2025 Le Mans 24 Hours – Hyperpole Report
Cadillac locks out the Hypercar front row, Aston Martin heads LMGT3, and TDS rules LMP2 in a tense two-part Hyperpole that reshuffles the Le Mans pecking order on the eve of the 2025 race.
Yesterday’s revised two-part Hyperpole sessions set the grid for the 93rd running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. A fresh format split prototypes from LMGT3 to give the fastest cars a clear track, and the result delivered new names at the front while some regular powers stumbled.
How the new Hyperpole works
Wednesday’s 30-minute qualifying trimmed each class. The top 15 Hypercars and top 12 in LMP2 and LMGT3 progressed. On Thursday afternoon the survivors ran a 20-minute Hyperpole 1 for a place in the decisive 15-minute Hyperpole 2 shoot-out. One championship point goes to every pole winner.
Hypercar – Cadillac’s golden anniversary
Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA marked 75 years since the brand’s first Le Mans entry by locking out the front row. Alex Lynn hurled the #12 V-Series.R round the Circuit de la Sarthe in 3 min 23.166 sec, 1.5 sec quicker than last year’s pole. Stable-mate Earl Bamber followed just 0.167 sec back in the #38 machine.
Porsche Penske Motorsport filled the second row. Mathieu Jaminet pushed the #5 963 to third, 0.309 sec away, while Nick Tandy placed the #4 sister car fifth.
The team’s third factory entry never reached Hyperpole. The #6 Porsche of Kévin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor and Matt Campbell was excluded from Wednesday qualifying for failing the minimum-weight check, dropping it to 21st.
BMW M Team WRT showed real pace: Dries Vanthoor hauled the #15 M Hybrid V8 to fourth, and Sheldon van der Linde put the #20 car sixth despite an oil-leak stoppage in Sunday testing.
Ferrari, dominant in the early WEC season, looked unusually flat. Antonio Fuoco could do no better than seventh in the #50 499P, while the #51 and customer #83 missed the finale entirely.
Toyota’s miserable afternoon ended with Sébastien Buemi beaching the #8 GR010 in the Mulsanne gravel without a time.
LMP2 – TDS on top
Hyperpole for the secondary prototypes belonged to TDS Racing. Mathias Beche set a 3 min 35.062 sec in the #29 Oreca-Gibson, four-tenths clear of Tom Dillmann’s Inter Europol entry.
LMGT3 – Heart of Racing heads an eclectic eight
Nine marques filled the eight-car LMGT3 shoot-out, proof that the balance of performance is tight.
- Mattia Drudi grabbed pole for the #27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage LMGT3 with a 3 min 52.769 sec.
- Ferrari’s new 296 LMGT3, crewed by Alessio Rovera, will start second, three-tenths back.
- Third went to the #46 BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Valentino Rossi, Ahmad Al Harthy and Kelvin van der Linde, delighting the grandstands.
- Iron Lynx returned Mercedes-AMG to Le Mans for the first time since 1999. The #61 Silver Arrows-liveried LMGT3 of Maxime Martin, Martin Berry and 18-year-old Lin Hodenius qualified fourth, just 0.032 sec behind the BMW.
- Manthey 1st Phorm’s #92 Porsche 911 GT3 R took fifth, steered in Hyperpole by five-time class winner Richard Lietz.
Further down, the all-female Iron Dames Porsche and the #90 Manthey Porsche start 18th and 19th.
Key numbers
- Grid: 62 cars – 21 Hypercar, 17 LMP2, 24 LMGT3.
- Lap record in Hyperpole: Lynn’s 3 min 23.166 sec at 241 km/h.
- Pole margin, Hypercar: 0.167 sec.
- Manufacturers represented across all classes: Nine.
- Outright Le Mans winners on the entry list: 16.
RSR analysis – What the times really tell us
Cadillac has harnessed the one-lap grip of its Michelins earlier than anyone else. The V-Series.R also looks kind on tyres, an attribute that will matter once track temperatures climb tomorrow afternoon.
Porsche’s fastest 963 topped every sector in free practice three and still appears the most consistent over ten-lap runs, but starting from row two removes the luxury of dictating the opening stint.
BMW’s raw speed is genuine, as the #15 split the factory Porsches. The Munich marque has quietly raised downforce since Spa and now sits in Cadillac’s slipstream on the straights. Reliability remains the unknown after the #20’s oil scare in testing.
Ferrari and Toyota face a damage-limitation start. Slow-speed traction and fuel mileage should bring them back into play at night, yet they must stay out of trouble in the first six hours.
In GT, Aston Martin has rediscovered corner entry bite with its new diffuser, and Drudi wrung every tenth from it. Ferrari’s 296 matches the Vantage through the Porsche Curves but loses on the run to Indianapolis. BMW’s tidy third shows how well the EVO kit suits La Sarthe’s long braking zones. Keep an eye on Mercedes-AMG: the Iron Lynx crew ran the least wing of the pack and were fastest in sector one.
What’s next
- Drivers’ parade in the city centre: today, 16:00–19:00 CEST.
- Warm-up: Saturday, 10:30.
- Race start: Saturday, 14 June, 16:00 CEST, flag waved by nine-time winner Tom Kristensen.
- Chequered flag: 24 hours later.
