Cadillac continued its impressive 2025 Le Mans 24 Hours performance by locking out the front row of the grid courtesy of late improvements from Alex Lynn and Earl Bamber.
Porsche had looked on track to take its second consecutive pole but both Lynn and Bamber improved on their third flying laps of the 15-minute Hyperpole 2 session.
Lynn grabbed top spot in the #12 V-Series.R LMDh with a 3m23.166s that was 1.5 seconds faster than last year’s pole time.
Bamber then joined his Jota stablemate on the front with a 3m23.333s, which left the best of the Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 LMDhs in third.
Mathieu Jaminet posted a 3m23.475s with his first attempt in the #5 machine, which had a dramatic progression to the concluding Hyperpole segment after losing its right-rear wheel late on in the opening session with Julien Andlauer at the controls.
Fourth was the best of the BMW M Hybrid V8 LMDhs with Dries Vanthoor being another to improve on his third lap in the #15 car to set a 3m23.659s.
Fifth fastest was 2015 winner Nick Tandy in the second of the Porsches on a 3m23.983s, while the sister BMW of Sheldon Van Der Linde was sixth on a 3m24.009s.
Ferrari had a disappointing session considering its dominance of this year’s World Endurance Championship with Antonio Fuoco only managing seventh best in the #50 499P LMH with a 3m24.213s.
Eighth fastest was Felipe Drugovich in the Action Express-run #311 Cadillac, while the #36 Alpine A424 of Frédéric Makowiecki was ninth with a 3m24.398s.
Qualifying proved to be a nightmare for Toyota as, following the failure of the #7 GR010 HYBRID LMH to make it into Hyperpole, the #8 car did not set a time in the deciding session after Sébastien Buemi suffered a huge lock-up going into Mulsanne Corner and skated into the gravel. The Swiss driver made it back to the pits but did not rejoin the fray.
The other two Ferraris both failed to progress into the top 10 for the final Hyperpole session. Alessandro Pier Guidi, victorious in 2023, missed out by only a tenth of a second but will have to start 11th in the #51 499P, while Yifei Ye was 13th fastest in the customer #83 machine.
The others failing to progress were the second Alpine of Paul-Loup Chatin, the #101 Cadillac of Ricky Taylor and the sole Aston Martin Valkyrie that made Hyperpole of Marco Sorensen.
