BMW Set Stunning Time To Top Qualifying Practice

BMW M Team WRT have secured a stunning early result at the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans. In a surprising result, the #15 German car, with Dries Vanthoor at the wheel, set the best time of session of 3:24.465, closely followed by the #3 Cadillac Racing car, with last year’s pole sitter, the #50 Ferrari AF Corse team, finishing third fastest.

The #70 Inception Racing McLaren, the 2nd fastest LMGT3 car in qualifying practice. Credit: Mike Widdowson / MJW Media

There was also a surprise in LMGT3 as Ben Barker topped the tables in the #77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang LMGT3. Another visiting team for the Le Mans weekend, Inception Racing, came second in their McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo, with perennial qualifying frontrunners, TF Sport, kept the American power at the top, finishing third fastest in their Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R. In LMP2, the class reintroduced to the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship for the iconic race in Le Mans, Malthe Jakobsen took the #37 COOL Racing Oreca 07 – Gibson car to the top of the timesheets. Louis Delétraz was second fastest in the crowd-pleasing “Spike” car from AO By TF.

The results of qualifying practice don’t determine the full grid for Saturday’s legendary race. In each category, the positions from 9th to the back of the grid are now set. The 8 fastest in each class will battle it out on Thursday 13 June in the Hyperpole session to determine the top starting positions for the race.

Hypercar

The striking yellow #3 Cadillac that stormed to 2nd position in qualifying. Credit: Mike Widdowson / MJW Media

The dramatic qualifying session ended perfectly for BMW, with Vanthoor setting his spectacular time within the last ten minutes of the session. The Cadillacs had been looking rapid all day, with the #3 car, driven by home town hero Sebastian Bourdais, delighting the fans with the second fastest time. Ferrari will be pleased with their result, with both of their factory cars in the Hyperpole session, the #50 in 3rd and the #51 in 6th.

The 4th fastest time went to Toyota Gazoo Racing, the #7 car being driven by Kamui Kobayashi. However, in the final few minutes, the Japanese driver caught an inside curb at the Porsche Curves and spun out into the gravel. As this triggered a red flag to end the session, their fastest lap time was disqualified and they will start at the back of the Hypercar grid. For the first time in years, Toyota are not represented in Hyperpole, with the #8 car starting 11th on the grid.

The #7 Toyota ended qualifying in the gravel and with all lap times deleted. Credit: Mike Widdowson / MJW Media

In another surprise, #35 Alpine Endurance Team car of Paul Loup Chatin finished fourth on the timesheet as the French team take on their first home race in the Hypercar class. The permanent WEC #2 Cadillac was 5th fastest. In yet another surprise, the fastest Porsche could only manage 7th. The championship leading #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 scraped into the Hyperpole session, while the winners of the 6 Hours of Spa, the #12 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche benefitted from Toyota’s misfortune by snapping up that final spot in Hyperpole.

LMP2

The fastest LMP2 car with Malthe Jakobsen at the wheel. Credit: Mike Widdowson / MJW Media

Jakobsen, junior driver with Team Peugeot TotalEnergies, did a sterling job taking his COOL Racing LMP2 car to pole with a time of 3:32.827. The very popular “Spike,” made by AO by TF, the team responsible for the iconic “Rexy” Porsche 911 at the 2023 Le Mans race, came home second fastest. The top three is rounded out by Ben Hanley in the #23 United Autosports USA car, the 2020 category winners and 2022 and 2023 third-place finishers continuing their strong form at Le Mans.

The iconic livery and helmet design on “Spike.” Credit: Javier Jimenez / DPPI

The surprise in LMP2 came with the 2023 winners, Inter Europol Competition, not making it through to Hyperpole. Even though the last back to back winners at Le Mans in LMP2 was 2018-2019, the team were looking like one of the favourites following their success at the 4 Hours of Le Castellet. Now they have their work cut out to repeat their success.

LMGT3

The success of American muscle continued in LMGT3, the top three bookended by a Mustang and a Corvette with a McLaren sandwiched between the two. The Mustang clocked a fastest time of 3:55.263, just 0.143 seconds faster than the McLaren, with the Corvette a further 0.699 seconds off the pace.

The #82 Corvette, the 3rd fastest LMGT3 car, heading to Arnarge. Credit: Mike Widdowson / MJW Media

Iron Lynx, who came within a whisker of winning the 6 Hours of Spa, managed 4th fastest in their Lamborghini Hurácan LMGT3 Evo2, followed by championship leading Manthey PureRxing in 5th. 6th went the way of Heart of Racing, the team currently 2nd in the championship standings. The final two places in Hyperpole went to #66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari 296 LMGT3 and the #777 D’Station Racing Aston Martin, meaning that the 8 Hyperpole places are shared between 7 different manufacturers, a great symbol of the variety in the 2024 WEC season.

However, as is the way with Le Mans, LMGT3 was not immune to surprises. The extremely rapid Iron Dames just missed out on Hyperpole by 0.030 seconds. Team WRT, the team that dominated the 6 Hours of Imola, also had both cars eliminated in this session, with the #46 car only managing 12th and the sister #31 car three places back in 15th.

The #46 Team WRT BMW will start the legendary race in 12th on the LMGT3 grid. Credit: Julien Delfosse / DPPI

Up Next

The excitement has only just begun at the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans. Hyperpole takes place on Thursday 13 June

For full qualifying results, click here.