Ferrari locks out front row on its return to the top flight at Le Mans

Ferrari secured a front row lock-out in hyperpole qualifying for the Le Mans 24 Hours, claiming their first pole in the famous race in half a century.

The number 50 Ferrari shared by Antonio Fuoco – who drove the pole-winning lap – Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen will start famous 24-hour endurance race from the front of the field, ahead of their team mates in the number 51 car. Toyota will start third on the grid with the number eight car, ahead of the number 75 Porsche Penske.

The half-hour hyperpole session, unlike other rounds of the World Endurance Championship, saw all classes on the track at the same time. After Wednesday’s qualifying session, the eight hypercars participating included both Toyotas, both Ferraris, two Cadillacs – the number two and number three – and two Porsche Penskes, the number five car and number 75.

The Toyotas were the first cars over the line to begin their first flying laps of the session on the medium compound tyres, with the number eight Toyota of Brendon Hartley ahead of the number seven car of Kamui Kobayashi with the Ferraris behind. Earl Bamber’s first push lap in the number two Porsche was deleted due to exceeding track limits at Tertre Rouge, before Hartley crossed the line to set the initial benchmark time of a 3’26.398.

That was immediately beaten by the second Toyota by just over a tenth of a second, before the two Ferraris easily beat them both, with the number 51 Ferrari driven by Alessandro Pier Guidi posting a 2’23.897 just ahead of the number 50 sister Ferrari. Both Toyotas improved on their second laps, but were still over a second slower than the Ferraris at the top of the times.

The Toyotas and Ferraris returned to the pits to make adjustments for their final runs, heading out with just under 15 minutes remaining. Pier Guidi shaved four tenths of a second off his own provisional pole time, but lost the lap after it was deleted for exceeding track limits at the exit of Karting. That allowed the sister Ferrari, driven by Fuoco, to jump up to provisional pole with an improvement of almost a full lap.

The number three Cadillac jumped to the second row courtesy of Sebastien Bourdais, but he was then forced to stop at the first chicane on the Mulsanne with a problem. After stopping, the Cadillac suddenly burst into flames, with fire coming from underneath the car. The session was immediately red-flagged, stopping the clock with 5’15 remaining.

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With enough time for drivers to start a final flying lap before the chequered flag dropped, cars queued up at the end of the pit lane for the Cadillac to be cleared. When it was, the session resumed instantly, with both Toyotas, both Porsche Penskes and the number two Cadillac joining the circuit, while the Ferrari pair sitting on the front row opted not to go back out for a final run.

Hartley was again the first over the line, followed by Kobayashi. However, while both Toyotas set personal best sectors, they were comfortably slower than the Ferraris. Hartley crossed the line to improve up to third, but only for a matter of seconds as Kobayashi took the position from him. However, that secured pole position for Ferrari with a front row lockout with the number 50 car of Fuoco, Molina and Nielsen.

The number 51 Ferrari will start alongside in second, with the number eight Toyota of Hartley, Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa third on the grid. Felipe Nasr put the number 75 Porsche Penske fourth on the grid after Kobayashi’s best time at the chequered flag was deleted for track limits. The number two Cadillac took sixth ahead of the number five Porsche Penske seventh and Bourdais eighth in the Cadillac after his car’s best time was deleted for causing the red flag.

Paul Loup Chatin secured LMP2 pole for IDEC sport, while Corvette will start the GT class from pole position after Ben Keating secured pole by well over a second.

Le Mans 24 Hours Hyperpole results

Pos	No.	Class	Team	Car	Drivers	Time
1	50	Hypercar (H)	Ferrari AF Corse	Ferrari 499P	Antonio Fuoco/Miguel Molina/Nicklas Nielsen	3’22.982
2	51	Hypercar (H)	Ferrari AF Corse	Ferrari 499P	Alessandro Pier Guidi/James Calado/Antonio Giovinazzi	3’23.755
3	8	Hypercar (H)	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Toyota GR010	Sebastien Buemi/Brendon Hartley/Ryo Hirakawa	3’24.451
4	75	Hypercar (H)	Porsche Penske Motorsport	Porsche 963	Felipe Nasr/Mathieu Jaminet/Nicholas Tandy	3’24.531
5	7	Hypercar (H)	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Toyota GR010	Mike Conway/Kamui Kobayashi/Jose Maria Lopez	3’24.933
6	2	Hypercar (H)	Cadillac Racing	Cadillac V-Series.R	Earl Bamber/Alex Lynn/Richard Westbrook	3’25.170
7	5	Hypercar (H)	Porsche Penske Motorsport	Porsche 963	Dane Cameron/Michael Christensen/Frederic Makowiecki	3’25.176
8	3	Hypercar (H)	Cadillac Racing	Cadillac V-Series.R	Sebastien Bourdais/Renger Van Der Zande/Scott Dixon	3’25.521
9	48	LMP2	Idec Sport	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Paul Lafargue/Paul Loup Chatin/Laurents Horr	3’32.923
10	28	LMP2	JOTA	Oreca 07 – Gibson	David Heinemeier Hansson/Oliver Rasmussen/Pietro Fittipaldi	3’33.035
11	41	LMP2	Team WRT	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Rui Andrade/Louis Deletraz/Robert Kubica	3’33.240
12	47	LMP2	Cool Racing	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Reshad de Gerus/Vladislav Lomko/Simon Pagenaud	3’33.580
13	63	LMP2	Prema Racing	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Doriane Pin/Daniil Kvyat/Mirko Bortolotti	3’33.983
14	14	LMP2 Pro/Am	Nielsen Racing	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Rodrigo Sales/Mathias Beche/Ben Hanley	3’34.021
15	9	LMP2	Prema Racing	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Bent Viscaal/Juan Manuel Correa/Filip Ugran	3’34.658
16	10	LMP2	Vector Sport	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Ryan Cullen/Gabriel Aubry/Matthias Kaiser	3’35.091
17	33	LMGTE Am	Corvette Racing	Chevrolet Corvette C8.R	Nicky Catsburg/Ben Keating/Nicolas Varrone	3’52.376
18	25	LMGTE Am	ORT by TF	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	Ahmad Al Harthy/Michael Dinan/Charlie Eastwood	3’53.905
19	54	LMGTE Am	AF Corse	Ferrari 488 GTE Evo	Thomas Flohr/Francesco Castellacci/Davide Rigon	3’54.582
20	21	LMGTE Am	AF Corse	Ferrari 488 GTE Evo	Simon Mann/Julien Piguet/Ulysse de Pauw	3’54.744
21	83	LMGTE Am	Richard Mille AF Corse	Ferrari 488 GTE Evo	Luis Perez Companc/Alessio Rovera/Lilou Wadoux	3’55.033
22	57	LMGTE Am	Kessel Racing	Ferrari 488 GTE Evo	Takeshi Kimura/Scott Huffaker/Daniel Serra	3’55.637
23	55	LMGTE Am	GMB Motorsport	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	Gustav Dahlmann Birch/Marco Sorensen/Jens Reno Moller	3’57.240
24	74	LMGTE Am	Kessel Racing	Ferrari 488 GTE Evo	Kei Cozzolino/Yorikatsu Tsujiko/Naoki Yokomizo	3’59.648

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