Fuoco Leads Ferrari Front Row Lockout for 24H Le Mans

Photo: WEC

Antonio Fuoco led a front row lockout for Ferrari AF Corse in Hyperpole for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The Italian driver laid down a benchmark 3:22.982 lap time in his No. 50 Ferrari 499P to edge out teammate Alessandro Pier Guidi by 0.773 seconds in the 30-minute session, which was interrupted by a red flag.

The pair of LMH cars were the dominant force in the session, with Pier Guidi establishing a 3:23.897 lap time in the opening moments prior to a series of improvements from both drivers.

It marked the first non-Toyota pole for the French endurance classic since 2016.

A fire for the No. 3 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Sebastien Bourdais, who had just put the third quickest time of the session, brought out a red flag with 5 minutes and 15 seconds to go and stopped the clock.

The session, however, restarted and saw improvements from third on back.

With Bourdais’ fastest lap removed due to causing a red flag, it initially promoted the No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid of Kamui Kobayashi to third, although the Japanese star dropped to fifth thanks to improvements by both Brendon Hartley and Felipe Nasr on their final laps.

Earl Bamber ended up quickest of the Cadillacs with the No. 2 CGR entry slotting in sixth, ahead of Fred Makowiecki’s Porsche in seventh and Bourdais eighth and last in Hyperpole.

LMP2 pole honors went to the No. 48 IDEC Sport Oreca 07 Gibson of Paul-Loup Chatin, who scored his second Le Mans class pole thanks to a 3:32.923 lap.

Chatin resisted a late charge by Pietro Fittipaldi, who managed to put his No. 28 JOTA Oreca second on the class grid with a time that was just 0.112 seconds slower.

The No. 41 Team WRT Oreca of Louis Deletraz qualified third in class, meanwhile.

Ben Keating claimed a dominant pole in GTE-Am, with the Texan in the No. 33 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R having recorded a 3:52.376 lap to outpace the No. 25 ORT by TF Aston Martin Vantage GTE of Ahmad Al Harthy by a hefty 1.529 seconds.

Keating improved on his initial pace-setting time on the final lap to give the Pratt Miller-run squad top qualifying honors in Corvette Racing’s last Le Mans appearance.

RESULTS: Hyperpole

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