CADILLAC SCORES MAIDEN LE MANS POLE

Text & Images: Rick Kiewiet

For the first time in nearly six decades, an American manufacturer will start from pole position at the 24 Hours of Le Mans—and this time, it's Cadillac. In a landmark result for the General Motors brand, the #12 and #38 V-Series.Rs locked out the front row in Thursday’s Hyperpole shootout, with Alex Lynn putting in a late flyer to seal a maiden Le Mans pole for Cadillac.

Lynn’s 3:23.166 lap came right at the end of the final Hyperpole segment and proved just enough to edge teammate Earl Bamber by 0.167 seconds. It was a statement performance not only from the #12 Hertz Team JOTA crew, but also from Cadillac as a whole, with both customer-entered cars outpacing the full-factory efforts from Porsche, Toyota and Ferrari.

Porsche Penske Motorsport salvaged third place thanks to a strong lap from Mathieu Jaminet in the #5 963, ahead of Dries Vanthoor’s #15 WRT BMW. The #4 Penske Porsche and #20 WRT BMW filled out the third row, ensuring a top-six sweep for LMDh machinery.

Ferrari’s Hyperpole ambitions faltered early. 2023 winner Alessandro Pier Guidi missed the cut in Hyperpole 1 by just over a tenth, while Yifei Ye’s #83 AF Corse entry failed to advance. Antonio Fuoco was the lone Ferrari in the final session, placing the #50 499P seventh. Alpine’s #36 entry took eighth, while Felipe Drugovich placed ninth in the #311 Whelen Cadillac—fastest of all in Hyperpole 1 thanks to Jack Aitken’s stunning 3:22.742.

Toyota’s challenge ended with Sebastien Buemi locking up into Mulsanne and picking up a puncture, leaving the #8 GR010 HYBRID without a representative time in Hyperpole 2.

Elsewhere, there was no drama in the final session—just a relentless escalation in pace as the top ten Hypercars traded fast laps. But the big picture remained: Ferrari off the pace, Cadillac in command, and an American front row.

LMP2 & LMGT3: Pole battles to the final seconds

The LMP2 pole went to Mathias Beche, who delivered an inch-perfect 3:35.062 in the #29 TDS Racing car. He narrowly beat Tom Dillmann’s #43 Inter Europol machine, with Louis Deletraz placing third for AO by TF. United Autosports secured fourth and fifth with Ben Hanley and Pietro Fittipaldi, while CLX Pure Rxcing, AF Corse and RLR MSport rounded out the top eight.

Mattia Drudi claimed pole in LMGT3 with a new category lap record: a 3:52.789 in the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin. He fended off Alessio Rovera’s strong run in the #21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari, while Valentino Rossi backed up WRT’s pace from Hyperpole 1 by qualifying third in the #46 BMW. Maxime Martin’s #61 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG followed, ahead of entries from Manthey, TF Sport, United Autosports and Akkodis ASP.

The session also featured one of the stories of the evening: Sean Gelael, who appeared stranded on the Mulsanne Straight late in Hyperpole 1, miraculously restarted the #95 United Autosports McLaren and put in a last-gasp lap to knock the #193 Ferrari out of the top eight and earn a place in Hyperpole 2.