WEC: Kobayashi claims Le Mans Hyperpole for Toyota

Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Kamui Kobayashi driving the No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid Hypercar has taken pole position for this weekend’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, round four of FIA WEC.

It is the fourth time in five years that Kobayashi has taken pole at Le Mans. The outright track record holder sealed pole with a sensational 3m23.900s lap.

Hub Auto Porsche took a surprise pole in LMGTE Pro after the session was red flagged following accident for Kevin Estre’s Porsche 911 RSR – 19 at Indianapolis Corner.

Kobayashi wins pole

Antonio Felix da Costa on top for WEC entry JOTA in LMP2, while No.88 Dempsey Proton Porsche takes pole in the LMGTE Am category.

Below are the main headlines from each category.

Hypercar

  • Kamui Kobayashi sets pole for the 89th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans by setting rapid 3m23.900s lap in the No.7 Toyota GR010-Hybrid Hypercar
  • No.8 Toyota GR010-Hybrid Hypercar takes second best time as Brendon Hartley posts 3m24.195s lap just 0.295s off pole
  • Alpine Elf Matmut with Nicolas Lapierre will start third on grid after 3m25.574s lap effort
  • No. 708 Glickenhaus Racing entry driven by Olivier Pla places fourth with a 3m25.639s lap set by Pla who gets to within 0.065s of Alpine
  • No. 709 Glickenhaus of Roman Dumas will start in fifth place for Glickenhaus Racing’s first Le Mans start
TOYOTA GAZOO Racing – #7 pole winning car

LMGTE Pro

  • Dries Vanthoor stars for Hub Auto Porsche as he takes surprise pole position with sensational lap of 3m46.882
  • Belgian young-gun beats WEC entry No. 52 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE driven by Daniel Serra who sets a lap just 0.171s off polesitter
  • No.63 Corvette places third as Nick Tandy makes it three different manufacturers in top three positions
  • Accident for points leading No.92 Porsche as Kevin Estre endures off at Indianapolis
LMGTE Pro Pole winning Ferrari

LMP2

  • Antonio Felix da Costa takes No.38 JOTA car to LMP2 pole position with a 3m27.950s lap
  • Portuguese ace laps 0.5s quicker than Louis Deletraz in No.41 Team WRT machine
  • Panis Racing’s Will Stevens peaks on a 3m28.586s lap to claim third place start on Saturday afternoon
  • G-Drive with No.26 car qualified by Nyck de Vries starts fourth ahead of United Autosports USA pair as No.32 car just beats No.23 machine

LMGTE Am

  • No.88 Dempsey Proton Racing Porsche’s 3m47.987s set by Julien Andlauer good enough for pole as French ace continues excellent form
  • GR Racing take second as Tom Gamble brings joy to British team with fine 3m48.560s lap
  • Team Project 1 Porsche driven by Matteo Cairoli in third position ahead of No.47 Cetilar Racing Porsche

