Ferrari AF Corse locked out the front row for Sunday’s FIA WEC Lone Star Le Mans at COTA, with the factory No. 51 499P of Antonio Giovinazzi setting the best time of the week in Hyperpole Saturday afternoon to claim the best grid spot.
Alongside the Italian on the front row will be the privately entered No. 83 499P, which ended up just under 0.2s shy after Robert Kubica’s best effort in the 10-minute dash.
“I am really happy. Since the beginning of the weekend, we’ve had a strong car and we have put it all together. We have good race pace too,” Giovinazzi said after scoring his first WEC pole.
The fight for pole was a thriller, with multiple manufacturers seemingly in with a shout until Ferrari’s drivers found a way to take command and turn up the wick.
Of the drivers in the mix, Cadillac Racing’s Alex Lynn turned heads, as did Charles Milesi from Alpine.
Milesi sat on provisional pole briefly before Giovinazzi’s best lap came in, his best tour a 1m50.751s in the No. 35 A424. While it wasn’t quite enough for a front row spot, it did ensure that the French marque will start on the second row in fourth. Lynn’s effort produced a similar result, a late flyer put the No. 2 V-Series.R third.
The Le Mans-winning No. 50 Ferrari ended up fifth, ahead of the fastest factory Porsche — the No. 5 — that will start sixth. It was a solid effort from BMW Team WRT, its M Hybrid V8s making it to the shootout and claiming seventh and eighth.
The No. 7 Toyota ended up qualifying second of the three title-contending cars in ninth, ahead of the No. 12 HERTZ Team JOTA Porsche that failed to get within a second of the pole time.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1416]
Before Hyperpole, qualifying was extremely tight, the battle for shootout spots as fierce as it has been all season.
The No. 93 Peugeot just missed out after ending up 0.02s off the cutoff time in 11th after Mikkel Jensen’s best effort. The No. 8 Toyota also failed to make it in and ended up 12th, Sebastien Buemi left scratching his head after he too was less than 0.1s shy.
Perhaps the biggest storyline was the championship-leading No. 6 Porsche Penske 963 not making it through into the top 10. Kevin Estre struggled and his best time of 1m51.984s was only enough for 14th.
“The car was difficult to drive. I didn’t put a lap together, I didn’t figure out how to go fast without a mistake. I couldn’t put it together so we will have to see if we can make it better for the race. We will see what we can learn from the sister car. It’s very difficult,” a disappointed Estre said after climbing out the car.
The No. 6 wasn’t the only Porsche that didn’t make the final shootout. Proton’s 963 ended up 16th and JOTA’s No. 38 would finish the session 17th after Jenson Button suffered a spin on his final flyer.
Before the Hypercar drivers took to the circuit, Heart of Racing scored Aston Martin’s first LMGT3 pole with the new evo-spec Vantage.
Ian James’ best time in the No. 27 Aston was a 2m05.587s, set with 3m to go in Hyperpole. Confident it was good enough for a front-row spot, the Briton then parked up with 1m to go and watched the final times come in.
“I feel great for the team on home soil; it’s our first pole and a great achievement,” James said.
Sarah Bovy came closest for Iron Dames. A late improvement from the Belgian put the No. 85 Lamborghini second with a 2m05.759s.
“It’s a good team effort. We worked hard to get the car more competitive. We could go for it but I lost power steering so I couldn’t improve. P2 is not a bad position to start from; we just need to fix that issue to start the race,” Bovy said.
Her flyer initially pushed championship leader Alex Malykhin in the Pure Rxcing Porsche to third, though the No. 92 911 would eventually fall to fourth after Francois Heriau set a rapid 2m06.011s. That put the No. 55 Vista AF Corse Ferrari third and on the second row. The top five was completed by TF Sport’s No. 82 Corvette of Tom van Rompuy.
Many eyes were on the returning Ben Keating in the No. 88 Proton Ford Mustang during Hyperpole. The Texan looked to replicate his strong form in GTE Am Qualifying last year, but he could only manage ninth.
His time was just over 1s off pole and slower than the No. 54 Vista AF Ferrari, No. 59 United Autosports McLaren and No. 777 D’Station Aston Martin which will occupy positions sixth, seventh and eighth on the grid come Sunday.
With eight of the nine brands in the class making it into Hyperpole via the qualifying session, several significant cars didn’t make the cut.
The No. 95 United Autosports McLaren was the fastest of the cars that didn’t make the top 10, with Josh Caygill missing out by under 0.1s.
“Disappointed not to make it through; [We] did briefly but we got called for track limits. We will have to take it sensible tomorrow and see how it goes,” Caygill said between the two sessions.
The Manthey EMA Porsche which won at Spa and Le Mans also didn’t make it through, qualifying 16th.
Lexus ended up the only brand that didn’t make the cut. French team AKKODIS ASP will start the race 12th and 17th with its pair of RC F LMGT3s.
Sunday’s race is set to get underway at 1 p.m. CT.