Qualifying report
WEC 24 Hours of Le Mans
Le Mans 24h: Ferrari tops first qualifying, Hyperpole spots decided
Ferrari topped Wednesday evening's first qualifying for the Le Mans 24 Hours, as the eight cars from each class progressing to Thursday's Hyperpole session were decided.
Stephen Lickorish
Edited: Dec 19, 2023, 3:22 PM
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The Italian manufacturer locked out the top two spots with its pair of 499P Le Mans Hypercars, besting the two Toyota GR010 HYBRIDs that placed third and fourth.
Alessandro Pier Guidi set an impressive 3m25.412s in the #51 Ferrari with around 15 minutes to go, despite getting slightly held up late in the lap by a GTE Am Aston.
But moments later he was usurped by the sister #50 car of Antonio Fuoco, who posted a 3m25.213s to grab the top spot.
The early pace was set by the #7 Toyota of Kamui Kobayashi, who put in a 3m25.485s at the very start of the session – which ultimately left him 0.3s behind the Ferraris, and fractionally ahead of Brendon Hartley in the sister #8 car.
Next up in the two-by-two formation from the leading manufacturers were two of the Porsche 963 LMDhs, Frederic Makowiecki in the #5 heading Felipe Nasr in the #75 as both were 0.6s behind the Ferraris.
The final cars from the Hypercar class to make it through to the eight-car Hyperpole shootout were the two Chip Ganassi Racing-run Cadillac V-Series.R LMDhs – Sebastien Bourdais in the #3, just ahead of Earl Bamber in the #2 and both less than a second off the pace.
Kevin Estre's #6 Porsche was the first car to miss out and will therefore start ninth, having missed the cut-off by almost a second.
Peugeot failed to get either of its 9X8 LMHs into the top eight, with Mikkel Jensen 10th in the #93 car ahead of Loic Duval in the #94 machine.
The Hypercar field was rounded out by the Action Express Caddy, the two Glickenhaus 007s and the Vanwall Vandervell 680, while JOTA's privateer Porsche 963 did not set a time due to hybrid-related issues.
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The hour-long session started with two early red flags, the first caused by a collision between the #22 United Autosports LMP2 machine of Filipe Albuquerque and the #36 Alpine ORECA of Matthieu Vaxiviere when they were jostling for position into the final chicane.
The session had only just been restarted when it was halted again, this time by the #37 Cool Racing LMP2 entry of Malthe Jakobsen skating into the Indianapolis barriers.
For the majority of the session, the LMP2 leaderboard was headed by the #28 JOTA entry of Pietro Fittipaldi, his 3m34.751s good enough to beat the #41 WRT-entered ORECA of Louis Deletraz by just two thousandths of a second.
The #63 Prema ORECA of Mirko Bortolotti made a late jump to third ahead of the #48 IDEC Sport and #10 Vector Sport cars.
There was late drama in the GTE Am class with the top time changing hands several times in the closing stages.
Charlie Eastwood's TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage had topped the times for much of the hour before a flurry of late improvements.
First up, with just four minutes to go, Nicky Catsburg in the sole Corvette C8.R emerged from the pits following repairs after Nico Varrone's Tertre Rouge practice crash to shoot to the top of the times on his very first flying lap.
But he was shuffled back to an eventual third following a pair of late efforts from Ferrari drivers.
Davide Rigon in the #54 AF Corse 488 looked to have snared top spot, before he was pipped by the #83 Richard Mille-backed sister car of Alessio Rovera moments after the chequered flag went out.
