LM24: Ford, Porsche lock Le Mans poles

With rain blanketing most of Thursday night's pair of two-hour qualifying sessions, Wednesday night's dry qualifying times stood as Porsche secured its second consecutive overall pole in LMP1, Ford held onto its maiden GTE-Pro pole on its return to Le Mans, G-Drive Racing retained pole in LMP2, and Clearwater Racing kept its position atop GTE-Am.

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The No. 2 Porsche 919 Hybrid (3m19.733s), No. 68 Ford GT (3m51.185s), No. 26 ORECA 05-Nissan (3m36.605s) and No. 61 Ferrari F458 (3m56.827s) will lead the four classes and 60 cars to the flag on Saturday at 3 p.m. in France.

"Great feeling. Second pole in a row. It worked out perfect," said Porsche's Neel Jani. "Last year we got pole and didn't get the result we wanted so this year we hope to get the result. The team did a great job, but the big dance is still ahead of us."

Ford's Dirm Muller was ecstatic to make the first bit of new history 50 years after the Blue Oval made its Le Mans debut. 

"Great stuff for Ford," he said. "We are all under so much pressure here and just being at Le Mans is a bonus and a big honor. The team is so great; anyone could have done that lap."

G-Drive speedster Rene Rast was pleased to maintain the team's streak in LMP2.

"Obviously very delighted, third pole in a row for G-Drive Racing," Rast said. "It's going to be a 24-hour sprint race and we just need to stay out of trouble."

The first 25 minutes of the opening session were dry, but with a green track due to all of the overnight rain, limited traction made challenging Wednesday's times all but academic once first sprinkles turned into a wholesale downpour. Rainfall became so severe that a portion of the second session was red flagged due to the apalling conditions.

Whether a change would be made with just 25 minutes of dry lapping after Wednesday's unbalanced display is anyone's guess.

Bykolles Racing was able to get its fire-damaged CLM P1/01 out for some laps toward the end of the session, Krohn Racing's Tracy Krohn spun and made light contact with the barriers in the waning moments of qualifying, and plenty of other spins and visits to the grass and dirt were recorded during the session, but for the first time in recent memory, no cars were lost leading up to the race.

Full results can be found here.