WEC: Estre puts #6 Porsche on pole for the 24 Hours of Le Mans

It only took one sandbagging Penske Porsche to defeat all others and win the pole position for the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance classic.

Frenchman Kevin Estre sandbagged until the end before putting up a time of 3m24.634s to secure pole position.

The Frenchman finished ahead of Alex Lynn driven No.2 Cadillac Racing entry by just 0.148s after Lynn had himself just beaten the sister No.3 Cadillac of Sebastien Bourdais which looked to have been the pole lap before Estre blasted over the line.

”What a night,” said Lynn. “o close to pole, but I’m proud of the lap and I’m proud of the job everyone’s done. Two fantastic Cadillac cars. It’s a great night for Cadillac racing and yeah, only 24 hours to go now.”

Bourdais had previously looked to have taken pole after setting an initial fastest lap of 3m24.816s in the yellow Caddy.

”A really good day for Chip Ganassi Racing and for Cadillac. It’s not pole, but second and third — especially us with only one attempt — is a really solid run. We had a big advantage on the first one and we came up just a tiny bit short. But yeah, proud of the whole group and Cadillac. We’ll go racing from there. Obviously all of this is for show, nothing that’s going to make a difference come Sunday so all the hard work is ahead.”

The local ace beat his own early benchmark of 3m25.294s to head the two Ferrari AF Corse 499 Hypercars but had to sit out the final seven minutes after a red flag was waved when Dries Vanthoor spun his BMW M Hybrid V8.

Alessandro Pier Guidi in the No.51 Ferrari 499P Hypercar took fourth place to ensure that the Prancing Horse is in good position to defend its Le Mans crown this weekend.

The sister No.50 Ferrari 499P of Antonio Fuoco places fifth meaning that Fuoco loses out on back-to-back poles after being unable to challenge on an out and push last gasp challenge

No.35 Alpine A424 driven by Paul-Loup Chatin rounds out top six after a fine effort in the new Alpine A424 Hypercar.

LMGT3

Brendan Iribe in the Inception Racing McLaren LMGT3 takes the first ever pole position for McLaren at Le Mans and the first in the LMGT3 category.

Iribe sets a best of 3m58.120s to beat his pursuers by 0.8s but spins at final corner while on potential faster lap.

Those challengers are led by the No.92 Manthey PureRxcing Porsche 911 RSR driven by Alex Malykhin.

JMW Automotive Ferrari driven by Giacomo Petrobelli grabs third place for the ELMS regular entry and former Le Mans class winner.

Ryan Hardwick driven No.77 Proton Ford Mustang places fourth ahead of Ian James Heart in the Heart of Racing Aston Martin making it five different manufacturers in the first five positions.

LMP2

Louis Deletraz in the AO by TF Sport ‘Spike’ Oreca Gibson takes thrilling last gasp pole in LMP2 with a bets lap of 3m33.217s.

That laps is 0.6s faster than the IDEC Sport Oreca-Gibson driven by Job van Uitert.

Third is the Panis Racing entry qualified by Matthias Beche, while the No.23 United Autosports in hands of Ben Hanley also starts on the second row of the grid in fourth.

Hyperpole Qualifying Results