Estre puts Porsche on Le Mans pole
A late push has helped Kevin Estre put the #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 on pole for the 2024 Le Mans 24 Hours.
Estre saved his best until the death, being the last Hypercar driver to take the chequered flag, clocking a 3:24.634s time.
This was enough to disrupt what was an all Cadillac front row of Alex Lynn and Sebastien Bourdais.
The Porsche emerged 0.148s clear of Lynn and 0.182s ahead of Bourdais.
The two Ferraris completed the top five just over half a second adrift with Alessandro Pier Guidi being Antonio Fuoco.
The big victim of the Hypercar Pole session was the fast BMW of Dries Vanthoor.
After taking provisional pole in Wednesday qualifying, Vanthoor crashed back down to earth with a heavy hit into the barriers on approach to Indianapolis and bringing out the red flag.
At this point Bourdais had dominated the session and with just under eight minutes left on the clock, he stayed in the pits for the remainder of the session with expectation no one would be able to topple his 3:24.634.
But when the session resumed both Estre and Lynn went faster to share the front row in a tense fight for pole that was not decided until the final seconds.
The Spa winning Jota Porsche did not take part in the pole shootout due to an ongoing rebuild after Callum Ilott damaged the chassis on Wednesday night.
Louis Deletraz took LMP2 pole honours with a 3:33.217 in the #14 AO by TF ORECA-Gibson 07 that is entered in Pro-Am.
He was six tenths clear of Job van Uitert and Mathias Beche.
Brendon Iribe had an eventful journey to LMGT3 pole for Inception Racing.
Iribe appeared to have thrown it away by spinning at the final chicane and ruining a quick lap.
However, he bounced back to post a 3:58.120, which was eight tenths clear of Aliaksandr Malykhin.
With Free Practice 4 also taking place this morning where Toyota’s Brendan Hartley snuck past the Fuoco Ferrari by 0.076s, only the Saturday warm up remains before the 92nd Le Mans 24 Hours begins at midnight June 16 AEST.
2024 Le Mans 24 Hours grid
1 #6 PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT (K. Estre, A. Lotterer, L. Vanthoor) 3:24.634
2 #2 CADILLAC RACING (E. Bamber, A. Lynn, A. Palou) 3:24.782
3 #3 CADILLAC RACING (S. Bourdais, R. van der Zande, S. Dixon) 3:24.816
4 #51 FERRARI AF CORSE (A. Pier Guidi, J. Calado, A. Giovinazzi) 3:25.156
5 #50 FERRARI AF CORSE (A. Fuoco, M. Molina, N. Nielsen) 3:25.598
6 #35 ALPINE ENDURANCE TEAM (P. Chatin, F. Habsburg, C. Milesi) 3:25.713
7 #15 BMW M TEAM WRT (D. Vanthoor, R. Marciello, M. Wittmann) 3:24.465 (NO TIME, HYPERPOLE)
8 #12 HERTZ TEAM JOTA (W. Stevens, N. Nato, C. Ilott) 3:25.145 (NO TIME, HYPERPOLE)
9 #36 ALPINE ENDURANCE TEAM (N. Lapierre, M. Schumacher, M. Vaxiviere) 3:25.278
10 #5 PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT (M. Campbell, M. Christensen, F. Makowiecki) 3:25.307
11 #8 TOYOTA RACING (S. Buemi, B. Hartley, R. Hirakawa) 3:25.446
12 #83 AF CORSE (R. Kubica, R. Shwartzman, Y. Yifei) 3:25.766
13 #63 LAMBORGHINI IRON LYNX (M. Bortolotti, D. Kvyat, E. Mortara) 3:25.973
14 #99 PROTON COMPETITION (N. Jani, H. Tincknell, J. Andlauer) 3:25.992
15 #93 PEUGEOT TOTALENERGIES (J. Vergne, M. Jensen, N. Müller) 3:26.195
16 #20 BMW M TEAM WRT (S. Van der Linde, R. Frijns, R. Rast) 3:26.223
