WEC 24 Hours of Le Mans

Le Mans 24 Hours Hyperpole qualifying delayed due to barrier repair

The Hyperpole for the Le Mans 24 Hours has been delayed by half an hour to allow time for barrier repairs following a major crash in a support race on Thursday evening.

Rachit Thukral

Rachit Thukral

Edited: Jun 13, 2024, 6:29 PM

Copy link

Share on Facebook

Share on Twitter

Share on WhatsApp

Share on Linkedin

Share on Pinterest

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Slow zone

The pole shootout for the fourth round of the 2024 World Endurance Championship did not begin as scheduled at 8pm local time, with the race control subsequently communicating 8:30pm as the new start time.

The Hyperpole session was further pushed forward to 8:35pm, as the work continued on replacing the armco barriers between Mulsanne and Indianapolis.

The first of the two contests for the weekend was red-flagged with about 15 minutes left on the clock when Graff driver Louis Rossi heavily crashed his #9 Ligier JS P320 LMP3 car.

Rossi was able to get out of the car on his own, but both his car and the barriers sustained heavy damage in the contact.

No replays of the incident were shown and it remains clear if a technical problem was to blame for the crash. An accident with another car can also not be ruled out.

#83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Robert Kubica, Robert Shwartzman, Yifei Ye

#83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Robert Kubica, Robert Shwartzman, Yifei Ye

Photo by: Rainier Ehrhardt

Eight cars from each of the three classes are due to take part in Hyperpole, which will decide how they will line up on the grid for the 92th running of the French endurance classic.

However, only seven vehicles will effectively be contending for pole position in Hypercar, with Jota sitting out the session as it rebuilds its #12 Porsche 963 around a new chassis.

The British team only got through into Q2 after Kamui Kobayashi lost all his laps in the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid for causing a red flag. But Callum Ilott then suffered a crash of his own in night practice later on Wednesday, wrecking the Porsche tub beyond repair.

Dries Vanthoor had topped the opening segment of the qualifying in the #15 BMW M Hybrid V8, leading the #3 Cadillac V-Series.R of Sebastien Bourdais. 

Malthe Jakobsen put the #37 Cool Racing ORECA-Gibson 07 on top in the LMP2 class, while the new LMGT3 division was led by Ben Barker in the #77 Proton Ford Mustang GT3.

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Read also :

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Facebook

Share on Twitter

Share on WhatsApp

Share on Linkedin

Share on Pinterest

Share on Viber

Previous article Jota, Wayne Taylor teams favourites for Cadillac switch in WEC, IMSA

Next article Le Mans 24 Hours to clash with F1 Canadian GP in 2025 as WEC calendar announced

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

More from

Rachit Thukral



MotoGP Australian GP: Full starting grid as four riders forced out of Phillip Island race

MotoGP

MotoGP

Australian GP

1 h

MotoGP Australian GP: Full starting grid as four riders forced out of Phillip Island race



Alex Marquez says overtaking Marc Marquez was “too risky” in Australian GP sprint

MotoGP

MotoGP

Australian GP

3 h

Alex Marquez says overtaking Marc Marquez was “too risky” in Australian GP sprint



The contrasting tactics used by Ducati and Aprilia in MotoGP 2026 title fight

MotoGP

Japanese GP

The contrasting tactics used by Ducati and Aprilia in MotoGP 2026 title fight

Latest news



"Just undriveable" – Isack Hadjar looking for answers after "massive" struggles in Austin practice

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

2 min

"Just undriveable" – Isack Hadjar looking for answers after "massive" struggles in Austin practice



Maverick Vinales: “If I stay at home, I don’t get paid”

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Australian GP

31 min

Maverick Vinales: “If I stay at home, I don’t get paid”



The unexpected problem Honda encountered despite its second F1 power unit upgrade

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

1 h

The unexpected problem Honda encountered despite its second F1 power unit upgrade



MotoGP Australian GP: Full starting grid as four riders forced out of Phillip Island race

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Australian GP

1 h

MotoGP Australian GP: Full starting grid as four riders forced out of Phillip Island race

Feature

Discover prime content



Why Toyota’s 2026 WEC triumphs have put it into the all-time greatest endurance racing team debate

WEC

Barcelona

By Gary Watkins

Why Toyota’s 2026 WEC triumphs have put it into the all-time greatest endurance racing team debate



How Toyota destroyed the competition to seal the WEC crowns

WEC

Barcelona

By Gary Watkins

How Toyota destroyed the competition to seal the WEC crowns



How Ford is “hitting milestones” ahead of its WEC Hypercar push

WEC

By Gary Watkins

How Ford is “hitting milestones” ahead of its WEC Hypercar push



Why there’s no perfect solution to the WEC safety car conundrum

WEC

Fuji

By Gary Watkins

Why there’s no perfect solution to the WEC safety car conundrum

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts

Subscribe