Cars progressing to Hyperpole:
Hypercar
#50 Ferrari AF Corse
#51 Ferrari AF Corse
#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing
#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing
#5 Porsche Penske Motorsport
#75 Porsche Penske Motorsport
#3 Cadillac Racing
#2 Cadillac Racing
LMP2
#28 JOTA
#41 Team WRT
#63 Prema Racing
#48 IDEC Sport
#10 Vector Sport
#47 COOL Racing
#923 Racing Team Turkey
#9 Prema Racing
GTE Am
#83 Richard Mille AF Corse
#54 AF Corse
#33 Corvette Racing
#25 ORT by TF
#57 Kessel Racing
#55 GMB Motorsport
#21 AF Corse
#74 Kessel Racing
Read Also:
- The 2023 Le Mans 24 Hours entry list in full
- Peugeot 'disappointed' by Le Mans speed after missing Hyperpole
- Catsburg: "Expectations even higher" to end Corvette's Le Mans win drought
Le Mans 24 Hours - first qualifying results:
Pos. # Drivers Car Class Time Gap 1 50 
Antonio Fuoco
Miguel Molina
Nicklas Nielsen Ferrari 499P Hypercar 3'25.213 2 51 
James Calado
Antonio Giovinazzi
Alessandro Pier Guidi Ferrari 499P Hypercar 3'25.412 0.199 3 7 Mike Conway
Kamui Kobayashi
Jose Maria Lopez Toyota GR010 - Hybrid Hypercar 3'25.485 0.272 4 8 
Sebastien Buemi
Brendon Hartley
Ryo Hirakawa Toyota GR010 - Hybrid Hypercar 3'25.749 0.536 5 5 
Dane Cameron
Michael Christensen
Frédéric Makowiecki Porsche 963 Hypercar 3'25.848 0.635 6 75 Mathieu Jaminet
Felipe Nasr
Nick Tandy Porsche 963 Hypercar 3'25.868 0.655 7 3 Sebastien Bourdais
Scott Dixon
Renger van der Zande Cadillac V-Series.R Hypercar 3'25.924 0.711 8 2 Earl Bamber
Alex Lynn
Richard Westbrook Cadillac V-Series.R Hypercar 3'26.020 0.807 9 6 Kevin Estre
Andre Lotterer
Laurens Vanthoor Porsche 963 Hypercar 3'26.900 1.687 10 93 Paul di Resta
Mikkel Jensen
Jean-Eric Vergne Peugeot 9X8 Hypercar 3'27.260 2.047 11 94 Loïc Duval
Gustavo Menezes
Nico Müller Peugeot 9X8 Hypercar 3'27.850 2.637 12 311 Jack Aitken
Pipo Derani
Alexander Sims Cadillac V-Series.R Hypercar 3'27.960 2.747 13 708 
Ryan Briscoe
Romain Dumas
Olivier Pla Glickenhaus 007 LMH Hypercar 3'28.497 3.284 14 709 Nathanaël Berthon
Esteban Gutierrez
Franck Mailleux Glickenhaus 007 LMH Hypercar 3'28.612 3.399 15 4 Tom Dillmann
Esteban Guerrieri
Tristan Vautier Vanwall Vandervell 680 Hypercar 3'29.745 4.532 16 28 Pietro Fittipaldi
David Heinemeier Hansson
Oliver Rasmussen Oreca 07 LMP2 3'34.751 9.538 17 41 
Rui Andrade
Louis Deletraz
Robert Kubica Oreca 07 LMP2 3'34.753 9.540 18 63 Mirko Bortolotti
Daniil Kvyat
Doriane Pin Oreca 07 LMP2 3'34.793 9.580 19 48 Paul Loup Chatin
Laurents Hörr
Paul Lafargue Oreca 07 LMP2 3'34.839 9.626 20 10 Gabriel Aubry
Ryan Cullen
Matthias Kaiser Oreca 07 LMP2 3'34.985 9.772 21 47 Reshad de Gerus
Vlad Lomko
Simon Pagenaud Oreca 07 LMP2 3'35.105 9.892 22 923 Tom Gamble
Dries Vanthoor
Salih Yoluc Oreca 07 LMP2 3'35.176 9.963 23 9 
Juan Manuel Correa
Filip Ugran
Bent Viscaal Oreca 07 LMP2 3'35.392 10.179 24 14 Mathias Beche
Ben Hanley
Rodrigo Sales Oreca 07 LMP2 3'35.453 10.240 25 23 Tom Blomqvist
Oliver Jarvis
Josh Pierson Oreca 07 LMP2 3'35.519 10.306 26 45 James Allen
Colin Braun
George Kurtz Oreca 07 LMP2 3'35.578 10.365 27 22 Filipe Albuquerque
Philip Hanson
Frederick Lubin Oreca 07 LMP2 3'35.587 10.374 28 39 Giedo van der Garde
Roberto Lacorte
Patrick Pilet Oreca 07 LMP2 3'35.652 10.439 29 65 Tijmen van der Helm
Manuel Maldonado
Job Van Uitert Oreca 07 LMP2 3'35.691 10.478 30 34 Albert Costa
Fabio Scherer
Jakub Smiechowski Oreca 07 LMP2 3'35.755 10.542 31 31 Robin Frijns
