- Charlie Thornton
- Jun 13, 2025
- 7 min read
FIA World Endurance Championship - 24 Hours of Le Mans - Cadillac sweeps Hypercar front-row as Heart of Racing's Aston Martin takes LMGT3 pole in Le Mans!
In a thrilling Thursday evening at the Circuit de la Sarthe, Cadillac dominated the Hypercar category with a commanding front-row lockout, while Heart of Racing's Aston Martin secured pole position for LMGT3.
FREE PRACTICE 3
The first practice session on Thursday saw a somewhat interrupted session with one red flag, three slow zones and a full course yellow. François Perrodo caused the red flag when he made contact with the barriers through the Porsche Curves in his #183 AF Corse Oreca 07, roughly halfway into the three-hour session, while the two slow zones were caused by Thomas Flohr at the Ford Chicanes, and Jonas Ried at Indianapolis in the #54 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3 and #9 Iron Lynx - Proton Oreca 07 respectively. There was also inter-class rivalry between the #37 CLX - Pure Rxcing Oreca 07 of Alex Malykhin and the #85 Iron Dames Porsche 992 LMGT3 R of Célia Martin, where the Porsche had a half-spin, and nearly caught the LMP2, but instead clipped the tyre bundle at the first chicane in avoidance.
Mathieu Jaminet made a late session charge, and went quickest in the session with a 3:24.717 in his #5 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963, eight-tenths clear of the Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac’s of Earl Bamber and Will Stevens. The #101 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing entry spent most of the session in the garage undergoing an engine change, but was on track in the closing moments for a few installation laps, and finished eighteenth in the running. Mathias Beche was quickest in the LMP2 Pro-Am class, and overall with a 3:36.825 in his #29 TDS Racing Oreca 07, six-tenths clear of the #23 United Autosports Pro-Am entry. Heart of Racing was on top by thirty-seven-hundredths in the LMGT3 class with Zacharie Robichon in the #27 Vantage LMGT3 Evo with a 3:55.897, while the #92 Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche was second, followed by the #78 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus RC F LMGT3.
FREE PRACTICE 3 CLASS RESULTS:
HYPERCAR: #5 - Porsche Penske Motorsport, Porsche 963 - Julien Andlauer, Michael Christensen & Mathieu Jaminet
LMP2: #29 - TDS Racing, Oreca 07 - Mathias Beche, Clément Novalak & Rodrigo Sales
LMGT3: #27 - Heart of Racing Team - Aston Martin Vantage LMGT3 Evo - Mattia Drudi, Ian James & Zacharie Robichon
HYPERPOLE
LMGT3:
Minutes into the first Hyperpole session for LMGT3, Francesco Castellacci in the #54 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3 beached himself in the gravel at the Porsche Curves, deploying a red flag, and disrupting the runs of multiple other runners. As the session was later resumed, the #95 United Autosports McLaren 720s GT3 Evo of Sean Gelael came to a stop on the Mulsanne after the first chicane, but continued shortly afterwards, meanwhile a few minutes later, the #46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 Evo of Kelvin van der Linde topped the session with a 3:54.530, just a tenth ahead of the #81 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R. By the end of the session, it was unsure whether Gelael in the #95 McLaren was on a valid hot-lap or not, but as he crossed the line, he improved his time, and kicked the #193 Ziggo Sport Tempesta Ferrari 296 LMGT3 out of Hyperpole 2.
Out in Hyperpole 1: #193 Ziggo Sport Tempesta Ferrari, #88 Proton Competition Ford Mustang, #59 United Autosports McLaren & #54 Vista AF Corse Ferrari.
Alessio Rovera topped the session early on in the #21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 with a 3:53.294, but with just two minutes left, Mattia Drudi, on his debut at the Circuit de la Sarthe, in the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage LMGT3 Evo topped the session with a 3:52.789, claiming pole position for the race by just over two-tenths of a second.
Top Eight: #27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin, #21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari, #46 Team WRT BMW, #61 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG, #92 Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche, #81 TF Sport Corvette, #95 United Autosports McLaren & #78 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus.
