24H. Le Mans – Hartley (Toyota) takes pole in Hypercar, Corvette dominates in GTE Pro

Ce fut juste, mais le Toyota Gazoo Racing s’est bien payé le luxe de monopoliser la première ligne sur la grille de départ des 24 Hours of Le Mans 2022 this Thursday June 9. In Sarthe, the two Toyota GR010 Hybrids driven by Brendon Hartley et Kamui Kobayashi monopolized the top of the timesheet at the end of the hyperpole.

Sweeping in on the last lap – an empathetic 1-2 for @TGR_WEC 👏@BrendonHartley puts the #8 because on pole!

️https://t.co/4J3q5Z45q3# LeMans24 | @FIAWEC pic.twitter.com/AZcOEtw6ot

- 24 Hours of Le Mans (@ 24hoursoflemans) June 9, 2022

However, the Japanese prototypes almost lost their pawn by the unique Alpine A480 of Nicolas lapierre. The French driver held the lead in the standings for a few minutes thanks to a lap in 3’24”850. His mount had benefited a few hours earlier froma slightly more favorable Balance of Performance (BoP).

While the test time countdown had come to an end, theAlpine was still on provisional pole thanks to a canceled time for Kamui Kobayashi due to track limits not being respected. But the last attempt was successful for the two Toyotas, who together doubled theAlpine.

Both Glickenhaus 007 LMH brings up the rear of the Hypercar category despite a rather spectacular sense of attack. Ryan Briscoe and Olivier Pla failed by one second and almost two seconds:

Pushing on in the @Glickenhaus Racing machine 😶‍🌫️#CodeBrown

️https://t.co/4J3q5Z45q3# LeMans24 | @FIAWEC pic.twitter.com/sll49YkTok

- 24 Hours of Le Mans (@ 24hoursoflemans) June 9, 2022

On the LM P2 side, the fight was fierce between four teams: WRT, Prema, United Autosports and Jota. This last structure, already victorious in Sarthe (in 2014) occupied virtual first place until Antonio Félix Da Costa made a driving error in money time.

The Belgian WRT team wasn't asking for that much. Robin Frijns put out an anthology lap and took more than a second from all his rivals, who were not, however, heats! Norman Nato is second, Louis Delétraz will start third on the occasion of the first participation of the trans teamalpine Prema at Le Mans, while one of the references in the category, Filipe Albuquerque, is content with fourth place.

Les GTE Pro ont également fait le spectacle. On les savait en forme, mais pas à ce point ! Pour leur deuxième apparition aux 24 Heures du Mans, les deux Corvette C8.R ont trusté les avant-postes, même si Frédéric Makowiecki et Laurens Vanthoor (Porsche) a bien tenté de contrecarrer les plans de l’usine américaine. Nick Tandy a devancé d’un souffle (192 millièmes) son collègue espagnol Antonio Garcia.

Slowed down by the new Balance of Performance (BoP), the Ferrari 488 GTE Evo were only a shadow of themselves. Antonio Fuoco and especially the outgoing winner James Calado dragged themselves throughout the Hyperpole, and conceded almost two seconds!

Finally, the GTE Am class allowed Monegasque Vincent Abril (Ferrari) to stand out. The French speaker, accustomed to DTM and Grand Touring, ahead of the future official driver Peugeot in Hyperpole, Mikkel Jensen (Ferrari) by 157 thousandths. Winner in GTE Pro in 2020, Harry Tincknell (Porsche) completes the virtual podium. Disappointment on the other hand for the women's trio of Iron Dames: Rahel Frey's time (Ferrari) was canceled for disrespect of the circuit limits, and ranked 6th in the Hyperpole.