In a dramatic opening act to this weekend’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, round four of the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship, Cadillac emerged on top in qualifying, which determined the fastest cars in each class that advanced to Thursday’s Hyperpole, where the polesitters will be decided
Cadillac showed formidable pace in the Hypercar class as Alex Lynn delivered a blistering 3:22.847 lap in the #12 Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R, the fastest tour of the week so far. Lynn’s time came late in the session and held firm despite fierce competition from BMW and Ferrari.
The lead changed hands multiple times early on, with Ferrari, BMW, Porsche, and Cadillac all briefly topping the timesheets. However, the biggest twist came after the session ended: the #6 Porsche Penske 963, originally fourth fastest in qualifying, was disqualified after failing post-session scrutineering for being under the minimum weight. The car, driven by Kévin Estre, will now start from the back of the Hypercar grid.
Porsche’s exclusion significantly reshuffled the provisional order, however, the top three remained unaffected. Benefitting from Porsche’s misfortune was Aston Martin’s #009 Valkyrie which made history by making it onto for Hyperpole for the first time ever with its crew of Marco Sørensen, Alex Riberas, and Roman De Angelis.
LMP2 & LMGT3 QUALIFYING SUMMARY
In LMP2, Swiss driver Louis Delétraz powered the #199 AO by TF Sport Oreca-Gibson to the top of the class with a 3:35.472, edging out entries from United Autosports and Algarve Pro Racing. In LMGT3, Ahmad Al Harthy claimed the fastest time for the #46 Team WRT BMW (3:56.875) in a closely fought session that featured brief stoppages but no major incidents.
With the grid for Saturday’s race still to be finalized, attention now turns to Thursday evening’s Hyperpole, where the top cars in each class will compete for pole position.