LE MANS, France — Porsche Penske Motorsports will start on the pole for the 92nd running of the 24 Hours Le Mains, which begins Saturday.
Kevin Estre drove the No. 6 Porsche 963 onto the track at the end of the 30-minute Hyperpole session at the famed Circuit de la Sarthe and turned the fastest lap of the day.
As a result, Estre and his teammates André Lotterer and Laurens Vanthoor will share the top starting position for the twice-around-the-clock classic. Estre’s best lap was three minutes and 24.634 seconds.
“What a day for Porsche Penske Motorsport,” states Roger Penske, founder of the Penske Corporation. “Last year we came to Le Mans and weren’t quite up to speed. This year the world looks a lot brighter – that’s thanks to everyone in the team, the Porsche Motorsport staff and our strong partners. Kévin’s incredible lap gives us all another huge boost as we head into the 24 Hours of Le Mans.”
Second in the headlining Hypercar category is the Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R shared by Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn and two-time IndyCar Series champion Alex Palou.
The No. 3 sister Ganassi Cadillac will start third with Sebastien Bourdais sharing the ride with Renger van der Zande and six-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon.
The Ferrari AF Corse 499P team cars will start fourth and fifth, respectively. Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi will share the No. 51 machine, with Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen in the No. 50 machine.
Louis Deletraz drove the No. 14 Oreca 07-Gibson to the top spot in the LMP2 category, turning a 3:33.217 lap in the AO by TF machine he shares with P.J. Hyett and Alex Quinn.
The IDEC Sport No. 28 with drivers Paul Lafargue, Job van Uitert and Reshad de Gersus took the second spot in class.
Rodrigo Sales, Mathias Beche and Scott Huffaker shared the Panis Racing Oreca that will start third in LMP2.
With Bronze-rated drivers required to make the qualifying run in the LMGT3 class, Brendan Iribe put the Inception Racing McLaren 720S LMGT3 on the point. He’ll share the car in the race with Ollie Millroy and Frederik Schandorff.
The Porsche 911 GT3 R of Manthey PurRacing was qualified by Aliaksandr Malykhin, who will share it with Joel Sturm and Klaus Bachler.
JMW Motorsport will start its Ferrari 296 LMGT3 third with drivers Giacomo Petrobelli, Larry ten Voorde and Salih Yoluc.