Cadillac came close to a second consecutive pole, before an infringement in the pits canceled out the best time: the BMW of Marciello, Vanthoor and Magnussen was ahead of everyone. Seventh was the best Ferrari, that of Giovinazzi-Calado-Pier Guidi
Will be BMW starting from the pole in the 94th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The M Hybrid V8, which comes from a one-two on the Spa-Francorchamps track and leads both the drivers’ and constructors’ championships, confirms itself as the car in best form with a pole position signed by the crew of car number 15, driven by Raffaele Marciello, Kevin Magnussen and Dries Vanthoor. It was the Belgian driver who signed the decisive lap in 3’22″564 which was worth the best performance in Hyperpole 2, which came after the penalty to the number 38 Cadillac of Jack Aitken who was initially credited with the pole. Eighth place for the best of the Ferraristhe 499P number 51 of Alessandro Pier Guidi, Antonio Giovinazzi and James Calado. They will snap instead twelfth and seventeenth the other two cars from Maranello, with the number 50 excluded in Hyperpole 1 and that of last year’s winners penultimate and left out of Thursday’s testing sessions.
Ferrari chasing
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The drivers’ words on the eve of the race left no room for doubt: Ferrari should not be considered the favorite for this edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Not being able to analyze the Balance of Performance (Bop) data, the formula for balancing performance which has been kept secret since this year, it is not possible to have certain answers on the difficulties of the Maranello company due to more penalizing weight and power, even if the answer in this sense appears clear. In any case, even in 2025 the three 499Ps started from behind, but were the protagonists of a great comeback in the initial stages of the race. Speaking of Ferrari, Toyota also highlighted difficulties, qualifying in fourteenth and fifteenth place, while the prototypes with Lmdh technology shone. Worth highlighting is the debut of the new qualifying format, which requires teams to use the three drivers in three different sessions: qualifying, Hyperpole 1 for the best 15 and Hyperpole 2 for the 10 fastest. This meant that the values on the field changed several times based on the driver who got into the car: Alpine had in fact led both the first two sessions with car number 35 in the hands of Habsburg and Milesi, before finishing third with Antonio Félix da Costa. Cadillac, which appeared fast all week, had to settle for the front row with car number 12 of Delétraz-Nato-Stevens, while the great performance from the Genesis debutantssixth and ninth on the grid. Finally, a difficult weekend for Peugeotthe only manufacturer to completely miss the Hyperpole with the sixteenth and eighteenth time in qualifying.
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The other classes
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In the Lmgt3 category the pole position went to the Italian driver for the second year in a row Mattia Drudiat the wheel ofAston Martin Vantage number 27 of The Heart of Racing: together with Ian James and Zacharie Robichon he will start from the pole in the race, after having set the record for his category in 3’52″433. The Ferrari 296 Lmgt3 Evo of Alessio Roveraofficial driver of the Prancing Horse who shares the cockpit of car number 21 of Vista AF Corse with François Hériau and Simon Mann. Finally, in Lmp2, full of prestigious protagonists like never before, the fastest was the young Frenchman Esteban Masson on the Oreca 07 – Gibson number 29 of Forestier Racing by Panis, which he shares with Louis Rousset and Oliver Gray.
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