Lynn keeps Cadillac ahead in first Le Mans qualifying

Alex Lynn was the fastest man in the first leg of qualifying for the 93rd Le Mans 24 Hours, topping the time sheets in the No. 12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R.

In a dramatic 30-minute session, only the top 15 cars out of 21 Hypercars would advance to Hyperpole on a scorching hot evening, as hot as the action proved to be.

Lynn displaced the No. 15 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 of Dries Vanthoor from pole position with a 3m22.847s, four-hundredths of a second better than the 3m22.887s posted by Vanthoor.

“That was lovely!" exclaimed Lynn. "The car was great. Honestly, no complaints. I didn’t make any setup adjustments between the first and second run and just improved my performance. It’s a strong start – we’ll take that one.”

Behind them were Antonio Giovinazzi, third fastest in the No. 51 Ferrari AF Corse 499P, and Kevin Estre, last year's pole-sitter, in the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963. Practice leader Sebastien Bourdais in the No. 38 JOTA Cadillac, and 2024 winner Antonio Fuoco in the No. 50 AF Corse Ferrari, completed the top six.

The bottom six eliminated were the two Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyries, the two Peugeot TotalEnergies 9X8s, the No. 99 Proton Competition Porsche, and the biggest surprise of them all, the No. 7 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 Hybrid in its GT-One throwback livery.

Nyck de Vries was only 17th quickest in the No. 7 Toyota, 2.2s off the pole time and visibly upset as he got out of his car. Meanwhile, the No. 009 Aston Martin in the hands of Marco Sorensen appeared to be on course for an upset run to Hyperpole 1 – only for the No. 4 Penske Porsche of Felipe Nasr to bump him below the cut line right at the checkered flag.

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The No. 5 Penske Porsche (Julien Andlauer), No. 20 WRT BMW (Robin Frijns), No. 311 Whelen Cadillac (Jack Aitken), No. 8 Toyota GR010 (Brendon Hartley), No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari (Ye Yifei), and No. 101 WTR Cadillac (Filipe Albuquerque) all advanced to the first Hyperpole session set for tomorrow evening, along with Mick Schumacher and Paul-Loup Chatin in the two Alpine Hypercar Team A424s.

But the Alpine's runs were not without drama – Chatin spun in the Porsche Curves, right in front of Schumacher, who posted a quicker lap despite passing through a double waved yellow flag zone. Schumacher improved again at the checkered flag to get further to safety.

HYPERCAR RESULTS

AO Racing led the way in LMP2. James Moy Photography/Getty Images

LMP2 and LMGT3 provisional pole positions went to the No. 199 AO by TF ORECA 07-Gibson and the No. 46 Team WRT BMW M4 LMGT3 EVO respectively, in a twice-interrupted qualifying session for the two sub-categories.

Just before halftime, the No. 60 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG LMGT3 of Andrew Gilbert reported a loss of fuel pressure heading out of the first corner and crawled to a stop – the second major misfortune for Iron Lynx today after the No. 63 Mercedes-AMG's accident in Free Practice 1.

15 minutes and 15 seconds remained on the clock when the session resumed, but with three minutes and 51 seconds left, the red flag was shown again after the No. 150 Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3 went off at Mulsanne Corner.

When the session was called off, the No. 199 AO by TF ORECA advanced to Hyperpole 1 tomorrow, joined by both United Autosports cars, both Algarve Pro Racing cars, TDS Racing's No. 29 car, the No. 43 Inter Europol Competion car, the No. 28 IDEC Sport car, plus RLR MSport, AF Corse, and CLX Pure Rxcing.

Louis Deletraz, last year's LMP2 polesitter, led the way with a best lap of 3m35.472s – two-tenths ahead of Ben Hanley in the No. 23 United Autosports car.

The most notable car to miss the cut in LMP2 was the No. 18 IDEC Sport car backed by Genesis Magma Racing. Three-time Le Mans winner Andre Lotterer's best time was only good for 14th fastest.

“We need to look at where we lose time compared to the others," Lotterer said after his qualifying run. It seems like straight-line speed is an issue. Then I was on a good lap, but I got impeded so lost three to four tenths there, I think on my best attempt, unfortunately.

"It's a long race, and I think the race car is quite good, but in qualifying it was difficult to extract the most out of it. We can tweak things [with the setup], that's quite logical, but straight-line speed – that might be something we need to to understand.“

Fast start for Ahmad Al Harthy in the No. 46 WRT BMW. James Moy Photography/Getty Images

Meanwhile, as Ahmad Al Harthy took provisional pole in the No. 46 WRT BMW shared with Valentino Rossi, posting a 3m56.875s, the No. 31 WRT BMW in the hands of defending LMGT3 race winner Yasser Shahin didn't make the cut for Hyperpole 1.

Only two full-time WEC teams got their two cars into Hyperpole 1, in fact – Vista AF Corse's two Ferraris, and United Autosports' two McLaren LMGT3 EVOs.

They'll be joined in tomorrow's session by the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin, the No. 92 Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche, the No. 78 Akkodis ASP Racing Lexus, No. 81 TF Sport Corvette, No. 88 Proton Competition Ford, and the No. 61 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG, salvaging some dignity for the troubled team.

GT World Challenge invitee Ziggo Sport Tempesta also made it into Hyperpole 1 with their No. 193 Ferrari.

Those notable LMGT3 Bronzes that also missed the cut included Ben Keating in the LMGT3 world championship-leading No. 33 TF Sport Corvette (17th), and Celia Martin in the No. 85 Iron Dames Porsche (19th). Keating sat above the top-12 cut line during the first red flag but tumbled down the order.

LMGT3 & LMP2 RESULTS

UP NEXT: Hyperpole qualifying begins Thursday at 8:00pm local time. Meanwhile, today's on-track action continues with Free Practice 2 tonight from 10:00pm to midnight local time.