Qualifying reshuffled as Porsche #6 disqualified

WECHyperCar

Jun 11

Kévin Estre did set the fourth-fastest time in the #6 Porsche 963. However, the car was subsequently placed to the back of the Hypercar grid as it was below the required minimum weight. All benefit for #009 Aston Martin Valkyrie that had qualified 16th moving up to 15th, securing the final place in Hyperpole in the process. None of the Peugeots did qualify for tomorrow’s Hyperpole sessions as well as the Toyota GR010 Hybrid #7 in its GT-One throwback livery. Hyperpole is promising as four manufacturers are in the top 7 within one sec.

Hertz Cadillac team on top

Alex Lynn in the #12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R paced the 21 Hypercar entries with a lap of 3:22.847 in the 30-minute qualifying session. The lap was nearly 2 seconds quicker than the pole-winning lap in 2024, when Cadillac Racing qualified second and third.

Alex Lynn: “That was lovely. The car was great. Honestly no complaints. I didn’t make any set up adjustments between the first and second run and just improved my performance. It’s a strong start; we’ll take that one.”

Dries Vanthoor second with BMW #15

Dries Vanthoor in #15 BMW M Hybrid V8 was leading the Hypercars with a 3:22.887 until Lynn snatched P1 for four-hundredths of a second.

📷© Luc Warnotte at Le Mans Qualifying. Dries Vanthoor with #15 BMW M Hybrid V8.

Cadillac #38 squeezed between two Ferrari AF Corse

Antonio Giovinazzi was third-fastest in the #51 Ferrari AF Corse 499P with a 3:23.163, 0.316 from the qualifying benchmark.

Sebastien Bourdais got his #38 Cadillac V-Series.R in fourth, 0.620 second slower than his teammate Lynn.

Antonio Fuoco was fifth fastest with a 3:23.514.

📷© Luc Warnotte at Le Mans. #51 Ferrari AF Corse 499P (left), #38 Cadillac V-Series.R (center), #50 Ferrari AF Corse 499P (right).

Sebastien Bourdais: “It was a good lap. Congratulations to Alex, really, really solid performance. Personally, I’d say we picked up more understeer than anticipated so I had to dig pretty deep to pull the lap out. Overall, I’m pretty satisfied, I didn’t think we’d dip in the 23s, but obviously there’s a big track improvement and getting the second lap, the second run-in was always going to be critical. I’m really happy that all four Cadillac cars are through, we seem to be competitive, we just need to fine tune the balance for tomorrow and see what we can do."

Qualifying Hypercar

Hypercar qualifying ranking — Source: WEC

Schedule

Thursday 12 June 2025
14:45-17:45 Free Practice 3
20:00-20:20 Hyperpole 1 (LMGT3)
20:35-20:50 Hyperpole 2 (LMGT3)
21:05-21:25 Hyperpole 1 (Hypercar)
21:40-21:55 Hyperpole 2 (Hypercar)
23:00-00:00 Free Practice 4

Saturday 14 June 2025
12:00-12:15 Warm-up
16:00 Race start

Sunday 15 June 2025
16:00 Race finish