Brendan Iribe claimed pole position in the #70 McLaren 720S LMGT3 EVO during an exciting Hyperpole qualifying session for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Eight cars fought for the front spot with all of their respective Bronze-rated drivers, as McLaren came out on top with their return to the event since 1998.
During the opening phase of the session, Alex Malaykin of the #92 Manthey PureRxing Porsche 911 held the lead before Inception Racing’s Brendon Iribe lit the timing sheets with strong pace asserted out of his #70 McLaren 720S.
Iribe was eager to extract more pace at his third Le Mans – his first in familiar McLaren machinery – but unfortunately took too much of the kerb into the final corner, and spun and thus nullified his next flying lap.
When the red flag was declared due to Dries Vanthoor’s off-moment at Indianapolis, Iribe had new tyres but had only just left for his out lap.
The session resumed with seven-minutes and 38-minutes remaining with one flying lap left feasible to carry out.
Fortunately so, Iribe improved and eventually produced a 3:58.120 which increased his margin to +0.808 ahead of Alex Malykin’s #92 Manthey PureRxcing Porsche.
Third position was narrowly taken by JMW Motorsport’s Giacomo Petrobelli in the #66 Ferrari 296 with a 3:58.938.
Behind him was Ryan Hardwick in the #77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang by setting a 3:59.443.
Heart of Racing’s team principal, Ian James, took fifth in the #27 Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3 EVO after he did a 3:59.655 ahead of Satoshi Hoshino’s #777 D’station Aston Martin (4:02.787), and Hiroshi Koizumi’s #82 TF Sport Corvette Z06 GT3.R and his 4:03.681.
Claudio Schiavoni rounded off the top-eight order for the #60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 with a 4:06.495.
