Lynn “waited 12 months” for Le Mans 24 Hours pole after missing out in 2024

Cadillac driver Alex Lynn has heralded his pole position for this weekend’s Le Mans 24 Hours as extra special after being narrowly beaten into second 12 months ago.

Lynn, who headed a Jota Caddy 1-2 on the completion of the new Le Mans qualifying format, revealed that his thoughts were drawn back to last year when he held the pole as the chequered flag fell only for Porsche driver Kevin Estre to snatch it from his grasp by just over a tenth.

“Pole at Le Mans is special no matter, but I have to say personally I’ve waited 12 months to do this again,” said the Briton, who last year was racing in the World Endurance Championship for the Ganassi team prior to Jota taking over the factory Cadillac programme.

“P2 last year was one tenth off the pole, but it felt like 100 miles away: there is a big difference between P1 and P2 in the feeling.

“I was remembering last year when I thought I had it and 30s later Kevin Estre comes over the line.”

Lynn, who became the first Briton to take outright pole for Le Mans since Johnny Herbert in 2004, described the period until the other cars on hot laps in the 15-minute Hyperpole 2 session had crossed the line as a “hard wait”.

Jota team-mate Earl Bamber did improve his time, ending up just over a tenth behind Lynn to make it a Caddy 1-2.

Lynn claimed the pole on his third lap on a set of Michelin medium-compound. He was third after his first lap before jumping to second behind Porsche driver Mathieu Jaminet next time around.

But Lynn, who shares the #12 Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh with Will Stevens and Norman Nato, revealed that he lost time at Indianapolis Corner and had to make a series of car adjustments on his pole lap as a result.

“We went very aggressive on diff settings and it wasn’t quite the way to go, so on the next lap I was frantically adjusting everything on the fly,” he explained. “It was a hard-work lap, shall we say.”

Lynn stopped the clock at 3m23.166s, which compared with Bamber’s 3m23.333s and Jaminet’s 3m23.475s.

Jota co-owner David Clark described the 1-2 qualifying result as a “dream”.

“I can’t say enough about how hard everyone has worked; that’s the whole team not just the drivers,” he said. “If it is like this at four o’clock on Sunday, bring it on!”