LE MANS — By 0.167 seconds around the 8.467-mile Circuit de la Sarthe, Alex Lynn beat teammate Earl Bamber to pole for the 93rd running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Driving the No. 12 JOTA Cadillac, Lynn set a best time of 3 minutes, 23.166 seconds in the Hyperpole 2 session that showcased the top 10 Hypercar class runners.
Bamber’s best lap was 3 minutes, 23.333 seconds in the No. 38 JOTA Cadillac. He shifts over from his IMSA team, Cadillac Whelen, to JOTA this race. Jack Aitken, Bamber’s IMSA teammate in the No. 311 Cadillac Whelen entry, set the fastest qualifying time in Hyperpole 1 (3 minutes, 22.742 seconds) which determined the 10 cars that advanced to the final qualifying shootout.
Lynn will share his No. 12 JOTA Cadillac with Will Stevens and Norman Nato, while Bamber will share his No. 38 JOTA Cadillac with another IMSA full-timer, Sebastien Bourdais, and 2009 Formula 1 World Champion Jenson Button.
“I think every time you have the opportunity to drive this kind of car around Le Mans on low fuel and new tires is an honor,” Lynn said. “Truly honored to be able to put in a performance and deliver this for Cadillac how they deserve, in the first position. It’s such a magical circuit, a place I love to perform my best. Now just 24 hours left, what else? We’ll enjoy this tonight and reset.”
The pole is the first for Cadillac at Le Mans, coming 75 years after its first Le Mans appearance in 1950 with a pair of Cadillac Coupe DeVille Series 61s, one mostly stock and another modified with a low-profile aluminum body nicknamed “Le Monstre.”
Porsche Penske Motorsport placed well within the Hyperpole 2 session. IMSA regular Mathieu Jaminet qualified the No. 5 Porsche 963 he shares with Michael Christensen and Julien Andlauer in third. In pursuit of the unprecedented single-season endurance “Triple Crown,” Nick Tandy and Felipe Nasr will roll off fifth in the No. 4 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 they share with Pascal Wehrlein.
They sandwiched four-time 2025 IMSA Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) polesitter Dries Vanthoor in his No. 15 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 in fourth; the younger Vanthoor brother shares his car with Kevin Magnussen and Raffaele Marciello.
Aitken’s co-driver Felipe Drugovich qualified the No. 311 Cadillac Whelen entry in eighth. Both that car and the sister No. 101 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing entry, which qualified 14th for its Le Mans debut, will feature a special decal at Le Mans supporting the Michael J. Fox Foundation in the race to a cure for Parkinson’s disease.
Pre-race favorites Ferrari and Toyota struggled in qualifying, with the best Ferrari in sixth and the best Toyota in 10th. Ferrari seeks its third straight overall Le Mans win while Toyota, which won five Le Mans consecutively from 2018 to 2022, seeks to add its sixth.
Aston Martin THOR Team got one of its new Valkyrie cars into Hyperpole 1, the No. 009 Valkyrie, albeit at the expense of the No. 6 Porsche 963 which was disqualified after Wednesday’s qualifying session for being underweight. That sends the trio of Laurens Vanthoor, Kevin Estre and Matt Campbell to the back of the 21-car Hypercar grid.
Le Mans Prototype 2
A bevy of IMSA prototype regulars are atop the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) grid. Mathias Beche’s lap of 3 minutes, 35.062 seconds in his No. 29 TDS Racing ORECA 07 Gibson topped the charts, nearly three tenths ahead of 2024 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship LMP2 champion Tom Dillmann in the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA.
Beche competes full-time in IMSA with PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports with Rodrigo Sales; Sales and Clement Novalak share the No. 29 TDS ORECA at Le Mans. Dillmann races with Inter Europol in both series and he’ll share the No. 43 ORECA at Le Mans with Nick Yelloly, an IMSA GTP full-timer with Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb-Agajanian, and Jakub Smiechowski.
“It’s so much emotion tonight. The team did an incredible job to give me that car,” Beche said. “It’s a great team effort. Big thanks to TD and Panis Racing. I couldn’t start in the best way because of a little bit of traffic. I had a feeling today was my day. I felt one with the car. It’s such an honor to be in this car in qualifying. It’s just the flow, and you have to do it.”
The AO by TF No. 199 ORECA of Louis Deletraz is third on the grid. Deletraz races for Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing’s GTP program in IMSA but at Le Mans, he shares “Spike” the Dragon with AO Racing’s IMSA full-timers PJ Hyett and Dane Cameron. United Autosports’ No. 23 and No. 22 cars completed the top five, with IMSA full-timers Renger van der Zande and Pietro Fittipaldi sharing the No. 22 ORECA with David Heinemeier Hansson.
LMGT3
Heart of Racing Team’s FIA World Endurance Championship-entered car nabbed the pole position in Le Mans GT3 (LMGT3), courtesy of a barnstorming lap from Mattia Drudi at 3 minutes, 52.789 seconds. Drudi shares the No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3 with Heart of Racing Team team principal Ian James and team regular Zacharie Robichon.
“It’s really difficult to have a super clean lap like we did in Hyperpole,” Drudi said. “The car is super nice since Sunday in the prologue. The qualifying is not the most important thing, but it’s so nice to be on the pole in Le Mans. It’s my first Le Mans as well, so it’s a decent way to start! The team is doing a mega job. We’ll focus for the race.”
Jack Hawksworth was the other IMSA GT regular competing in the Hyperpole 2 (final) session in LMGT3 and qualified the No. 78 Akkodis ASP Racing Lexus RC F LMGT3 in eighth. The Englishman substitutes for Ben Barnicoat this race as he recovers from injuries.
