2025 24 Hours of Le Mans: Cadillac takes historic maiden pole, Jota leads 1-2
Cadillac locks out Le Mans front row
Cadillac has taken a maiden pole for the 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans, with Alex Lynn in the No.12 leading a Jota 1-2 ahead of the No.38 in a thrilling Hyperpole.
The American manufacturer came into the final Hyperpole session on Thursday night at Le Mans having topped every session on the way into the pole shootout.
In what proved to be a tight session, Alex Lynn in the No.12 Jota-run Cadillac snatched top spot in the dying seconds with a 3m23.166s lap.
He led Jota team-mate Earl Bamber in the No.38 car, who jumped up to second with his final lap to shuffle the No.5 Porsche Penske Motorsport car to third.
It was a shocking evening for reigning Le Mans winners Ferrari, who only managed to get one car into Hyperpole 2, with the No.50 car only seventh on the grid.
Porsche set the pace in the early part of Hyperpole 2 with the No.5 car driven by Mathieu Jaminet, who set the benchmark at 3m23.475s on his first lap.
He led a Porsche 1-2 in the early stages of Hyperpole 2, before Alex Lynn split the 963s in the final five minutes in the No.12 Jota Cadillac.
A stellar final lap from the Briton saw him produce a 3m23.166s to snatch a 700th pole away from Roger Penske, with Earl Bamber in the No.38 Jota Cadillac 0.167s adrift with his final lap to lock out the front row in second.
Porsche held onto third with the No.5 car, while the No.15 WRT BMW driven by Dries Vanthoor was fourth.
Disaster almost struck Porsche in Hyperpole 1, as a wheel worked its way loose from the No.5 car.
The No.4 Porsche Penske car of Nick Tandy was fifth fastest in Hyperpole, with the No.20 BMW Team WRT car driven by Sheldon van der Linde sixth.
Ferrari lost the No.51 car and the No.83 AF Corse customer car in Hyperpole 1, as both failed to crack the top 10 cut-off.
With Antonio Fuoco behind the wheel, last year’s Le Mans-winning No.50 car was only seventh fastest and 1.047s off the pace.
The No.311 Whelen Cadillac, that topped Hyperpole 1, was eighth in the end ahead of the No.36 Alpine of Fred Makowiecki and the No.8 Toyota.
Sebastien Buemi’s Hyperpole 2 was ended on his first flying lap when he suffered a puncture into the Mulsanne corner and couldn’t get the No.8 car to the pits in time.
The No.51 Ferrari will start 11th from the No.35 Alpine, the No. 83 AF Corse car, the No.101 WTR Cadillac and the No.009 Aston Martin.
TDS Racing leads the LMP2 class, Aston tops LMGT3
A tight LMP2 qualifying went the way of the No.29 TDS Racing entry driven by Matias Beche, as he put in a 3m35.062s ahead of the No.43 Inter Europol entry driven by Tom Dillmann.
In the LMGT3 class, pole went to the No.27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin, while the No.46 Team WRT BMW driven by Valentino Rossi in Hyperpole 2 was third.
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