Cadillac Racing advances all four entries into Hyperpole qualifying at Le Mans
By John Sturbin, Raceday San Antonio
Led by the field-topping lap of Alex Lynn, Cadillac Racing’s four Hypercar entries advanced into first round Hyperpole qualifying for this weekend’s 93rd edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Alex Lynn of Cadillac Racing’s four Hypercar entries have advanced into first round Hyperpole qualifying for this weekend’s 93rd edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Photo courtesy of Cadillac Racing
Lynn, driver of the No. 12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R, paced the 21 Hypercar entries on Wednesday with a hot lap of 3-minutes, 22.847-seconds around the famed 8.467-mile/13.626-kilometer Circuit de la Sarthe in France. Lynn ousted the No. 15 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 of Dries Vanthoor of Belgium from pole position by a miniscule four-hundredths of a second (3-minutes, 22.887-seconds).
Lynn’s best lap during the 30-minute session was nearly two seconds quicker than Porsche’s pole-winning lap in 2024, when Cadillac Racing qualified second and third.
“That was lovely!” said Lynn, a 31-year-old native of Great Britain. “The car was great. Honestly, no complaints. I didn’t make any setup adjustments between the first and second run and just improved my performance. It’s a strong start; we’ll take that one.”
Lynn, who is sharing the No. 12 Cadillac with Norman Nato of France and Will Stevens of Great Britain, is a full-season FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) competitor. The No. 12 Cadillac finished fifth at the most recent event at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium.
Trailing Lynn and Vanthoor were Antonio Giovinazzi of Italy, third-fastest in the No. 51 Ferrari AF Corse 499P, and Frenchman Kevin Estre _ last year’s pole-sitter _ in the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963. Practice leader Sebastien Bourdais of France in the No. 38 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R and 2024 Le Mans winner Antonio Fuoco of Italy in the No. 50 AF Corse Ferrari, completed the top-six. Fuoco, 29, also serves as a development driver for the Scuderia Ferrari Formula One team.
The No. 38 Cadillac with Bourdais at the wheel recorded a best lap of eight in 3:23.467. A 46-year-old Le Mans native making his 18th start in the world’s premier endurance race, Bourdais topped the time sheet during the three-hour free practice preceding qualifying.
“It was a good lap,” said Bourdais, the Champ Car World Series champion in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007. “Congratulations to Alex _ really, really solid performance. Personally, I’d say we picked up more understeer than anticipated so I had to dig pretty deep to pull the lap out. Overall, I’m pretty satisfied. I didn’t think we’d dip in the 23s but obviously there’s a big track improvement and getting the second lap, the second run-in, was always going to be critical.”
The No. 38 Cadillac Bourdais is sharing with Earl Bamber of New Zealand and Jenson Button of Great Britain is another full-season FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) competitor. Button’s resume is topped by his Formula One World Driving Championship in 2009 with Brawn. The No. 38 Cadillac placed sixth in the most recent race at Spa-Francorchamps.
“I’m really happy that all four Cadillac cars are through,” Bourdais said. “We seem to be competitive; we just need to fine-tune the balance for tomorrow and see what we can do.”
The top-15 Hypercars by lap time in the qualifying practice advanced to Hyperpole1 on Thursday. The top-10 in that 20-minute session will compete in the new-for-2025 15-minute Hyperpole2 Shootout for pole position. A corresponding twist is entries advancing to Hyperpole2 must use a different driver from Hyperpole1.
The No. 5 Penske Porsche driven by Julien Andlauer of France; the No. 20 WRT BMW driven by Robin Frijns of The Netherlands; the No. 311 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R wheeled by Jack Aitken of Great Britain; the No. 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid of New Zealander Brendon Hartley; the No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari of Ye Yifei of China and the No. 101 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Filipe Albuquerque of Portugal all advanced into the first Hyperpole session set for Thursday evening. That group also includes Mick Schumacher of Germany, the son of seven-time F1 World Driving Champion Michael Schumacher, and Paul-Loup Chatin of France in the two Alpine Hypercar Team A424s.
Aitken and the No. 311 Whelen Cadillac flirted with the top of the time sheet while posting a lap of 3:23.890. Albuquerque advanced the No. 101 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing entry with a best lap of 3:24.030.
“It was about getting a clean lap and not making any mistakes,” said Aitken, a 29-year-old native of London. “The first one went well; I had a bit of an ‘off’ on the second lap but was able to keep going. We then focused on the second run and made a decent improvement. The others probably made a bigger step, but the car feels really solid. I think we can eke out a little more performance tomorrow in the afternoon, and I think we’re in a good place. It’s good to see that all four Cadillacs made it.”
