BMW first in Qualy for Hyperpole

Text & Images: Rick Kiewiet

Dries Vanthoor in the #15 BMW surprised all the competition in Le Mans with the fastest lap in the Qualifying session this evening, which decides which 8 cars advance to the Hyperpole session tomorrow. The session was cut two minutes short by a red flag, dropped because of a spin of Kamui Kobayashi. The Japanese driver had noted the 4th time with the #7 Toyota, but was stripped of all his times as a penalty for causing the red flag. In LMP2 the fastest time was for the #37 Cool Racing Oreca. Ford was responsible for another surprise, as the #77 Mustang was fastest for the first time this season with Ben Barker behind the wheel.

While Vanthoor was the lucky one with the early red flag, JOTA might have been the opposite. At the moment the session was ended, Ilott, in the #12 had just noted purple (overall fastest) time in sector 1 and 2. It wasn't unlikely he could've at least threatened Vanthoor's time. Behind the #15 BMW it's the #3 Cadillac in 2nd. It's driver, Sebastien Bourdais, was fastest for a large part of the session until Vanthoor took over just before the end. In third is the fastest of the Ferrari 499p's, the #50 of Antonio Fuoco.

Due to Kobayashi's disqualification, the #35 Alpine, driven by Chatin, moved up to fourth, the A424 more and more often showing its potential. The second Cadillac, the #2, was in 5th, just ahead of the #51 Ferrari and the only two Porsches that made it into Hyperpole: the #5 Penske and #12 JOTA.

Following Kobayashi's qualification and Hartley's disappointing p12, means Toyota does not have a single car in Hyperpole tomorrow. Same goes for Lamborghini and Peugeot, the latter qualifying as low as 15th and 20th, a disappointing result. Lamborghini might have expected a bit more than 13th and 21st following the test day, but for a debut it would still qualify as a good result.

Despite it's success in Hypercar, not a single BMW M4 GT3 made it to the hyperpole session for the LMGT3. Lexus also misses out completely, making the drama for Toyota (Lexus' owner) even greater. Behind the Mustang, the #70 Inception McLaren and #82 Corvette completed the top-3.