After a lengthy break for both the FIA World Endurance Championship and myself (a lovely 2 week holiday in the Netherlands, if you’re wondering) and just one week before I head over to Silverstone for my first ever in person sportscar race we have the sixth round of the action packed series. With Aston Martin the big shock of the weekend so far can they continue their promising run here? And can Cadillac go back to back by taking a second win on home soil? 6 Hours will settle it.

First up were the LMGT3 runners, of which ten would progress to Hyperpole from the first session. BMW set the pace early on as both their cars finished 1-2, #31 ahead of #46 as McLaren and Lexus were the only other manufacturers to see both their cars progress thanks to a late push from James Cottingham in the #95 and Arnold Robin in the #78 Lexus. Andrew Gilbert ensured Mercedes would feature as the German manufacturer increases its momentum in its debut year as he slotted into ninth.

That would become eighth as despite taking fourth provisionally, Ian James would have his final time deleted and thus the Ford of Bernardo Sousa would take his place in Hyperpole. Both Astons and Porsches will line up outside the top ten tomorrow, with the sister #10 taking a disappointing 16th on the grid. The rest went as follows: The #81 Corvette, Tom Van Rompuy’s #61 Mercedes, the title defending #92 Porsche, with that aforementioned #10 Aston splitting the Ferraris of #54, Francious Heriau and the #21 of Thomas Flohr. The Iron Dames #85, as mentinoed, will start last.

For Hyperpole, the professional drivers could come out to play to settle the field ahead of tomorrow as worsening conditions meant getting an early lap in could be key in securing a spot on the sharp end of the field.

The session was dominated by a battle between the #59 McLaren of Sean Geleal and both Fords, with the blue oval taking a dream 1-2 for the race on Sunday in front the home crowd. Giammarco Levorato snatched it for the #88 by just 0.018 of a second from teammate Ben Tuck in the #77.

Geleal settled for third, some 6 tenths back for the #95 while teammate Sebastian Baud struggled to 6th. And from 4th to 10th, the order is as follows:

4th: Valentino Rossi (#46), 5th: Johnny Edgar (#33), 6th: Sebastian Baud (#59), 7th: Fin Gehrsitz (#78), 8th: Fran Rueda (#60)m 9th: Timur Boguslavsky (#31), 10th: Zacharie Robichon (#27)

The Hypercars were next up, but the mixed conditions still threatened to cause chaos in the order. Unlike LMGT3, the Hypercars get 2 extra minutes, totalling 12, in which to set their times. It was crucial to be on the pace from the very start.

Coming off the back of a debut win at Interlagos, Cadillac were keen to defy rumours of an unfavourable BOP and complete a clean sweep of American manufacturers in both LMGT3 and Hypercar. Halfway through the times truly fell, and with a hail mary strategy from the Americans to use wet tyres in the last few moments wasn’t enough. Earl Bamber’s effrorts were only good enough for 13th while Alex Lynn qualifed 15th for tomorrow’s race.

The real surprise of this 12 minute session was Nico Varrone and Proton, who incredibly took provisional pole multiple ahead of Robert Kubica’s #84 Ferrari. It’s an incredible performance from a team that have been underperforming all year long, with an amazing effort rewarding Nico Varrone and the whole team. Though it won’t count for much at the the moment, it’s an incredible boost for them.

On the other end of the spectrum were Toyota. Despite being one of WEC’s truly great drivers since he arrived with Toyota, Kamui Kobayashi was 7 seconds off the pace in the #7, and will start dead last tomorrow. The others eliminated include surprisingly Julien Andluaer in the #5 Porsche and Mick Schumacher’s #36 Alpine, but then again these only serve to highlight the adverse conditions out on track.

For the top 10, it was time to earn their money in Hyperpole. Ferrari had the numbers advantage with all 3 cars making it through, with Aston Martin vindicating their good form through the weekend with the #009 also qualifying. But the real order was yet to be decided. Could Ferrari take their first pole position since Spa?

The answer was a resounding yes, Robert Kubica took the #83’s first pole of 2025 with a 1:57:655, sneaking ahead of Nicklas Nielsen by barely a tenth ahead of, incredibly, the Peugeot of Jean-Eric Vergne. The Peugeot has a track record of being a dark horse whenever rain is involved in a session, and it’s no different here. A great effort from the Frenchman. The rest of the Hyperpole field is as follows:

4th: Kevin Estre (#6), 5th: Nicklas Nielsen (#50), 6th: Nico Varrone (#99), 7th: Charles Milesi (#35), 8th: Ryo Hirakawa (#8), 9th: Dries Vanthoor (#15), 10th: Alex Riberas (#009)

That then is qualifying done and dusted, with a few surprises sprinkled into the grid and the weather looking to be much dryer tomorrow, just who will be able to make the most of the 2025 Lone Star Le Mans? I’ll see you tomorrow for the race.

United Autosports, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons