Kevin Estre took pole for the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans, with the Porsche factory driver setting his fastest lap, a 3:24.634, in the dying moments of the session, as the final Hypercar to cross the line.
Cadillac’s Aex Lynn was second, 0.148 behind Estre. He set his lap mere seconds before Estre, and was very briefly on pole before Estre took it off him.
Third was Sebastien Bourdais, Lynn’s Cadillac teammate. The Le Mans-born Frenchman was quickest for much of the session but pitted early as the car was out of fuel, and his lap, a further four hundredths off Lynn, wasn;’t good enough to stay on pole or the front row.
At the start of the session, BMW’s Dries Vanthoor, in the #15 WRT BMW M Hybrid V8, was the first to start a flying lap. When he crossed the line for the first time in the session, he set a 3:26.701. However, the two Ferrari 499Ps of Antonio Fuoco and Alessandro Pier Guidi, in the #50 Ferrari and the #51, went quicker, with Pier Guidi following Fuoco and setting a 3:26.142, a few tenths up on his countryman.
While Pier Guidi pitted that lap, Fuoco went for another lap. When he crossed the line, he set a 3:25.598, to be the first driver into the 3:25s.
However, Bourdais, in the #3 Cadillac V-Series.R, was quicker, by almost three tenths. The veteran driver then set another lap that was even quicker, 3:24.816. Lynn, in the sister #2 Cadillac, briefly went third but the lap was deleted as the Brit exceeded track limits.
So, with ten minutes to go, the order was as follows: Bourdais, Fuoco, Pier Guidi, Paul-Loup Chatin in the #35 Alpine A424, Estre, and Vanthoor. Lynn was tenth overall as his fastest lap so far had been deleted.
However, Vanthoor, who was on another lap in an attempt to improve from sixth, then lost the car at the banked Indianapolis corner, understeering off on drivers’ right and hitting the barrier.
This caused a red flag with 07:41 minutes to go, and would see Vanthoor’s laps deleted for causing the red flag as per the rules.
When the session restarted, every Hypercar went back out, bar the then-polesitting Bourdais in the yellow #3 Cadillac, as the car was out of fuel.
When Fuoco started his flying lap, he made a mistake at the Dunlop chicane, oversteering and drifting the car into the corner. While he managed to keep it on track the lap was ruined, and he immediately backed out of the lap to let teammate Pier Guidi through.
Pier Guidi’s lap, however, was not quick enough, 0.545 slower than Bourdais, although he did improve to second in front of Fuoco. Both Ferraris reached the line to get another lap with seconds to go. Chatin in the #35 Alpine also improved but stayed fourth. On their next laps both Ferraris were off the pace and could not change for pole.
However, Lynn was on a tear. He set the fastest first sector of anybody, but was a few tenths down in sector 2. However, a huge third sector enabled him to take a provisional pole, four hundredths ahead of his teammate Bourdais.
But Estre in the Porsche, behind Lynn, was even faster. HE crossed seconds after Lynn to take pole, a tenth and a half ahead of the Briton in the Cadillac.
This put Bourdais down to third — although as a result of the #2 Cadillac’s penalty from Earl Bamber’s crash at Spa, they will demoted five places on the grid, promoting Bourdais to second on the grid for the race.
Pier Guidi was fourth fastest, over half a second off Estre, while Fuoco was a further four tenths off, almost a second away from Estre on pole. Chatin was sixth fastest, just over a second adrift overall.
Vanthoor’s laps were deleted, meaning he’ll start from eighth, at the back of the cars that got into Hyperpole, in the #15 BMW. The #12 JOTA Porsche 963 did not get out on track as the car is being totally rebuilt after Callum Ilott’s crash in FP2.
The final Hyperpole session results are available here, while the full classification after qualifying is here.
