Estre Beats Lynn to Deliver Porsche 24H Le Mans Pole

Kevin Estre put Porsche Penske Motorsport on pole position for the 24 Hours of Le Mans by beating Cadillac with a last-gap effort in Hyperpole.

The Frenchman reeled off a 3:24.634 in the dying moments the session aboard the No. 6 Porsche 963 to beat Alex Lynn by 0.148 seconds.

It marks Porsche’s 19th pole in Le Mans history, having last started an edition of the race from first overall in 2016.

Lynn appeared to have pole position secured when he steered the No. 2 Cadillac V-Series.R to a 3:24.782 to jump to first, only to be beaten by Estre moments later.

Both drivers set their fastest time during their final attempts, which came after a red flag interruption when Dries Vanthoor hit the barriers at Indianapolis aboard the No. 15 BMW M Hybrid V8.

At that time, Sebastien Bourdais topped the charts after he had put in a 3:24.816 after a series of pace-setting laps.

While Bourdais opted to not rejoin the track after the session was restarted, Estre, Lynn and the pair of Ferrari 499Ps and the lone Alpine A424 did.

Neither Ferrari drivers were able to challenge for pole on their final runs, with Alessandro Pier Guidi qualifying fourth aboard the No. 51 car while Antonio Fuoco aborted his run after an error at the Dunlop Chicane.

He ended the session in fifth ahead of Paul-Loup Chatin, who was the last driver to set a time.

Vanthoor had his laps deleted after causing the red flags, while the No. 12 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche did not take part amidst an ongoing rebuild after Callum Ilott’s crash in Free Practice 2 on Wednesday night.

AO by TF, Inception Racing Take LMP2, LMGT3 Poles

Louis Deletraz charged to pole position in the LMP2 category, while Brendan Iribe denied Alex Malykhin the top spot in LMGT3.

The No. 14 AO by TF Oreca 07 Gibson came out on top in a duel with IDEC Sport driver Job van Uitert, which saw the Dutchman briefly go quickest with a 3:33.827.

However, Deletraz improved moments later to post a 3:33.217 and take the top spot.

Mathias Beche took third for Panis Racing, ahead of the pair if United Autosports entries of Ben Hanley and Oliver Jarvis.

Malthe Jakobsen put the No. 37 Cool Racing Oreca sixth on the grid, ahead of DKR Engineering and Vector Sport.

In LMGT3, a lap of 3:58.120 was enough for Iribe to put the No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 Evo on class pole.

In the process, he beat the No. 92 Manthey PureRxcing Porsche 911 GT3 R by 0.808 seconds.

Iribe was on course to go even quicker, but spun coming out of the final corner on his final flyer prior to the red flag.

Giacomo Petrobelli and Ryan Hardwick qualified third and fourth for JMW Motorsport and Proton Competition, respectively, while Ian James completed the top five in the No. 27 The Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo.

The session began 35 minutes later than originally planned after a crash in the proceeding Road to Le Mans support races required barrier repairs.

As a result, Thursday’s evening closing Free Practice session, which was due to start at 10 p.m. CEST (4 p.m. EDT) is also expected to be delayed.

RESULTS: Hyperpole