Hapsburg stages upset for Alpine as Le Mans qualifying begins

The No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P which won last year’s running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans fell in the first phase of qualifying for this year’s edition of the legendary endurance race, while Alpine Endurance Team led the group of cars advancing to tomorrow’s climactic Hyperpole sessions.

The tweaked Le Mans qualifying format for 2026 included 18 Hypercars fighting for 15 places in Hyperpole, leaving three cars locked into grid positions 16 through 18. Adding another wrinkle, any driver can only do one qualifying session if their cars advanced through this first phase of qualifying.

Philip Hanson in the No. 83 Ferrari fell 0.9s short of making that top-15 cut. His best lap of 3m25.495s was not good enough to advance, leaving Hanson and co-drivers Robert Kubica and Ye Yifei starting down in 17th on Saturday.

Hanson was joined only by the two Peugeot TotalEnergies 9X8s, who each missed the cut; Stoffel Vandoorne in the No. 93 was 16th and four-tenths of a second below the bubble, and Malthe Jakobsen, the pole-sitter at the 6 Hours of Spa, was 18th and last in the No. 94.

Eerily for Ferrari, the two factory Rosso Corsa 499Ps of Nicklas Nielsen in No. 50 and Alessandro Pier Guidi in No. 51 finished 14th and 15th – right on the bubble – but they will advance to tomorrow evening’s second stage of time trials.

At the front, Ferdinand Habsburg (pictured, top) set the top time in the No. 35 Alpine A424, setting a 3m23.135s on soft compound tires at the very end of the session.

Habsburg was only 0.013s quicker than the No. 12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R of Louis Deletraz, who set a 3m23.148s on medium tires, as did Jordan Taylor, who went third fastest in the No. 101 WTR Cadillac (3m23.323s).

René Rast finished the session in fourth aboard the No. 20 BMW M Team WRT Hybrid V8 (3m23.444s), followed by Sébastien Bourdais in the No. 38 JOTA Cadillac, putting all three of the V-Series.Rs in the top five.

Notably, both Genesis Magma Racing GMR-001s advanced to Hyperpole in their first time of asking. They join the three Cadillacs, the two BMWs, the two Toyota Racing TR010-Hybrids, the two Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyries, the aforementioned two factory Ferrari AF Corse cars – and the No. 36 Alpine of Frédéric Makowiecki, who put his repaired car, damaged after his incident in Free Practice 1, into the top 10.

LMP2 and LMGT3 teams sent their lowest-graded drivers, all Bronze and Silver drivers, out for their 30-minute qualifying session, also looking to make the top-15 cut line.

At the front of the LMP2 field, reigning F1 Academy champion Doriane Pin stepped into the spotlight and took the top time in the black and green No. 30 Duqueine Team ORECA 07-Gibson. Pin’s quickest lap time, a 3m34.662s, was nearly 0.6s quicker than that of the Mexican teenager Ian Aguilera, who was second fastest in the No. 37 CLX Motorsport ORECA. 2024 LMP2 class winner Bijoy Garg rounded out the top three in the No. 343 Inter Europol Competition car.

All 10 of the “regular” LMP2 cars with Silver drivers aboard progressed to Hyperpole – including the repaired No. 9 Proton Competition ORECA driven by Jonas Ried. It wasn’t without incident, as Ried was given a reprimand for sideswiping the No. 2 TF Sport Corvette of Prince Jefri Ibrahim down at Tertre Rouge.

PJ Hyett was the fastest of the Bronzes from LMP2 Pro/Am that made it through in the No. 99 AO by TF ORECA. Hyett was joined in that top-15 bracket by George Kurtz (No. 4 CrowdStrike Racing by APR), François Perrodo (No. 183 AF Corse), Tobias Lütke (No. 14 TDS Racing), and Daniel Schneider (No. 222 United Autosports).

Horst Felbermayr Jr. (No. 44 Proton Competition), Michael Jensen (No. 25 Algarve Pro Racing), Fred Poordad (No. 48 RD Limited), and John Farano (No. 3 DKR Engineering) were the four LMP2 Pro/Am Bronze drivers who failed to get their cars through to tomorrow’s Hyperpole sessions.

Poordad slipped off at the Ford Chicane on his final flying lap, while Schneider bumped Felbermayr Jr. from the top 15 with less than six minutes left.

Peter Dempsey leads the way in LMGT3. Colin McMaster/Getty Images)

In LMGT3, the top two spots were filled by American cars, as Peter Dempsey led the way with a 3m55.396s in the No. 34 Racing Team Turkey by TF Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.

But although the former Indy Lights driver led the session, the other three Corvettes driven by Ben Keating (No. 33 TF Sport), Prince Jefri Ibrahim (No. 2 TF Sport), and Orey Fidani (13 Autosport) were among the 10 cars that missed out on sending their cars to Hyperpole.

Both Garage 59 McLarens driven by Antares Au (No. 10) and Alexander West (No. 58) failed to advance, along with the Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMGs driven by Abdulla Al-Khelaifi (No. 62) and Johannes Zelger (No. 79), Takeshi Kimura in the No. 57 Kessel Ferrari, Custodio Toledo in the No. 150 AF Corse Ferrari, and Clément Mateu in the No. 59 Racing Spirit of Léman Aston Martin.

Al-Khelaifi missed out on advancing by less than a tenth of a second from the 15th-ranked No. 92 Manthey Porsche of Yasser Shahin, who’s paired with reigning LMGT3 class winners Riccardo Pera and Richard Lietz.

Behind Al-Khelaifi, Au, Keating, Zelger, and Toledo were the next four drivers below the cut line.

Eric Powell qualified second quickest in the No. 77 Proton Competition Ford (3m55.951s), ahead of Gray Newell, who was an excellent third in the No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin. The fastest invitational car was the No. 74 Kessel Racing Ferrari, driven by Dustin Blattner to sixth on the leaderboard.

A critical Free Practice 2 begins tonight at 10:00 PM local time.

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