The No. 311 Whelen Cadillac shared by Aitken, Felipe Drugovich of Brazil and Frederik Vesti of Denmark is a full-season IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship entrant. That also is the case for the No. 101 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R shared by Albuquerque and brothers/Florida natives Jordan and Ricky Taylor.
The Wayne Taylor Racing entry is marking its first appearance in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, though all three drivers and team-owner Wayne Taylor have competed multiple times in the event. Jordan Taylor celebrated a GTE Pro class win at Le Mans for the factory Corvette Racing team 10 years ago. Wayne Taylor last competed at Le Mans in 2002 in the final year of Cadillac’s Northstar LMP project.
“We achieved the goal that we wanted, which was going through the first qualifying in the top-15,” said Albuquerque, a 39-year-old native of Portugal whose endurance racing background includes stints with the successful Werks Audi Le Mans program. “We should not forget it’s our first time here and we’re learning. We’re working as one team and it’s an impressive effort from Cadillac putting the four cars in the top-15. We’re going to push hard and learn for tomorrow, making every time we’re on the track an improvement. A good job from everybody. One step at a time.”
LMP2 entrants were led by the No. 14 Oreca 07-Gibson AO by TF shared by Illinois racer/businessman P.J. Hyett, Californian Dane Cameron and Pro-Am driver Louis Deletraz of Switzerland after a lap of 3:35.472.
The 24 Hours of Le Mans is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. (EDT) on Saturday, June 14. MotorTrend will televise the full race live in the United States, with full live streaming coverage of all on-track sessions _ including qualifying and Hyperpole _ available via the MAX app in the USA and the FIA WEC app internationally. Radio Le Mans also will provide live streaming audio coverage of all sessions.
Tom Van Rompuy helped put TF Sport’s No. 81 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R into Thursday’s Hyperpole session ahead of this weekend’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. Photo courtesy of Cadillac Racing
Corvette Racing’s LMGT3 qualifying saw Tom Van Rompuy drive TF Sport’s No. 81 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R into Thursday’s Hyperpole session with the fifth-fastest lap of 3-minutes, 57.890-seconds. Van Rompuy, of Belgium, is sharing the No. 81 Corvette with Rui Andrade, who is of Angolan-Portuguese descent, and GM factory driver Charlie Eastwood of Northern Ireland.
LMGT3 entries were paced by the No. 46 BMW M4 LMGT3 shared by Kelvin van der Linde, who is of South African and German descent; former motorcycle superstar Valentino Rossi of Italy and Ahmad Al Harthy of Oman at 3:56.875.
Van Rompuy’s hottest lap placed the Corvette in the top-12 in class by a full second as the quickest dozen LMGT3 cars advanced into Hyperpole1, where the eight best on time will move onto the final Hyperpole round and grid positions for Saturday’s start.
“I’m really happy with the run I did in qualifying,” Van Rompuy said. “Compared to my previous best time from this year, it’s quite a chunk less. We also had good preparation with the team, and I looked at a lot of data with Charlie ahead of time. So yes, there is a lot to be happy about in putting the Corvette in Hyperpole. Now it’s up to the big boys to get us further up the order.”
Meanwhile, teammate and native Texan Ben Keating _ driver of the No. 33 Corvette Z06 GT3.R _ qualified 17th, missing out of Hyperpole by four-tenths of a second. A late red-flag stoppage _ the second of the session _ with about six minutes remaining thwarted Keating’s charge into the top-12, as did class competitors Keating claimed significantly held up his Corvette at the end of the circuit’s lengthy straightaways.
A 53-year-old native of Tomball, Texas, Keating is the owner of 30 auto dealerships across Texas under the banner of The Keating Auto Group based in Victoria.
Keating extended congratulations to Van Rompuy, then added, “What irritates me more than anything else (about the red flag) is that the No. 21 Ferrari and one of the Fords were just able to drive right around me on the straightaway and then park it in the corner. I felt like I was doing some really good laps there. My Hyperpole lap in ’23 was five seconds quicker than all of this. So, I know how to drive this track. But I can’t do it if somebody drives around me and parks it in the corner.
“Unfortunately, I think that’s what I’m going to be looking at this weekend for 24 hours, which just really angers me. This was my best lap for the weekend. I had a better lap going at the end before the red flag. Who knows what could have been? I think we’ll still be in the midst of the race, which is all you can hope for. I just don’t like starting P17.”
Hyperpole qualifying for LMGT3 entrants is scheduled for 8 p.m. (local time) Thursday. The TF Sport squad is aiming for its third class win at Le Mans, while the Corvette Racing program is chasing its 10th class victory in this event since 2001.
