Great Hyperpole for Porsche at the 24h of Le Mans, with an extraordinary Kévin Estre who outwitted the Cadillacs on the last available lap.
The half-hour assault on the lead on the starting grid began 35 minutes late due to an accident during Race 1 of the Road To Le Mans which required the repair of the barriers, so the wait also led to the lowering temperatures, with the fear of rain which however spared everyone.
The show on the track was truly beautiful, with AO by TF taking the lead in the LMP2 Class and Inception Racing taking the LMGT3 line-up, but let’s proceed in order with the story of what happened on the Circuit de la Sarthe.
#2 Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R: Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn, Alex Palou
Photo by: Nikolaz Godet
HYPERCAR: Estre’s push on Cadillacs
The Cadillacs had started very well and seemed to be on the ball until an interruption occurred just over 7′ from the end.
This pushed the Chip Ganassi Racing team to drop Sébastien Bourdais from the V-Series.R #3, who was firmly in the lead at the time with a 0.7″ margin over his pursuers, while Alex Lynn found himself having to try an all-out lap for everything still being behind.
The Briton was the author of an applause-worthy performance, overtaking his teammate by almost 4 hundredths, but a monstrous Estre achieved a great performance, especially in the central sector (also taking advantage of the slipstream of an LMP2), going on to give away the Hyperpole to the #6 Porsche run by Team Penske.
The local idol preceded Lynn by 0″148 and Bourdais by 0″182, who probably regrets not having tried in the final. We remind you that the V-Series.R # 2 will have to drop 5 positions due to the accident in which she was the protagonist at Spa-Francorchamps, so she finds herself in seventh place.
The Ferraris had to settle for the Top5 with Alessandro Pier Guidi setting the 4th time, half a second from the top at the wheel of the 499P #51, while his colleague Antonio Fuoco closed behind him with a gap of almost 1″ having had to abort the last attempt due to an error in turn 1. Obviously the official Reds will move up one position.
Alpine will instead start from fifth after Paul-Loup Chatin finished the test 1″079 behind on the A424 #35.
BMW will be forced to start from the back of the HYPERCAR grid because on the final attempt Laurens Vanthoor made a mistake at ‘Indianapolis’ by going straight with his #15 M Hybrid V8 impacting head-on into the barriers.
The boy from Team WRT had all the timed times taken away having caused the red flag at 7’41”, so he finished sixth, benefiting at least from the penalty to the Cadillac. Jota’s Porsche #12 did not take part in the session as it was of reconstruction after the accident in Free Practice 2 on Wednesday night, so she will be 8th.
#14 AO by TF Oreca 07: Gibson: Pj Hyett, Louis Deletraz, Alex Quinn
Photo by: Marc Fleury
LMP2: Delétraz flies with ‘Spike’
Louis Delétraz, if ever there was a need, demonstrates his enormous talent by giving AO by TF the Hyperpole in the LMP2 Class.
The Swiss rode the little dragon ‘Spike’ to perfection, i.e. the Oreca #14 with which he achieved a time of 3’33″217, conquering not only the lottery record, but also the PRO/AM subcategory.
In fact, Job Van Uitert, second on the Idec Sport #28, was 0″6 behind, while Mathias Beche was third at 0″8 on the Panis Racing #65, second in the PRO/AM.
Third place in this group goes to United Autosports #23 with Ben Hanley, fourth overall ahead of the #22 of his colleague Oliver Jarvis with a clear 1″ on the back.
Malthe Jakobsen finishes sixth driving the Cool Racing #37, with the DKR #33 of Laurents Horr – fourth PRO/AM – and Patrick Pilet with the Vector Sport #10, both over 2″.
#70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo: Brendan Iribe, Ollie Millroy, Frederik Schandorff
Photo by: Marc Fleury
LMGT3: Iribe super after the thrill
Brendan Iribe was able to make amends in a big way after a mistake that could have jeopardized his Hyperpole session in the LMGT3 Class which saw the Bronze riders take action.
A spin committed right at the last chicane forced the Inception Racing standard bearer into overtime, but with a McLaren #70 definitely on the ball he achieved a time of 3’58″120 which allowed him to take first place on the grid.
Everyone else was very far away, starting with the Porsche #92 of the championship leader, Alex Malykhin (Manthey PureRxcing), second with Giacomo Petrobelli behind him in the Ferrari #66 of JMW Motorsport, both at 0.8s.
The second row of the grid will see the presence of the #77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang driven by Ryan Hardwick, who keeps behind the Aston Martins of Ian James (#27 Heart of Racing) and Satoshi Hoshino (#777 D’station Racing).
At the bottom of this ranking with huge delays we finally have Hiroshi Koizumi armed with the #82 Corvette of TF Sport and the #60 Lamborghini of Claudio Schiavoni (Iron Lynx).
Now the drivers will have one last hour of Free Practice to sort out the final things in view of the race on Saturday and Sunday.
#Mans #Porsche #Hyperpole #monstrous #Kévin #Estre
