ALPINE LEADS QUALIFYING ONE FOR THE 24 HOURS OF LE MANS
The opening qualifying session of the 94th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans delivered a major surprise, as Ferdinand Habsburg put the Alpine #35 at the top of the Hypercar timesheets. The Austrian driver set a 3:23.135 in the closing stages of the session, securing first place by a very small margin over the Cadillac entries from Jota and Wayne Taylor Racing.
Louis Delétraz came closest to beating the Alpine, missing out by just 13 thousandths of a second in the Jota Cadillac #12. Jordan Taylor followed closely in third with the #101 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac, completing a tightly packed top group. Sébastien Bourdais also gave Cadillac reason to celebrate with the #38 finishing inside the top five.
BMW showed strong form as well, with René Rast placing the #20 car in fourth position, just ahead of teammate Kevin Magnussen in the #15 entry. Aston Martin’s Valkyrie project also impressed by securing places in Hyperpole, alongside Toyota and the debuting Genesis cars, which successfully progressed in their first Le Mans qualifying appearance.
Ferrari, however, had a more difficult session in terms of outright pace. While both official 499P cars, the #50 and #51, managed to qualify for Hyperpole by finishing 14th and 15th, they were more than a second off the front-running pace. The AF Corse #83, winners of the previous edition, suffered a major setback and failed to progress, ending the session in 17th after a difficult lap involving traffic and a mistake.
In LMP2, Doriane Pin delivered an outstanding performance for Duqueine, topping the category with a strong lap that placed her ahead of Ian Aguilera in the CLX Motorsport entry. The session was extremely tight in the midfield, with several cars missing out on Hyperpole qualification by fractions of a second.
LMGT3 also produced a competitive session, with Peter Dempsey putting the Racing Team Turkey by TF Sport Corvette #34 at the top of the class. He led a close group that included Ford and Aston Martin entries, while Porsche also secured multiple cars into Hyperpole, including the defending class winners.
Ferrari enjoyed a mixed outcome in LMGT3, with three of its five entries progressing to Hyperpole. The strongest of them was the Kessel Racing #74, which finished sixth in class, while the AF Corse entries #21 and #54 also made it through. However, two Ferraris were eliminated, joining several other teams that failed to reach the top 15.
McLaren endured a disappointing session, with both Garage 59 entries struggling to find competitive pace and finishing well outside the qualification zone. Corvette and TF Sport also had mixed results, although their leading entry still secured a strong position at the front of LMGT3.
With Hyperpole now set, the battle for pole position across all categories promises to be extremely tight, with Cadillac, Alpine, BMW, Toyota, Ferrari and Porsche all in contention for the front rows at Le Mans.
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