche or Alpine would take it instead. The number two Cadillac appeared to rob its sister car of pole position at the chequered flag with a lap less than half a tenth quicker than his team mate, only for Cadillac’s dreams of pole to be shattered at the last moment by Kevin Estre and the number six Penske Porsche.

The number six snatched pole by a tenth and a half to secure Penske’s first ever pole position for the Le Mans 24 Hours. Cadillac will start second and third for Saturday’s endurance classic with the number two ahead of the number three with the two Ferraris of numbers 51 and 50 behind them.

Alpine’s number 35 will start sixth, with the number 12 Jota in seventh despite failing to run a lap in the session. The number 15 BMW had all of its times deleted from the hyperpole for causing the red flag and will start eighth.

Pole position in LMP2 was claimed by AO by TF and their number 14 ‘Spike the Dragon’ car, while the number 70 Inception Racing McLaren took pole for the LMGT3 class.

After a final evening practice session tonight, the Le Mans 24 Hours will begin on Saturday at 4pm local time, 3pm UK time.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2024 Le Mans 24 Hours qualifying result

Pos	No.	Class	Team	Car	Drivers	Time
1	6	Hypercar	Porsche Penske Motorsport	Porsche 963	Kevin Estre/Andre Lotterer/Laurens Vanthoor	3’24.6
2	2	Hypercar	Cadillac Racing	Cadillac V-Series.R	Earl Bamber/Alex Lynn/Alex Palou	3’24.8
3	3	Hypercar	Cadillac Racing	Cadillac V-Series.R	Sebastien Bourdais/Renger van der Zande/Scott Dixon	3’24.8
4	51	Hypercar	Ferrari AF Corse	Ferrari 499P	Alessandro Pier Guidi/James Calado/Antonio Giovinazzi	3’25.2
5	50	Hypercar	Ferrari AF Corse	Ferrari 499P	Antonio Fuoco/Miguel Molina/Nicklas Nielsen	3’25.6
6	35	Hypercar	Alpine Endurance Team	Alpine A424	Paul-Loup Chatin/Ferdinand Habsburg/Charles Milesi	3’25.7
7	15	Hypercar	Bmw M Team WRT	BMW M Hybrid V8	Dries Vanthoor/Raffaele Marciello/Marco Wittmann	No time
8	12	Hypercar	Team Jota	Porsche 963	Will Stevens/Callum Ilott/Norman Nato	No time
9	36	Hypercar	Alpine Endurance Team	Alpine A424	Nicolas Lapierre/Mick Schumacher/Matthieu Vaxiviere	3’25.3
10	5	Hypercar	Porsche Penske Motorsport	Porsche 963	Matt Campbell/Michael Christensen/Frederic Makowiecki	3’25.3
11	8	Hypercar	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Toyota GR010	Sebastien Buemi/Brendon Hartley/Ryo Hirakawa	3’25.4
12	83	Hypercar	AF Corse	Ferrari 499P	Robert Kubica/Robert Shwartzman/Yifei Ye	3’25.8
13	63	Hypercar	Lamborghini Iron Lynx	Lamborghini SC63	Mirko Bortolotti/Edoardo Mortara/Daniil Kvyat	3’26.0
14	99	Hypercar	Proton Competition	Porsche 963	Harry Tincknell/Neel Jani/Julien Andlauer	3’26.0
15	93	Hypercar	Peugeot	Peugeot 9X8	Mikkel Jensen/Nico Mueller/Jean-Eric Vergne	3’26.2
16	20	Hypercar	Bmw M Team WRT	BMW M Hybrid V8	Sheldon Van Der Linde/Robin Frijns/Rene Rast	3’26.2
17	38	Hypercar	Team Jota	Porsche 963	Jenson Button/Philip Hanson/Oliver Rasmussen	3’26.3
18	311	Hypercar	Whelen Cadillac Racing	Cadillac V-Series.R	Luis Felipe Derani/Jack Aitken/Felipe Drugovich	3’26.3
19	4	Hypercar	Porsche Penske Motorsport	Porsche 963	Mathieu Jaminet/Felipe Nasr/Nick Tandy	3’26.4
20	94	Hypercar	Peugeot	Peugeot 9X8	Paul di Resta/Loic Duval/Stoffel Vandoorne	3’27.3
21	19	Hypercar	Lamborghini Iron Lynx	Lamborghini SC63	Romain Grosjean/Andrea Caldarelli/Matteo Cairoli	3’27.7
22	11	Hypercar	Isotta Fraschini	Isotta Fraschini Tipo6-C	Antonio Serravalle/Carl Wattana Bennett/Jean-Karl Vernay	3’29.9
23	7	Hypercar	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Toyota GR010	Jose Maria Lopez/Kamui Kobayashi/Nyck de Vries	No time
24	14	LMP2	AO by TF	Oreca 07 – Gibson	PJ Hyett/Louis Delétraz/Alex Quinn	3’33.2
25	28	LMP2	IDEC Sport	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Paul Lafargue/Job van Uitert/Reshad de Gerus	3’33.8
26	65	LMP2	Panis Racing	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Rodrigo Sales/Mathias Beche/Scott Huffaker	3’34.1
27	23	LMP2	United Autosports	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Ben Keating/Filipe Albuquerque/Ben Hanley	3’34.2
28	22	LMP2	United Autosports	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Oliver Jarvis/Bijoy Garg/Nolan Siegel	3’34.3
