Le Mans 24 Hours: Hartley beats Kobayashi to pole in Toyota 1-2
Brendon Hartley secured a sixth consecutive Le Mans 24 Hours pole position for Toyota in a dramatic Hyperpole qualifying session, leading a one-two for the marque ahead of Kamui Kobayashi.
Marc Fleury
Toyota's pair of GR010 HYBRIDs locked out the front row of the grid for the 90th running of the World Endurance Championship centrepiece, with Hartley taking top spot in the #8 machine he shared with Sebastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa with a time of 3m24.408s.
That compares to last year's 3m23.900s with which Kobayashi took pole the race.
Kobayashi was aiming to secure a fifth pole in six years aboard the #7 Toyota, but came up 0.177s shy with his best lap of 3m24.585s.
Behind the Toyotas, Alpine's grandfathered LMP1 took third spot on the grid thanks to a 3m24.850s effort from Nicolas Lapierre, which proved good enough to beat the two Glickenhaus 007 LMHs.
Hartley led the way after the initial runs with a 3m25.213s, but with just a few minutes left in the half an hour shootout that was surpassed by the 3m24.850s set by Alpine driver Lapierre.
Kobayashi initially took the top spot back for Toyota with a 3m24.585s that was scratched for a track limits infringement, only to be reinstated before it was beaten by Hartley.
Glickenhaus driver Ryan Briscoe briefly occupied second place on a 3m25.841s at the wheel of the #709 car, but was demoted to fourth in the final reckoning ahead of Olivier Pla, who could only manage a 3m26.359s in the #708.
#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 Hybrid of Brendon Hartley
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
Pole in the LMP2 class went to WRT, as Robin Frijns went more than a second clear of the opposition with a best time of 3m28.394s at the wheel of the #31 ORECA 07-Gibson he shares with Sean Gelael and Rene Rast.
Norman Nato made it a 1-2 for the Belgian team in the #42 Realteam by WRT-entered car, with his best time of 3m29.697s ahead of Filipe Albuquerque in the best of the United Autosports machines, the #22 car.
Rounding out the Hyperpole order in LMP2 were the #38 JOTA car of Antonio Felix da Costa, Louis Deletraz in the sole Prema entry and Alex Lynn in the #23 United Autosports machine.
Corvette Racing secured a front-row lockout in GTE Pro, as Nick Tandy set the only sub-3m50s effort in the class at the wheel of the American brand’s #64 C8.R.
Tandy’s best of 3m49.985s compared to 3m50.177s set by Antonio Garcia in the sister #63 car and a 3m50.377s from the best of the works Porsche 911 RSR-19s in third place, the #91 driven by Frederic Makowiecki.
Porsche swept the second row of the grid as Laurens Vanthoor took fourth place in the #92 car ahead of the two AF Corse-run Ferrari 488 GTE Evos, Antonio Fuoco leading James Calado.
Pole in GTE Am went to AF Corse Ferrari driver Vincent Abril by just under two tenths from Mikkel Jensen in the Kessel Racing example.
Le Mans 24 Hours - Hyperpole qualifying results
| Cla | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8 |  Sébastien Buemi  Brendon Hartley  Ryo Hirakawa |
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 3'24.408 | |
| 2 | 7 |  Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi  Jose Maria Lopez |
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 3'24.828 | 0.420 |
| 3 | 36 |  Andre Negrao  Nicolas Lapierre Matthieu Vaxiviere |
Alpine A480 | HYPERCAR | 3'24.850 | 0.442 |
| 4 | 709 |  Ryan Briscoe Richard Westbrook Franck Mailleux |
Glickenhaus 007 LMH | HYPERCAR | 3'25.841 | 1.433 |
| 5 | 708 | Olivier Pla Romain Dumas Pipo Derani |
Glickenhaus 007 LMH | HYPERCAR | 3'26.359 | 1.951 |
| 6 | 31 |  Sean Gelael  Robin Frijns  René Rast |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'28.394 | 3.986 |
| 7 | 22 | Philip Hanson  Filipe Albuquerque  Will Owen |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'30.070 | 5.662 |
| 8 | 38 |  Roberto Gonzalez Antonio Felix da Costa Will Stevens |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'30.373 | 5.965 |
| 9 | 41 | Rui Andrade  Ferdinand Habsburg Norman Nato |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'30.522 | 6.114 |
| 10 | 9 |  Robert Kubica Louis Deletraz  Lorenzo Colombo |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'31.115 | 6.707 |
| 11 | 23 | Alex Lynn Oliver Jarvis Josh Pierson |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'31.596 | 7.188 |
| 12 | 64 | Tommy Milner Nick Tandy Alexander Sims |
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R | LMGTE PRO | 3'49.985 | 25.577 |
| 13 | 63 |  Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor Nick Catsburg |
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R | LMGTE PRO | 3'50.177 | 25.769 |
| 14 | 91 | Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz Frédéric Makowiecki |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 3'50.377 | 25.969 |
| 15 | 92 |  Michael Christensen Kevin Estre  Laurens Vanthoor |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 3'50.522 | 26.114 |
| 16 | 52 | Miguel Molina Antonio Fuoco Davide Rigon |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 3'51.779 | 27.371 |
| 17 | 51 | Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado Daniel Serra |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 3'51.816 | 27.408 |
| 18 | 61 |  Louis Prette Conrad Grunewald Vincent Abril |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'52.594 | 28.186 |
| 19 | 57 | Takeshi Kimura Frederik Schandorff Mikkel Jensen |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'52.751 | 28.343 |
| 20 | 77 | Christian Ried Sebastian Priaulx Harry Tincknell |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'53.006 | 28.598 |
| 21 | 98 |  Paul Dalla Lana David Pittard Nicki Thiim |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 3'53.578 | 29.170 |
| 22 | 54 | Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Nick Cassidy |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'53.757 | 29.349 |
| 23 | 85 | Rahel Frey Michelle Gatting Sarah Bovy |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'53.869 | 29.461 |
| View full results | ||||||
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