24 Hours of Le Mans – Qualifying: Cadillac in force, a Toyota and both Peugeots eliminated!

Updated at 23:53 p.m.: the Porsche Penske No. 6 was ultimately disqualified due to being underweight after qualifying. More information by clicking here. 

24 Hours of Le Mans
The Qualifications ranking

• For the first time, qualifying allowed the selection of the 15 best Hypercars to compete in Hyperpole (Thursday, 20 p.m.). This 30-minute qualifying session of the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2025 smiled on Cadillac.
• Driving the No. 12 Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R, Englishman Alex Lynn set a fine time of 3:22. He finished 847 seconds ahead of Dries Vanthoor's BMW M Hybrid V40. Winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2023, Antonio Giovinazzi (Ferrari No. 51) completes the top 3 (+0″316).
• Outperformed in pure performance, the two Peugeot 9X8 stops there. The Lionesses' performance was disappointing, as Stoffel Vandoorne and Jean-Éric Vegne could only manage 18th and 19th places. This performance comes at a time when the Balance of Performance has been criticized by the French team.
• In this session, the top 15 Hypercars can move on to the Hyperpole stage (Thursday, 20 p.m.). This means that the Peugeots are eliminated, as are the new Aston Martin Valkyrie, as well as the Porsche 919 from the private Proton Competition team.
• The surprise is big for the Toyota No. 7. Dressed in a tribute to the 1998 Toyota GT-One, the Japanese hypercar is also eliminated! Nyck de Vries was in difficulty, so much so that the Dutchman had to settle for 17th place. A far cry from Toyota's standards at Le Mans, especially since the sister car (No. 8) set the 11th fastest time.
• The top 8 are within a second of each other, even though the circuit is the longest of the season. WEC (13 km). All the Ferraris are in the top 12. The four Cadillacs pass without incident, as do the three factory Porsches and Robin Frijns' BMW.
• Paul-Loup Chatin (Alpine #35) had a huge scare in the Porsche bends. The Frenchman went into a high-speed skid but didn't hit the outside wall; a small miracle, especially since he punctured in the slide and narrowly missed hitting theAlpine n ° 36 of Mick Schumacher returning to the track! Fortunately, both Alpine qualify for the Hyperpole (10th and 15th).

24 Hours of Le Mans 2025 – LMP2 Qualifying:

• The LMP2 favorites were shaken up in this first phase of qualifying. For his arrival in LMP2, the 2024 WEC Hypercar world champion André Lotterer was eliminated! The driver of the #18 IDEC Sport could only do 14th best time. The reason? A red flag raised following the excursion of Custodio Toledo's Ferrari 4 minutes from the end, which prevented him from improving his time. A disappointment for the German, partnered with Mathys Jaubert and Jamie Chadwick, leaders of theELMS after 2 rounds in 2025.
• Only the top 12 from this session can participate in Thursday evening's Hyperpole. Louis Delétraz (AO by TF) set the fastest time, ahead of Ben Hanley (United Autosports) and Alex Quinn (Algarve Pro Racing). The rookie Theo Pourchaire (Algarve Pro Racing) did well with the 7th best time.

24 Hours of Le Mans 2025 – LMGT3 Qualifying:

• Team WRT is celebrating! Ahmad Al Harthy, teammate of Valentino Rossi in the #4 BMW M3 GT46, set the fastest time ahead of Ian James (Aston Martin) and Ryan Hardwick (Porsche).
• A Lexus from the French team Akkodis ASP makes the cut towards Hyperpole, the number 78 of Frenchman Arnold Robin.
• One of the big names in LMGT3, Ben Keating (Corvette, 17th), was surprised for the same reason as Lotterer in LMP2. The Iron Dames also stopped there (Célia Martin, 19th). As expected, the LMGT3s not participating in the 2025 WEC brought up the rear, notably the Ferrari of Richard Mille AF Corse where Frenchwoman Lilou Wadoux is (21st).

AT LRE ALSO > Nyck de Vries not surprised by his elimination in Qualifying: "We are not fast"