LE MANS, France – Kamui Kobayashi and Toyota Gazoo Racing have secured the pole for the 89th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans at Circuit de la Sarthe.
Kobayashi piloted the No. 7 Toyota GR010 to the top spot in Thursday’s 30-minute Hyperpole session and will lead the field to the green flag on Saturday during the historic event. He topped the charts with a 3:23.900 lap in the Hypercar class.Â
“I am very happy to be here, in Hypercar, at a fantastic circuit, in pole position,” said Kobayashi. “It is such a team effort being the fastest on the track and to have such a great car for the race. We have done excellent work so far. Now on to the 24-hour race. Honestly, having the quickest lap always affects you. As a driver, we have been doing tests since the winter, of course, and we’ve watched the car evolve and improve. We came well-prepared. We thought we were slower and I am very happy with this time.”
Brendon Hartley, piloting the second Toyota entry, qualified second to give the Toyota camp a sweep of the front row. He was .295 seconds off the fastest lap set by Kobayashi. The No. 36 Alpine A480 qualified third with Nicolas Lapierre at the wheel, albeit 1.674 seconds slower than Kobayashi.
The LMP2 class pole went to Formula E star Antonio Felix da Costa, who piloted the No. 38 JOTA Sport Oreca-Gibson to a 3:27.950 lap. He’ll start Saturday’s race from the sixth position overall.
There was a surprise pole winner in GTE Pro as Kevin Estre, who had been fastest all week in his No. 92 Porsche 911 RSR-19, spun into the wall at Indianapolis. That opened the door for a surprise class pole winner, with Dries Vanthoor taking the privateer HubAuto Porsche to the top of the charts.
His best lap of 3:46.882 gave him the pole ahead of the No. 52 AF Corse Ferrari driven by Daniel Serra and the No. 68 Corvette wheeled by Nick Tandy.
Porsche made it a clean sweep in terms of GTE poles by also claiming the GTE Am pole, with Julien Andlauer putting the No. 88 Dempsey Proton Porsche on the class pole with a best lap of 3:47.987.