29	37	LMP2	Cool Racing	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Lorenzo Fluxa/Malthe Jakobsen/Ritomo Miyata	3’34.8
30	33	LMP2	DKR Engineering	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Alexander Mattschull/Rene Binder/Laurents Horr	3’35.7
31	10	LMP2	Vector Sport	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Ryan Cullen/Patrick Pilet/Stephane Richelmi	3’35.9
32	183	LMP2	AF Corse	Oreca 07 – Gibson	François Perrodo/Ben Barnicoat/Nicolas Varrone	3’34.8
33	24	LMP2	Nielsen Racing	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Fabio Scherer/David Heinemeier Hansson/Kyffin Simpson	3’34.8
34	34	LMP2	Inter Europol Competition	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Jakub Smiechowski/Vladislav Lomko/Clément Novalak	3’34.9
35	9	LMP2	Proton Competition	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Jonas Ried/Maceo Capietto/Bent Viscaal	3’35.0
36	30	LMP2	Duqueine Team	Oreca 07 – Gibson	John Falb/James Allen/Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer	3’35.1
37	47	LMP2	Cool Racing	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Naveen Rao/Matthew Bell/Frederik Vesti	3’35.4
38	25	LMP2	Algarve Pro Racing	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Matthias Kaiser/Olli Caldwell/Roman De Angelis	3’35.5
39	45	LMP2	Crowdstrike Racing by APR	Oreca 07 – Gibson	George Kurtz/Colin Braun/Nicky Catsburg	3’39.2
40	70	LMGT3	Inception Racing	McLaren 720S Evo	Brendan Iribe/Ollie Millroy/Frederik Schandorff	3’58.1
41	92	LMGT3	Manthey Purerxcing	Porsche 911 GT3 R	Aliaksandr Malykhin/Joel Sturm/Klaus Bachler	3’58.9
42	66	LMGT3	JMW Motorsport	Ferrari 296	Giacomo Petrobelli/Larry ten Voorde/Salih Yoluc	3’58.9
43	77	LMGT3	Proton Competition	Ford Mustang	Ryan Hardwick/Zacharie Robichon/Ben Barker	3’59.4
44	27	LMGT3	Heart Of Racing Team	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	Ian James/Daniel Mancinelli/Alex Riberas	3’59.7
45	777	LMGT3	D’Station Racing	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	Clement Mateu/Erwan Bastard/Marco Sorensen	04’02.8
46	82	LMGT3	TF Sport	Corvette Z06.R	Hiroshi Koizumi/Sebastien Baud/Daniel Juncadella	04’03.7
47	60	LMGT3	Iron Lynx	Lamborghini Huracan Evo2	Claudio Schiavoni/Matteo Cressoni/Franck Perera	04’06.5
48	85	LMGT3	Iron Dames	Lamborghini Huracan Evo2	Sarah Bovy/Doriane Pin/Michelle Gatting	3’56.5
49	87	LMGT3	Akkodis Asp Team	Lexus RC F	Takeshi Kimura/Esteban Masson/	3’56.6
50	59	LMGT3	United Autosports	McLaren 720S Evo	James Cottingham/Nicolas Costa/Gregoire Saucy	3’56.7
51	46	LMGT3	Team WRT	BMW M4	Ahmad Al Harthy/Valentino Rossi/Maxime Martin	3’56.7
52	54	LMGT3	Vista AF Corse	Ferrari 296	Thomas Flohr/Francesco Castellacci/Davide Rigon	3’56.8
53	44	LMGT3	Proton Competition	Ford Mustang	Ryan Hardwick/Zacharie Robichon/Ben Barker	3’56.8
54	31	LMGT3	Team WRT	BMW M4	Darren Leung/Sean Gelael/Augusto Farfus	3’56.9
55	91	LMGT3	Manthey Ema	Porsche 911 GT3 R	Yasser Shahin/Morris Schuring/Richard Lietz	3’57.0
56	88	LMGT3	Proton Competition	Ford Mustang	Giorgio Roda/Mikkel Pedersen/Dennis Olsen	3’57.2
57	81	LMGT3	TF Sport	Corvette Z06.R	Tom Van Rompuy/Rui Andrade/Charlie Eastwood	3’57.3
58	95	LMGT3	United Autosports	McLaren 720S Evo	Joshua Caygill/Nicolas Pino/Marino Sato	3’57.3
59	155	LMGT3	Spirit of Race	Ferrari 296	Johnny Laursen/Conrad Laursen/Jordan Taylor	3’57.3
60	78	LMGT3	Akkodis Asp Team	Lexus RC F	Arnold Robin/Timur Boguslavskiy/Kelvin Van Der Linde	3’57.4
61	55	LMGT3	Vista AF Corse	Ferrari 296	Francois Heriau/Simon Mann/Alessio Rovera	3’58.3
62	86	LMGT3	GR Racing	Ferrari 296	Michael Wainwright/Daniel Serra/Riccardo Pera	No time

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

World Endurance Championship

• Penske Porsche poised to clinch title after winning incident-packed Fuji Six Hours
• Hyundai to launch hypercar racing programme under Genesis brand
• Court of Appeal rejects Ferrari’s challenge to WEC Six Hours of Spa result
• Kubica, Shwartzman and Ye grab first win ahead of charging Toyota at COTA
• Isotta Fraschini quits World Endurance Championship after five races

Browse all World Endurance Championship articles