Defending Winning Ferrari 499P Misses Out On Hyperpole 1

Photo: Charly López/DPPI

The No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P has been eliminated from contending for Hyperpole honors, after Phil Hanson was one of three cars to miss out on advancing to Thursday evening’s Hyperpole 1 session for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Hanson, along with both the Peugeot 9X8s, were at the bottom of the 18-car Hypercar field in qualifying, with the No. 93 Peugeot set to start 16th, ahead of Hanson’s Ferrari and the No. 94 Peugeot.

It came in a difficult qualifying run for the British racer, who had an off-course excursion on the approach to Tertre Rouge. Hanson then lost a lap due to a track limits violation and also had an additional track limits violation.

Both of the factory Ferraris, meanwhile, were 14th and 15th quickest, barely advancing themselves.

Up front, Ferdinand Habsburg was quickest in the 30-minute session, thanks to a 3:23.135 lap time in the No. 35 Alpine A424.

It was a mere 0.013 seconds quicker than the No. 12 Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac V-Series.R of Louis Deletraz, with Cadillac stablemate Jordan Taylor third in the Wayne Taylor Racing entry.

Rene Rast was the best of the Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8s in fourth, followed by Sebastien Bourdais, which resulted in all three Cadillacs in the top-five.

Both of the Le Mans-debuting Genesis GMR-001s advance, thanks to Dani Juncadella and Pipo Derani qualifying 11th and 13th, respectively.

Pin, Dempsey Quickest in LMP2, LMGT3 as McLarens, Keating Knocked Out

Qualifying for the two other classes required the lowest graded driver in LMP2 and the FIA Bronze-rated pilot in LMGT3.

LMP2 saw Silver-rated Doriane Pin go quickest in the No. 30 Duqeuine Team Oreca 07 Gibson, thanks to a blazing 3:34.662 lap time, which was more than a half-second clear of the competition.

The No. 37 CLX Motorsport entry of 19-year-old Ian Aguilera was second quickest in class, ahead of the No. 343 Inter Europol Competition car of Bijoy Garg in third.

Quickest of the LMP2 Pro-Am runners was the No. 99 AO by TF Oreca of PJ Hyett, who ended up 11th heading into tomorrow’s Hyperpole 1 session.

The No. 44 Proton Competition entry will start the 24 Hours of Le Mans 16th in class, as the first LMP2 car not to advance.

Michael Jensen (No. 25 Algarve Pro Racing), Fred Poordad (No. 48 RD Limited) and John Farano (No. 3 DKR Engineering) were also knocked out.

Peter Dempsey, meanwhile, put the No. 34 Racing Team Turkey by TF Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R quickest in a hotly contested LMGT3 class.

Dempsey edged out the No. 77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 EVO of Eric Powell by 0.207 seconds, with fellow American Gray Newell, in the No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo setting the third quickest time in class.

James Cottingham made a last-lap improvement to fourth in the No. 91 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo, while his teammate Yasser Shahin held on for his No. 92 entry to advance to Hyperpole 1 with the 15th quickest time.

Among the notable entries to advance include both Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVOs, qualified by Darren Leung and Anthony McIntosh, as well as the second Proton Mustang of Steffano Gattuso.

Both of the Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evos, qualified by Antares Au and Alexander West, failed to advance and will start 17th and 23rd in class, while Ben Keating surprisingly also missed out.

The No. 33 TF Sport Corvette will roll off 18th in class, as the second highest-placed Corvette.

A two-hour night practice will round out Wednesday’s track action, scheduled for a 10 p.m. CEST (4 p.m. EST) start.

RESULTS: Hypercar/LMP2-LMGT3

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John