LMP2:
The LMP2’s shared the Hyperpole sessions with the LMGT3’s, therefore there was a similar disruption to the prototype field in the first session, but as the session resumed, the #22 United Autosports Oreca 07 of Renger van der Zande shot to the top with a 3:36.135, while Louis Delétraz and Oliver Jarvis sat second and third in the #199 AO by TF and #23 United Autosports entries respectively. Minutes later, Nick Yelloly went fastest with a 3:34.657, beating Delétraz by over six-tenths of a second.
Out in Hyperpole 1: #28 IDEC Sport, #45 Algarve Pro Racing, #48 VDS Panis Racing & #25 Algarve Pro Racing
After the opening laps trickled through, it was Ben Hanley in the #23 United Autosports quickest, but he was immediately beaten by Delétraz in the #199 AO by TF entry with a 3:36.442, but the times could come down even more. Hanley bettered Delétraz’s time by nearly a second on the next few laps, setting a 3:35.459, while Mathias Beche slotted into second position in the #29 TDS Racing Oreca. Tom Dillmann went marginally quicker, but it was Beche in the #29 TDS Racing entry that stole the show, seizing pole with a 3:55.062, securing the top spot for both LMP2 and LMP2 Pro-Am.
Top Eight: #29 TDS Racing, #43 Inter Europol Competition, #199 AO by TF, #23 United Autosports, #22 United Autosports, #37 CLX-Pure Rxcing, #183 AF Corse & #16 RLR M Sport
HYPERCAR:
Robin Frijns was immediately on the pace in the #20 BMW M Team WRT entry, setting the early benchmark of a 3:24.420, and was quickly beaten by Julien Andlauer in the #5 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 setting a 3:23.979. Just under ten minutes remained when Frijns improved once again, briefly taking second position by just 0.099 seconds off Andlauer’s time, moments before Miguel Molina knocked the BMW to third in the #50 Ferrari, splitting Andlauer and Frijns by a tiny margin of 0.046 seconds. However, chaos struck with just over two minutes left, and Andlauer’s session ended prematurely when his Porsche lost a wheel near the pit entry, forcing him to limp back to the garage, and triggering yellow flags. Despite this disruption, the final minute became a frenzy when Will Stevens launched the #12 Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac to the top, only to be pipped by Mick Schumacher in the #36 Alpine A424 with a 3:23.462. Frijns threw down another late flyer, but Bourdais responded immediately with a 3:23.141, when his Cadillac compatriot Jack Aitken set the quickest time of the session with a 3:22.742 in the #311 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R, clear by almost four-tenths of a second.
Out in Hyperpole 1: #51 Ferrari AF Corse, #35 Alpine Endurance Team, #83 AF Corse Ferrari, #101 Cadillac WTR & #009 Aston Martin THOR Team
The second hyperpole session began and drama started almost instantly when Sébastien Buemi in the #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 skidded off into the gravel at the Mulsanne corner, and as the incident was cleared, Sheldon van der Linde put the #20 BMW on provisional pole with a 3:24.528, but was outpaced by Antonio Fuoco in the #50 Ferrari, and then Alex Lynn in the #12 Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac, who set a blistering 3:24.098. Another surge from the #5 Porsche 963 came from Mathieu Jaminet, but with just forty seconds left on the clock, Lynn executed a near-perfect lap in the #12 Cadillac, slashing his time down to 3:23.166, while the sister #38 of Earl Bamber slotted into second position, shy by just over a tenth of a second. Dries Vanthoor also managed to improve on his time, and ended up fourth, over four-tenths off Lynn’s extraordinary pace.
HYPERPOLE CLASS RESULTS:
FREE PRACTICE 4
The final free practice for the 93rd Edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans saw Robert Kubica in the #83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P go quickest with a 3:26.523, nearly a second quicker than the #50 Ferrari AF Corse of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen. The session saw a couple of stoppages from various competitors, including Brenton Grove in the #63 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG LMGT3 Evo, which stopped on the Mulsanne Straight with a gearbox problem, and could not continue the session. Due to this, both Brenton and his father, Stephen, were not able to complete their minimum number of five night practice laps required, following a crash in free practice one, which ruled them out of qualifying and the first night session later on Wednesday.
FREE PRACTICE 4 CLASS RESULTS:
RACE TO COME!
No on-track action on Friday, but the 93rd Edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans will begin on Saturday afternoon.
Join us on our Discord, as well as our Race streams on our YouTube channel with live-timing and in-depth and analytical discussions!
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