Porsche Secures Le Mans Pole in Closing Seconds Robbing Cadillac of Its First

The No. 6 Porsche Penske secured the Hyperpole for the 24 Hours of Le Mans within the closing seconds of qualifying Thursday night. With lower than eight seconds remaining, Dries Vanthoor within the No. 15 BMW misplaced management in Indianapolis nook, inflicting a crimson flag to be issued to clear the automotive from the circuit.

On the time of the crimson flag, Sebastian Bourdais, a Le Mans native, was on the highest of the charts within the No. 3 Cadillac by a margin of o.782 over the 2 Ferrari AF vehicles; each had been on monitor when the crimson flag got here out, and their instances had been thereby deleted. The No. 50 piloted by Antonio Fuoco was sooner than Bourdais within the first sector and pacing forward within the second when his time was nulled.

The crimson flag lasted round 10 minutes, however throughout that interval, the monitor slowed and momentum stalled. The 2 Ferraris had been unable to match Bourdais’s time once they returned to the monitor.

The Le Mans native time stayed on the high of the board till the ultimate moments when Alex Lynn within the No. 2 sister Cadillac and Kevin Estre within the No. 6 Porsche Penske began their closing qualifying lap with seconds remaining on the clock.

Lynn completed his lap 0.374 forward of his teammate to momentarily arrange Cadillac for a front-row sweep. Seconds later, after a stellar closing sector, Estre bested each Cadillacs with a lap time of three.24.634, 0.148 sooner than Lynn’s.

Over the No. 6 radio, it was shared that Estre was on most gas save and had completed the monitor on E-Drive to report his time, pushing it so far as potential.

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That is Porsche’s first pole within the occasion since 2017. The No. 6 trio of Bourdais, Andre Lotterer, and Laurens Vanthoor enter the race as the present leaders within the 2024 WEC after profitable the opening spherical in Qatar and finishing second at Imola and Spa.

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