The Grand Prix of Endurance is back, the City of Le Mans preparing to become motorsport’s ultimate battleground for the 94th time. Having defeated the defacto Kings of Le Mans and banished Porsche to the USA, Ferrari seek a fourth consecutive crown for the first time since 1964. Yet with the field having closed the performance gap and arriving hungrier than ever, it will be no easy task for the Scuderia – but it never has. Who will emerge from the Porsche curves at 4.00pm on Sunday? It’s time for the oldest endurance test of them all to begin…

LMP2

Amid a new qualifying format and LMGT3 traffic Doriane Pin’s #30 Duqueine emerged on provisional pole, her 3.34.662 topping the times on her return to Le Mans.

Set during the second half of the 30 minute session, it decisively concluded a battle for top spot with Ian Aguilera’s #37 CLX Racing, the Mexican’s pace enough for second in class at his first ever Le Mans. Third was the #343 of Inter Europol and 2024 Pro/Am class winner Bijoy Garg which was also the fastest Pro/Am car.

Fourth was the #29 of Forestier Racing by Panis, with the #26 Vector Sport of Ryan Cullen in fifth.

Inter Europol’s #43 Pro class car was down in a surprising sixth, Jakub Swiechowski at the wheel while in seventh came the best placed car of United Autosports with the #22 of Rasmus Lindh. Completing the top 10 were the #24 Nielsen car of David Heinemeier Hansson, Paul Lafarge’s #28 IDEC Sport machine and the #9 Proton car of Jonas Reid despite contact with an LMGT3 earlier in the session.

Eliminated were the #44, #25, #48 and the #3.

LMGT3

With only Bronze drivers eligible to contest this session the onus was on them to secure a spot in the first of two Hyperpole sessions tomorrow and taking top spot after the 30 minute session ended was Le Mans rookie Peter Dempsey, with his 3.55.744 comfortably securing provisional pole.

Two tenths back was the #77 Ford Mustang GT3 of fellow rookies Eric Powell and Gray Newell’s #23 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo in second and third respectively. Completing the top five were Darren Leung’s #32 BMW, while Dustin Blattner was fifth in his #74 Kessel Racing Ferrari.

Lexus got both their cars through, the better placed car being Petru Umbarecsu’s #87, with the sister #78 of Tom Van Rompuy down in 13th. Ian James put his Heart of Racing #27 Aston in eighth, with the top 10 completed by the #69 BMW of Anthony McIntosh and the #88 Ford of Stefano Gattuso.

Eliminated at this stage were the #62 Mercedes, Antares Au’s #10 Mclaren 720S GT3 Evo, Ben Keating in the #33 Corvette came as a surprise to many, Johannes Zelger’s #79 Mercedes, with the others being #150, #57, #59, #58, #2, and Orey Fidani’s #13 AWA Corvette.

image credit: T GOUREAU, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons