2025 24 Hours of Le Mans: Cadillac fastest in qualifying, No. 7 Toyota in shock Hyperpole miss
Cadillac tops both sessions on Wednesday at Le Mans
Cadillac topped Wednesday evening’s qualifying at the 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans after the No. 12 Jota entry led the way, while the No. 7 Toyota was a shock Hyperpole exit.
The opening qualifying of the 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans saw the introduction of a new elimination format, with the top 15 cars from the 21-strong field advancing into Thursday’s Hyperpole session.
Having topped FP1 on Wednesday with the No. 38 Jota team, Cadillac found itself at the top of the timesheets again with the No. 12 Jota car driven by Alex Lynn.
The British driver produced a 3m22.847s to best last year’s pole effort and lead the No. 15 WRT BMW of Dries Vanthoor by just 0.040s.
The shock of the session was the exit of the No. 7 Toyota, which - driven by Nyck de Vries - failed to get into the top 15 Hyperpole cutoff in 17th.
Billed as a pre-race favourites, the No. 7 Toyota faces an uphill battle when the race gets underway on Saturday afternoon.
The 2024 pole time was immediately bettered after the opening laps, with the No. 83 AF Corse customer Ferrari - driven by Yifei Ye at the time - setting the early pace at 3m23.994s.
This was bettered by the factory Ferrari car of the No. 51, driven by Alessandro Pier Guidi, with a 3m23.933s, before the No. 311 Whelen Cadillac went faster with a 3m23.890s with eight minutes to go.
Moments later, last year’s polesitter Kevin Estre took the No. 6 Penske Porsche to top spot with a 3m23.360s, with the No. 15 BMW of Dries Vanthoor edging ahead soon after with a 3m22.887s.
Vanthoor spent much of the 30-minute session last having not been able to register a legal lap, but couldn’t hold off the charge of the No. 12 Jota Cadillac of Lynn on a 3m22.847s.
The No. 51 Ferrari completed the top three, while the No. 6 Porsche was shuffled back to fourth ahead of the No. 38 Jota Cadillac.
The No. 50 Ferrari was sixth ahead of the No. 5 Penske Porsche, the No. 20 WRT BMW, the No. 311 Cadillac and the No. 36 Alpine of Mick Schumacher - who is facing an investigation for not obeying yellow flags.
This is in relation to a spin for his Alpine team-mate Paul-Loup Chatin directly in front of him in the No. 35 car.
The No. 8 Toyota made it through to Hyperpole, with the No. 83 AF Corse, the No. 101 WTR Cadillac, the No. 4 Porsche Penske entry and the No. 35 Alpine taking the final spots.
A late improvement for the No. 4 Porsche driven by Felipe Nasr denied Aston Martin a place in Hyperpole with the No. 009.
De Vries appeared to encounter traffic on his final flying lap, which left him 17th, with both Peugeots, the No. 007 Aston and the No. 99 Proton Porsche all missing the Hyperpole cut.
No. 46 WRT tops LMGT3 class in chaotic LMP2/LMPGT3 session
The red flag came out twice during the first segment of qualifying for the LMP2 and LMGT3 cars.
An issue for the No. 60 Iron Lynx Mercedes at the Dunlop chicane brought the session to a halt while it was retrieved around 15 minutes in.
The session was red-flagged a second time with just under four minutes remaining due to a problem for the No. 150 Richard Miller AF Corse Ferrari.
Due to the time left on the clock, the session was not restarted, with the No. 46 WRT BMW entry of Valentino Rossi, Ahmad Al Harthy and Kelvin van der Linde topping LMGT3.
With Al Harthy behind the wheel, he guided the BMW to a 3m56.875s to lead the Heart of Racing Aston Martin - driven by Ian James - and the No. 92 Manthey Porsche.
Half the LMGT3 field doesn’t progress through to the Hyperpole session on Thursday under the new rules, with the championship-leading TF Sport Corvette entry - driven by Ben Keating - the biggest dropout from that list.
A tight LMP2 session went the way of last year’s class polesitter AO by TF sport, with Louis Deletraz taking the No. 199 car to a 3m35.472s ahead of United Autosports’ Ben Hanley.
The No. 11 Proton Competition entry, the No. 18 IDEC Sport entry, the No. 9 Iron Lynx - Proton car and the No. 24 Nielsen Racing car missed out on a place in Hyperpole.
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