Sean Gelael
Ferdinand Habsburg Oreca 07 LMP2 3'35.853 10.640 32 43 Maxime Martin
Tom van Rompuy
Ugo De Wilde Oreca 07 LMP2 3'35.951 10.738 33 37 Alexandre Coigny
Malthe Jakobsen
Nicolas Lapierre Oreca 07 LMP2 3'36.271 11.058 34 80 Ben Barnicoat
Norman Nato
François Perrodo Oreca 07 LMP2 3'36.483 11.270 35 30 Rene Binder
Neel Jani
Nicolas Pino Oreca 07 LMP2 3'37.213 12.000 36 35 Olli Caldwell
André Negrão
Memo Rojas Oreca 07 LMP2 3'37.498 12.285 37 32 Anders Fjordbach
Mark Kvamme
Jan Magnussen Oreca 07 LMP2 3'39.303 14.090 38 24 Jenson Button
Jimmie Johnson
Mike Rockenfeller Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 INNOVATIVE CAR 3'47.976 22.763 39 54 Francesco Castellacci
Thomas Flohr
Davide Rigon Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'51.914 26.701 40 33 Nicky Catsburg
Ben Keating
Nicolas Varrone Chevrolet Corvette C8.R LMGTE AM 3'52.228 27.015 41 25 
Ahmad Al Harthy
Michael Dinan
Charlie Eastwood Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 3'52.431 27.218 42 57 Scott Huffaker
Takeshi Kimura
Daniel Serra Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'52.459 27.246 43 55 Gustav Birch
Jens Reno Møller
Marco Sørensen Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 3'52.484 27.271 44 83 Luis Perez Companc
Alessio Rovera
Lilou Wadoux Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'52.658 27.445 45 21 Simon Mann
Ulysse De Pauw
Julien Piguet Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'52.968 27.755 46 74 Kei Cozzolino
Yorikatsu Tsujiko
Naoki Yokomizo Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'53.263 28.050 47 60 Matteo Cressoni
Alessio Picariello
Claudio Schiavoni Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 3'53.374 28.161 48 98 Ian James
Daniel Mancinelli
Alex Riberas Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 3'53.406 28.193 49 77 Julien Andlauer
Christian Ried
Mikkel Pedersen Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 3'53.481 28.268 50 86 Ben Barker
Riccardo Pera
Michael Wainwright Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 3'53.531 28.318 51 85 Sarah Bovy
Rahel Frey
Michelle Gatting Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 3'53.603 28.390 52 72 Valentin Hasse-Clot
Arnold Robin
Maxime Robin Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 3'53.703 28.490 53 56 Matteo Cairoli
PJ Hyett
Gunnar Jeannette Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 3'53.947 28.734 54 66 Neubauer Thomas
Giacomo Petrobelli
Louis Prette Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'54.093 28.880 55 911 Michael Fassbender
Richard Lietz
Martin Rump Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 3'54.129 28.916 56 16 Ryan Hardwick
Jan Heylen
Zacharie Robichon Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 3'54.137 28.924 57 100 Andrew Haryanto
Chandler Hull
Jeffrey Segal Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 3'54.143 28.930 58 88 Jonas Ried
Harry Tincknell
Don Yount Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 3'58.486 33.273 59 36 Julien Canal
Charles Milesi
Matthieu Vaxivière Oreca 07 LMP2 3'59.171 33.958 60 13 René Rast
Ricky Taylor
Steven Thomas Oreca 07 LMP2 no time 61 38 Antonio Felix da Costa
Will Stevens
Ye Yifei Porsche 963 Hypercar no time 62 777 Tomonobu Fujii
Satoshi Hoshino
Casper Stevenson Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM no time
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