Results

Pos No. Class Drivers Car Time Gap
1 7 HYPERCAR Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez Toyota GR010 – Hybrid 3m26.279s 0.000s
2 36 HYPERCAR Andre Negrao, Nicolas Lapierre, Matthieu Vaxiviere Alpine A480 3m27.095s 0.816
3 8 HYPERCAR Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima, Brendon Hartley Toyota GR010 – Hybrid 3m27.671s 1.392
4 708 HYPERCAR Pipo Derani, Franck Mailleux, Olivier Pla Glickenhaus 007 LMH 3m28.256s 1.977
5 38 LMP2 Roberto Gonzalez, Antonio Felix da Costa, Anthony Davidson Oreca 07 3m28.807s 2.528
6 26 LMP2 Roman Rusinov, Franco Colapinto, Nyck de Vries Aurus 01 3m29.246s 2.967
7 709 HYPERCAR Ryan Briscoe, Richard Westbrook, Romain Dumas Glickenhaus 007 LMH 3m29.381s 3.102
8 41 LMP2 Robert Kubica, Louis Deletraz, Ye Yifei Oreca 07 3m29.441s 3.162
9 65 LMP2 Julien Canal, Will Stevens, James Allen Oreca 07 3m29.508s 3.229
10 32 LMP2 Nico Jamin, Jonathan Aberdein, Manuel Maldonado Oreca 07 3m29.688s 3.409
11 23 LMP2 Paul di Resta, Alex Lynn, Wayne Boyd Oreca 07 3m29.830s 3.551
12 28 LMP2 Sean Gelael, Stoffel Vandoorne, Tom Blomqvist Oreca 07 3m29.835s 3.556
13 70 LMP2 Esteban Garcia, Loic Duval, Norman Nato Oreca 07 3m29.861 3.582
14 24 LMP2 Patrick Kelly, Gabriel Aubry, Simon Trummer Oreca 07 3m30.123 3.844
15 48 LMP2 Paul Lafargue, Paul-Loup Chatin, Patrick Pilet Oreca 07 3m30.166 3.887
16 31 LMP2 Robin Frijns, Ferdinand Habsburg, Charles Milesi Oreca 07 3m30.182 3.903
17 22 LMP2 Philip Hanson, Fabio Scherer, Filipe Albuquerque Oreca 07 3m30.234 3.955
18 21 LMP2 Henrik Hedman, Ben Hanley, Juan Pablo Montoya Oreca 07 3m30.323 4.044
19 82 LMP2 Ryan Cullen, Oliver Jarvis, Felipe Nasr Oreca 07 3m30.418 4.139
20 30 LMP2 Rene Binder, Guillermo Rojas, Tristan Gommendy Oreca 07 3m30.691 4.412
21 17 LMP2 Dwight Merriman, Thomas Laurent, Ryan Dalziel Oreca 07 3m30.709 4.430
22 29 LMP2 Frits van Eerd, Giedo van der Garde, Job Van Uitert Oreca 07 3m30.843 4.564
23 34 LMP2 Jakub Smiechowski, Renger van der Zande, Alex Brundle Oreca 07 3m30.908 4.629
24 25 LMP2 John Falb, Roberto Merhi, Rui Andrade Aurus 01 3m31.203 4.924
25 49 LMP2 Anders Fjordbach, Jan Magnussen, Kevin Magnussen Oreca 07 3m31.830 5.551
26 20 LMP2 Dennis Andersen, Ricky Taylor, Marco Sorensen Oreca 07 3m32.252 5.973
27 44 LMP2 Miro Konopka, Oliver Webb, Matej Konopka Oreca 07 3m32.446 6.167
28 1 LMP2 Tatiana Calderon, Sophia Flörsch, Beitske Visser Oreca 07 3m32.598 6.319
29 84 INNOVATIVE CAR Takuma Aoki, Nigel Bailly, Matthieu Lahaye Oreca 07 3m33.538 7.259
30 39 LMP2 Vincent Capillaire, Arnold Robin, Maxime Robin Oreca 07 3m34.005 7.726
31 74 LMP2 James Winslow, John Corbett, Tom Cloet Ligier JSP 217 3m36.012 9.733
32 52 LMGTE PRO Daniel Serra, Miguel Molina, Sam Bird Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 3m46.011 19.732
33 51 LMGTE PRO Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, Côme Ledogar Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 3m46.581 20.302
34 92 LMGTE PRO Kevin Estre, Neel Jani, Michael Christensen Porsche 911 RSR 3m46.779 20.500
35 64 LMGTE PRO Tommy Milner, Nick Tandy, Alexander Sims Chevrolet Corvette C8.R 3m47.074 20.795
36 72 LMGTE PRO Dries Vanthoor, Alvaro Parente, Maxime Martin Porsche 911 RSR 3m47.599 21.320
37 91 LMGTE PRO Gianmaria Bruni, Richard Lietz, Frédéric Makowiecki Porsche 911 RSR 3m47.624 21.345
38 79 LMGTE PRO Cooper MacNeil, Earl Bamber, Laurens Vanthoor Porsche 911 RSR 3m47.682 21.403
39 88 LMGTE AM Julien Andlauer, Dominique Bastien, Lance Arnold Porsche 911 RSR 3m48.620 22.341
40 86 LMGTE AM Michael Wainwright, Benjamin Barker, Tom Gamble Porsche 911 RSR 3m49.100 22.821
41 47 LMGTE AM Roberto Lacorte, Giorgio Sernagiotto, Antonio Fuoco Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 3m49.102 22.823
42 71 LMGTE AM Brendan Iribe, Ollie Millroy, Ben Barnicoat Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 3m49.462 23.183
43 56 LMGTE AM Egidio Perfetti, Matteo Cairoli, Riccardo Pera Porsche 911 RSR 3m49.608 23.329
44 63 LMGTE PRO Antonio Garcia, Jordan Taylor, Nick Catsburg Chevrolet Corvette C8.R 3m49.643 23.364
45 33 LMGTE AM Ben Keating, Dylan Pereira, Felipe Fraga Aston Martin Vantage AMR 3m49.663 23.384
46 80 LMGTE AM Matteo Cressoni, Rino Mastronardi, Callum Ilott Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 3m49.693 23.414
47 57 LMGTE AM Takeshi Kimura, Scott Andrews, Mikkel Jensen Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 3m49.715 23.436
48 99 LMGTE AM Harry Tincknell, Vuttikhorn Inthraphuvasak, Florian Latorre Porsche 911 RSR 3m49.788 23.509
49 54 LMGTE AM Thomas Flohr, Giancarlo Fisichella, Francesco Castellacci Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 3m49.829 23.550
50 83 LMGTE AM François Perrodo, Nicklas Nielsen, Alessio Rovera Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 3m49.881 23.602
51 77 LMGTE AM Christian Ried, Jaxon Evans, Matt Campbell Porsche 911 RSR 3m49.913 23.634
52 18 LMGTE AM Andrew Haryanto, Alessio Picariello, Marco Seefried Porsche 911 RSR 3m50.016 23.737
53 388 LMGTE AM Pierre Ehret, Christian Hook, Jeroen Bleekemolen Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 3m50.018 23.739
54 95 LMGTE AM John Hartshorne, Ollie Hancock, Ross Gunn Aston Martin Vantage AMR 3m50.059 23.780
55 98 LMGTE AM Paul Dalla Lana, Nicki Thiim, Marcos Gomes Aston Martin Vantage AMR 3m50.156 23.877
56 85 LMGTE AM Rahel Frey, Sarah Bovy, Michelle Gatting Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 3m50.314 24.035
57 60 LMGTE AM Claudio Schiavoni, Paolo Ruberti, Raffaele Giammaria Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 3m50.768 24.489
58 777 LMGTE AM Satoshi Hoshino, Tomonobu Fujii, Andrew Watson Aston Martin Vantage AMR 3m51.107 24.828
59 46 LMGTE AM Dennis Olsen, Anders Buchardt, Robert Foley Porsche 911 RSR 3m51.411 25.132
60 55 LMGTE AM Duncan Cameron, David Perel, Matthew Griffin Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 3m52.088 25.809
61 66 LMGTE AM Thomas Neubauer, Rodrigo Sales, Jody Fannin Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 3m52.304 26.025
62 69 LMGTE AM Robert Renauer, Ralf Bohn, Rolf Ineichen Porsche 911 RSR 3m52.960 26.681