LeMans24, Estre: “The pole with Porsche was an indescribable sensation”

The pole in the finale

That the Porsche Penske 963 had demonstrated a particularly worrying pace for the competition on the Circuit de la Sarthe, it was already clear on Test Day, during which Kevin Estre had set a lower time than that set by the Ferrari 499P in last year’s Hyperpole. Confirmations of the Stuttgart car’s excellent form arrived promptly in the fight for pole position this edition, and once again with the French driver.

In the final stages of the session, the Frenchman drove the #6 ahead of everyone (denying Cadillac’s dream of pole), the first significant step towards achieving the goal of victory that Porsche has been missing since 2017: “It’s an indescribable feeling to be on pole at Le Mans – explained Estre, already winner in 2018 – the team put an exceptional car on track for me. Things got really stressful at the end. There was barely enough time left for two flying laps and the car was almost out of fuel. But it was a lot of fun to drive the Porsche 963 with the tires in the ideal operating window. I simply stepped on the accelerator and went around. I am very proud of the pole and the incredible work done by the whole team over the last few months. Now, we will be able to start the most important race in the world from first position!”.

Porsche Penske at the top not only at Le Mans

A performance that allows Porsche Penske not only to recover after the disappointment in qualifying, with only car #6 managing to access the Hyperpole, but also to obtain another pole position after the others already achieved in various prestigious competitions: “After Wednesday’s disappointment, when only one car made it into the top 8, today’s result was the perfect follow-up – he has declared Jonathan Diuguid, General Manager of Porsche Penske Motorsport – this also makes us the first to get the pole positions at the Daytona 500, Indy 500 and Le Mans in the same year. It’s an amazing achievement! Now we are determined to turn pole position into victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.”

Race against time

While all the teams will remain still waiting for Saturday’s race, only one team will continue its activity on Friday, and curiously not on the track. It’s about the Jota #12which will carry out a thirty-minute shakedown at the airport: “Our car was seriously damaged in an accident in the second practice session on Wednesday evening, so much so that we had to change the frame – has explained Dieter Gass, Team Principal of Hertz Team Jota – the repairs did not allow us to participate in the Hyperpole session. Now we are systematically preparing the car for the race“.

Also good in LMGT3

Finally, great satisfaction also in the LMGT3 class, with the customer team Manthey PureRxcing who will start from the front row thanks to the performance of Alex Maykhin: “The car felt great in the Hyperpole. It was a real pleasure to drive the Porsche 911 GT3 R – commented the driver of car #92 – our team did a top notch job. In the first test sessions we were still a little dissatisfied, but we made a very important step. Now let’s start from the front row of the LMGT3 class. This allows us to avoid the crazy rush of cars in the midfield at the start of the race.”