LE MANS, France — It will be a Ferrari on the pole for the historic centenary running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans at the famed Circuit de la Sarthe on Saturday.
After sitting on provisional pole, the No. 50 Ferrari 499P Hypercar wheeled by Antonio Fuoco picked up even more speed during Thursday’s Hyperpole qualifying and took the coveted top spot with a best lap of 3:22.982 seconds. Fuoco co-drives the Ferrari AF Corse entry with Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen.
The team’s sister car — the No. 51 Ferrari wheeled by Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi — will start second on the grid after stopping the clocks at 3:23.755.
The second row will be shared by a Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 and a Porsche Penske Motorsports Porsche 963.
The No. 8 Toyota for Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryō Hirakawa claimed third, while Felipe Nasr, Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy timed in fourth for Porsche. The second Toyota — the No. 7 machine shared by Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez — will start fifth.
The No. 3 Cadillac fielded by Cadillac Racing will start eighth in class after stopping on the Mulsanne Straight with flames and smoke bellowing from the machine that was piloted by Sebastien Bourdais.
The No. 48 IDEC Sport Oreca-07 with Paul-Loup Chatin at the controls jumped past the Jota Autosport No. 28 to claim the top spot in the LMP2 class. Chatin shares his ride with Paul Lafargue and Laurents Hörr.
The No. 28 will start second in class with drivers David Heinemeier-Hansson, Oliver Rasmussen and Pietro Fittipaldi.
Finally, veteran American driver Ben Keating was at the wheel of the Corvette Racing No. 33 to claim the top position in LMGTE Am with a best lap of 3:52.376. Keating will share the car with Nicky Catsburg and Nicolas Varrone.
The No. 25 Aston Martin Vantage handled by Ahmad Al Harthy, Michael Dinan and Charlie Eastwood will share the car that starts second in class.