LE MANS, France – Toyota Gazoo Racing fired the opening salvo during the 89th 24 Hours of Le Mans by topping the first qualifying session for the historic endurance event at Circuit de la Sarthe on Wednesday.
Wednesday’s qualifying session determined which teams would battle for the pole in Thursday’s Hyperpole session, which sets the final grid for the race that begins Saturday.Â
Jose Maria Lopez, piloting Toyota’s No. 7 GR010 in the new Hypercar class, led the overall standings with a fast lap of 3:26.279. Lopez bettered the time set by the No. 36 Alpine A480 driven by Matthieu Vaxiviere by .816 seconds.
The top-six teams in each class automatically earned a spot in Thursday’s Hyperpole session. With only five teams competing in the Hypercar class, they all will compete for the pole on Thursday.
In LMP2, Formula E ace Antonio Felix da Costa topped the charts aboard the No. 38 ORECA with a 3:28.807. He was nearly half a second faster than newly crowned Formula E champion Nyck de Vries, who was second fastest in the No. 26 G-Drive Racing Aurus 01.
GTE Pro was led by the factory Ferrari squad spearheaded by AF Corse, who took the top-two spots in the class with Daniel Serra leading the way in his Ferrari 488 GTE EVO. The No. 88 Dempsey Proton Porsche topped the GTE Am class.
Wednesday’s opening qualifying session was split by a pair of practice sessions, with Toyota leading both sessions overall, though with different cars as the No. 8 entry led the night practice and the No. 7 car paced the opening practice.