Two-Stage Knockout Format Added to Le Mans Hyperpole

Photo: Charly Lopez/DPPI

The Hyperpole format for next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans has been revised, with more cars advancing to the final sessions and a two-stage knockout format having been introduced in an effort to offer an “even more spectacular” qualifying experience.

Confirmed by the ACO on Thursday in the release of it week-long schedule for the 93rd edition of the French endurance classic, the 15 quickest Hypercars and 12 quickest LMP2 and LMGT3 entries will now advance to the first Hyperpole session on Thurs., June 12.

Previously, only the top eight in each class took part in Hyperpole, which had been a single session.

Qualifying will now be split between a 30-minute track session for LMP2 and LMGT3 machinery and a dedicated session for the Hypercar class.

That trend will continue into Hyperpole for the first time as well, with Hypercars given a 20-minute H1 session that will then take the top ten cars into a final 15-minute H2 heat to determine the pole-sitter and sharp end of the grid.

The 24 LMP2 and LMGT3 cars will take part in their own H1 session, with the top eight cars in each class advancing to H2.

The format change is understood to be in place for Le Mans only, with regular season FIA World Endurance Championship races set to utilize the same Hyperpole format as seen this year.

Entry requests for next year’s race opened on Thursday.

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