Ferrari’s Antonio Giovinazzi has taken pole position for the FIA World Endurance Championship’s Lone Star Le Mans, taking place at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
The Italian, in the #51 Ferrari 499P set a 1:50.390 to go quickest, 0.277 quicker than Robert Kubica in the satellite #83 AF Corse Ferrari, with Cadillac’s Alex Lynn third.
Hypercar qualifying began with every car heading out on track at the start of the session. This included the two Peugeots, which had not taken part in FP3 due to clutch issues for both cars.
With the track temperatures high, it didn’t take that long for the drivers to warm the tyres. However, in the early stages of the 10 minute session, Mick Schumacher opened the door of his #36 Alpine A424 on a flying lap because a wasp was inside the cockpit.
After letting the wasp out, he had to abandon his lap having caught Kubica too.
Early on, Dries Vanthoor in the #15 WRT BMW M Hybrid was quickest, but he was soon beaten by the two factory Ferraris, with Antonio Giovinazzi in the #51 499P quickest by almost half a second over his teammate Antonio Fuoco in the sister #50 car.
Alex Lynn, in the #2 Cadillac V-Series.R, soon split the two Italian cars, 0.442 down on the leading Italian. Kubica, in the satellite #83 AF Corse Ferrari, then went third quickest to demote Fuoco to fourth.
Fuoco, though, had other ideas, and improved late on to go second, with Lynn third and Kubica fourth.
Alpine’s Charles Milesi, in the #35 Alpine A424, took a brilliant fifth. At the same time, Jenson Button, in the #8 JOTA Porsche 963, spun his car as he unsettled it over the high kerbs. While he got going again, it meant the lap he was on — which had been quick in the first sector — had to be abandoned, meaning he finished 17th and way out of Hyperpole.
Matt Campbell in the #5 Porsche 963 took sixth, with Dries Vanthoor seventh, Toyota’s Kamui Kobayashi eighth, BMW’s Frijns ninth, and JOTA’s Norman Nato tenth.
Notable drivers who didn’t make Hyperpole included Toyota’s Sebastien Buemi, pushed out by Milesi as the Frenchman took fifth when Buemi was on the bubble in tenth. Neither Peugeot made Hyperpole either, as Mikkel Jensen got in front of Buemi in the #93 Peugeot 9X8, and was just two hundredths off making Hyperpole.
Schumacher, with his door trouble, couldn’t replicate Milesi’s pace and qualified 13th, behind Buemi.
Going into Hyperpole and Kamui Kobayashi, in the #7 Toyota, was the first to set a representative lap, a 1:50.951. Kubica couldn’t beat this, only managing second on his first lap, 0.038 slower than Kobayashi.
However, Milesi continued his fine form from the main qualifying session and went fastest, exactly two tenths faster than Kobayashi.
Lynn put his Cadillac second, with BMW’s Frijns and D. Vanthoor and third and fourth.
The factory Ferraris, though, had not yet set representative laps. Giovinazzi, when he crossed the line, set a 1:50.390 to take pole, a lap no one could beat.
Late on in the session, with the flag already waving, and Kubica came through to take what had been second off Alpine’s Milesi, setting a lap 0.277 than Giovinazzi. Lynn then demoted Milesi even further, down into fourth.
Finally, Matt Campbell crossed the line to take sixth, behind Ferrari’s Fuoco in fifth. The two BMWs were seventh and eighth, Frijns ahead of D. Vanthoor, while ninth went to Kobayashi and JOTA’s Norman Nato in tenth.
