LE MANS, France — It was a thrilling battle for the front row during Thursday’s Hyperpole Shootout to set the top of the lineup for this weekend’s 90th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans at the famed Sarthe Circuit.
When the session concluded, it was Brendon Hartley at the controls of the No. 8 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 Hybrid at the top of the charts.
With a lap of 3 minutes and 24.408 seconds, Hartley bested teammate Kamui Kobayashi as the Toyotas will share the front row on Saturday.
The Toyotas trailed the Alpine A480 until late in the session when they both surpassed the lap turned by Frenchman Nicolas Lapierre, who ended up third.
“It feels awesome,” said Hartley. “I came close to pole last year. Sorry to Kamui, who was looking for his fifth pole, but the car felt amazing. It was the best feeling to experience a clear track. Now we focus on the race.”
Hartley will share the pole car with co-drivers Sebastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa.
The two Glickenhaus 007 LMH entries will round out the Hypercar field.
Robin Frijns drove the No. 31 ORECA 07-Gibson to the top spot, leading a WRT sweep of the top two spots as Norman Nato was second in the No. 41 Realteam WRT machine.
Filipe Albuquerque took third in the class for United Autosports aboard the No. 22 ORECA 07-Gibson.
Corvette Racing swept the front row during GTE’s Hyperpole qualifying session as Nick Tandy drove the No. 64 C8.R to the head of the field, narrowly outrunning Antonio Garcia, who qualified the No. 63 team Corvette.
The No. 91 Porsche handled by Fred Makowiecki wound up third.
Ferrari claimed the top spot in GT Am, with Vincent Abril wheeling the No. 61 AF Corse 488 GTE to the quickest lap in the class. Mikkel Jensen made it a one-two sweep for Ferrari aboard the No. 57 machine.