Ferrari Quickest in Qualifying as Hyperpole Places Set

Ferrari AF Corse topped the 24 Hours of Le Mans qualifying practice session as the candidates for Thursday evening’s Hyperpole shootout were determined.

Antonio Fuoco set the fastest lap time of 3:25.213 in the No. 50 Ferrari 499P, moments after Alessandro Pier Guidi put the Italian manufacturer’s No. 51 machine on top.

Both Ferraris, as well as both Toyota GR010 Hybrids, two Porsche 963s and the two Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.Rs made it through to Hyperpole, which determines the top four rows on the grid for this weekend’s 91st edition of the French enduro.

Both Peugeot 9X8s, the Action Express Racing Cadillac, both Glickenhaus 007 Pipos and Floyd Vanwall Racing Team missed out.

The No. 6 Porsche from the Penske factory team and the customer 963 from Hertz Team JOTA, which is understood to have encountered a hybrid system issue, also failed to make the cut.

Qualifying practice leader Fuoco was initially in the danger zone but secured his No. 50 Ferrari’s place in Hyperpole with a 3:25.421 that came around 40 minutes into the one-hour session.

Fuoco’s improvement sent the No. 6 Porsche into the relegation positions and it stayed there until the end, although the German marque still had two of its cars go through.

The Toyota GR010 Hybrids finished third and fourth in qualifying practice, with the No. 5 Porsche completing the top five ahead of the Ganassi Cadillacs and the No. 75 Porsche.

In LMP2, Pietro Fittipaldi set the pace behind the wheel of the No. 28 JOTA Oreca 07 Gibson, beating Team WRT’s Louis Deletraz and Prema Racing’s Mirko Bortolotti to the top spot.

Only one of the two WRT Orecas made it through to Hyperpole, as the Belgian team’s No. 31 car only qualified 16th in the hands of Robin Frijns.

Another notable shootout absentee was United Autosports, which saw neither of its Orecas advance to the next stage of qualifying.

Both cars from Prema Racing made it, as did IDEC Sport, Vector Sport, Cool Racing’s No. 37 entry and Pro-Am competitor Racing Team Turkey.

Alessio Rovera left it late to set the quickest time in GTE-Am for Ferrari squad Richard Mille AF Corse.

The Italian steered the No. 83 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo to a time of 3:51.877 to edge ahead of fellow AF Corse driver Davide Rigon, while Nicky Catsburg was third in the No. 33 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R.

The Corvette was repaired in time for qualifying after an accident during Wednesday afternoon’s Free Practice session, with Catsburg only taking to the track after around 35 minutes of running.

Corvette was aided by two 10-minute red flag periods during the early stages of qualifying, during which the session clock was stopped.

The first was called to retrieve the No. 36 Alpine Elf Team Oreca from the Ford Chicane gravel after Matthieu Vaxiviere and United Autosports driver Filipe Albuquerque had contact.

The second came after Cool Racing LMP2 driver Malthe Jakobsen nosed into the tire barriers at Indianapolis.

Other incidents included separate spins at the Dunlop Chicane for the Porsche 911 RSR-19s of Jonas Ried and Michelle Gatting.

The other GTE-Am pole position contenders will be the Aston Martin Vantage GTEs from ORT by TF and GMB Motorsport, as well as both Kessel Racing Ferraris and the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari.

Mike Rockenfeller beat all of the GTE-Am entries in the modified NASCAR Next Gen Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 with a time of 3:47.976.

RESULTS: Qualifying Practice