BMW has taken pole position for the 2026 Le Mans 24 Hours with Dries Vanthoor after Cadillac’s effort, quicker by five-thousandths of a second, was rendered null and void by the stewards.
Hypercar
In Hyperpole 1, Earl Bamber’s early 3m23.722s effort in the #38 Cadillac led the way halfway through, as Genesis held second place with Mathieu Jaminet in the #19 car, in 3m23.965s. The Aston Martins were struggling at the bottom of the classification, with Ross Gunn’s #007 entry 1.2s off the pace, while Marco Sorensen’s #009 car was 1.9s down on the leader. The #20 BMW, the #51 Ferrari and the #12 Cadillac – which had set the fastest opening sector – were also at risk of elimination.
There were improvements aplenty in the final minutes of the session, with Sheldon van der Linde taking a comfortable lead in the #20 BMW, half a second faster than the reference. However, he was narrowly – but swiftly – outpaced by Bamber’s new marker in 3m23.187s… and the #17 Genesis with Mathys Jaubert in 3m23.126s.
Cadillac’s New Zealander might have had the last word in 3m23.091s, but Alpine’s Charles Milesi surged ahead in the #35 entry, setting a 3m23.018s. Less than three tenths covered the top seven cars.
The Toyotas ended up at the bottom of the timesheet, with Kamui Kobayashi (#7) and Ryo Hirakawa (#8) respectively 1.25s and 1.56s down on Milesi. The sister #36 Alpine (Jules Gounon), the #50 Ferrari (Antonio Fuoco) and the #007 Aston Marin also failed to make the cut for Hypercar 2, with only the top 10 cars qualified.
#35 Alpine Endurance Team Alpine A424: Antonio Felix Da Costa, Charles Milesi, Ferdinand Habsburg
Photo by: JEP
Dries Vanthoor set the early pace in Hyperpole 2. The #15 BMW achieved the first sub-3m23s lap of the week, a 3m22.745s. Robin Frijns made it a provisional BMW 1-2 with the #20 entry, albeit 1.2s off. With five minutes remaining, nobody else lapped within two seconds of the Belgian.
Vanthoor actually doubled down with a 3m22.564s, but Aitken achieved an excellent final sector to snatch pole position away by just 0.005s in the #38 Jota Cadillac – until his eventual penalty.
Will Stevens was second with a 3m23.078s in the #12 Cadillac, followed by the #35 Alpine (Antonio Felix da Costa), the #20 BMW (Frijns), the #101 WTR Cadillac (Filipe Albuquerque) and the #19 Genesis (Paul-Loup Chatin), the latter three within 0.06s.
Aston Martin and Ferrari were well off the pace with Roman de Angelis and James Calado respectively, though the #17 Genesis propped up the initial order with Andre Lotterer.
Panis grabs LMP2 pole
#29 Forestier Racing by Panis Oreca 07 Gibson: Louis Rousset, Esteban Masson, Oliver Gray
Photo by: Emanuele Clivati | AG Photo
Toyota youngster Esteban Masson put the #29 Forestier Racing by Panis Oreca 07 on pole position in the LMP2 class.
The Canadian-Frenchman set two laps that were good enough for the top spot, eventually ending up 0.387s clear of Job van Uitert in the #28 IDEC Sport Oreca.
Van Uitert led the early part of the 15-minute Hyperpole 2 session but gradually dropped down the order, before locking a spot on the LMP2 front row with a last-gasp effort of 3m33.242s.
The Dutchman’s time left former Formula 1 driver Jack Doohan in third place ahead of his debut appearance at Le Mans.
Nick Yelloly qualified last year’s class-winning #43 Inter Europol car in fourth, ahead of Alex Quinn’s CrowdStrike by APR entry.
Porsche GTP drivers Julien Andlauer and Kevin Estre ended up sixth and seventh for Duqueine and TDS Racing respectively, while the top 10 was completed by Matthieu Vaxiviere (AF Corse) and Reshad de Gerus (#343 InterEuropol)
Neither of the United Autosports cars made it to Hyperpole 2, joining the #26 Vector Sport, the #37 CLX Motorsport and the #9 Proton entries in the elimination zone.
CLX Motorsport had been second-fastest in the opening qualifying on Wednesday, but Michael Jensen could never quite recover from a spin early in the session, ending up 14th on the grid.
Aston claims top spot in LMGT3
#27 Heart Of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3: Ian James, Zacharie Robichon, Mattia Drudi
Photo by: Rainier Ehrhardt
Heart of Racing dominated qualifying for the LMGT3 category, with factory Aston Martin driver Mattia Drudi claiming pole position by almost a full second.
After his first flyer was deleted due to a track limits infringement, Drudi managed another blistering time of 3m52.433s to put the #27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 at the front of the LMGT3 grid. That was despite his second time being fractionally slower than his previous effort that was cancelled.
Alessio Rovera qualified a strong second in the #21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3, beating the two ASP Lexus RC F GT3s of Jose Maria Lopez and Jack Hakwsworth.
The two WRT BMW M4 GT3s ended up fifth and sixth, Sean Gelael edging out the sister car of Parker Thompson.
Dennis Marschall was seventh in the Kessel Ferrari, while eighth place went to Jonny Adam in the #23 Heart of Racing Aston.
Timur Boguslaskiy was ninth-fastest in the #91 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R, while Ben Tuck was 10th in the #77 Proton Ford.
Former Williams F1 driver Logan Sargeant missed the cut for Hyperpole 2 by just half a tenth, leaving the #88 Proton Ford Mustang GT3 11th on the grid.
Neither of the two Iron Lynx Mercedes AMG GT3s progressed to the pole shootout either, qualifying 12th and 13th respectively, while a spin for Francesco Castellacci contributed to the #54 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 ending up 14th place.
However, the most notable absentee from Hyperpole 2 was the championship-leading #92 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3, which ended up 15th and slowest with Riccardo Pera at the wheel.
Hypercar – Hyperpole 2 results
Hypercar – Hyperpole 1 results
LMP2/GT3 – Hyperpole 2 results
LMP2/GT3 – Hyperpole 1 results
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– The Autosport.com Team
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