17 #38 HERTZ TEAM JOTA (O. Rasmussen, P. Hanson, J. Button) 3:26.290
18 #311 WHELEN CADILLAC RACING (P. Derani, J. Aitken, F. Drugovich) 3:26.311
19 #4 PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT (M. Jaminet, F. Nasr, N. Tandy) 3:26.362
20 #94 PEUGEOT TOTALENERGIES (S. Vandoorne, P. di Resta, L. Duval) 3:27.251
21 #19 LAMBORGHINI IRON LYNX (R. Grosjean, A. Caldarelli, M. Cairoli) 3:27.655
22 #11 ISOTTA FRASCHINI (C. Bennett, J. Vernay, A. Serravalle) 3:29.865
23 #7 TOYOTA RACING (J. Lopez, K. Kobayashi, N. de Vries) NO TIME
24 #14 AO BY TF (P. Hyett, L. Deletraz, A. Quinn) 3:33.217
25 #28 IDEC SPORT (P. Lafargue, J. Van Uitert, R. de Gerus) 3:33.827
26 #65 PANIS RACING (R. Sales, M. Beche, S. Huffaker) 3:34.053
27 #23 UNITED AUTOSPORTS USA (B. Keating, F. Albuquerque, B. Hanley) 3:34.221
28 #22 UNITED AUTOSPORTS (O. Jarvis, B. Garg, N. Siegel) 3:34.270
29 #37 COOL RACING (L. Fluxá, M. Jakobsen, R. Miyata) 3:34.773
30 #33 DKR ENGINEERING (A. Mattschull, R. Binder, L. Hörr) 3:34.330
31 #10 VECTOR SPORT (R. Cullen, P. Pilet, S. Richelmi) 3:34.262
32 #183 AF CORSE (F. Perrodo, B. Barnicoat, N. Varrone) 3:34.767
33 #24 NIELSEN RACING (F. Scherer, D. Heinemeier Hansson, K. Simpson) 3:34.794
34 #34 INTER EUROPOL COMPETITION (J. Smiechowski, V. Lomko, C. Novalak) 3:34.885
35 #9 PROTON COMPETITION (J. Ried, M. Capietto, B. Viscaal) 3:34.963
36 #30 DUQUEINE TEAM (J. Falb, J. Allen, J. Simmenauer) 3:35.070
37 #47 COOL RACING (N. Rao, M. Bell, F. Vesti) 3:35.360
38 #25 ALGARVE PRO RACING TEAM (M. Kaiser, O. Caldwell, R. De Angelis) 3:35.474
39 #45 CROWDSTRIKE RACING BY APR (G. Kurtz, C. Braun, N. Catsburg) 3:39.222
40 #70 INCEPTION RACING (B. Iribe, O. Millroy, F. Schandorff) 3:58.120
41 #92 MANTHEY PURERXCING (A. Malykhin, J. Sturm, K. Bachler) 3:58.928
42 #66 JMW MOTORSPORT (G. Petrobelli, L. ten Voorde, S. Yoluc) 3:58.938
43 #77 PROTON COMPETITION (R. Hardwick, Z. Robichon, B. Barker) 3:59.443
44 #27 HEART OF RACING TEAM (I. James, D. Mancinelli, A. Riberas 3:59.655
45 #777 D’STATION RACING (S. Hoshino, E. Bastard, M. Sorensen) 4:02.787
46 #82 TF SPORT (H. Koizumi, S. Baud, D. Juncadella) 4:03.681
47 #60 IRON LYNX (C. Schiavoni, M. Cressoni, F. Perera) 4:06.495
48 #85 IRON DAMES (S. Bovy, M. Gatting, R. Frey) 3:56.530
49 #87 AKKODIS ASP TEAM LMGT3 (T. Kimura, E. Masson, J. Hawksworth) 3:56.561
50 #59 UNITED AUTOSPORTS (J. Cottingham, N. Costa, G. Saucy) 3:56.710
51 #46 TEAM WRT (A. Al Harthy, V. Rossi, M. Martin) 3:56.738
52 #54 VISTA AF CORSE (T. Flohr, F. Castellacci, D. Rigon) 3:56.780
53 #44 PROTON COMPETITION (J. Hartshorne, B. Tuck, C. Mies) 3:56.836
54 #31 TEAM WRT (D. Leung, S. Gelael, A. Farfus) 3:56.947
55 #91 MANTHEY EMA (Y. Shahin, M. Schuring, R. Lietz) 3:57.026
56 #88 PROTON COMPETITION (G. Roda, M. Pedersen, D. Olsen) 3:57.221
57 #81 TF SPORT (T. Van Rompuy, R. Andrade, C. Eastwood) 3:57.296
58 #95 UNITED AUTOSPORTS (H. Hamaguchi, N. Pino, M. Sato) 3:57.313
59 #155 SPIRIT OF RACE (J. Laursen, C. Laursen, J. Taylor) 3:57.349
60 #78 AKKODIS ASP TEAM (A. Robin, T. Boguslavskiy, K. van der Linde) 3:57.441
61 #55 VISTA AF CORSE (F. Heriau, S. Mann, A. Rovera) 3:58.282
62 #86 GR RACING (M. Wainwright, D. Serra, R. Pera) NO TIME
Photo by JEP / LAT Images
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