24 Hours of Le Mans 2026 – Hyperpole: Dries Vanthoor takes pole position by default!

Dries Vanthoor (BMW) takes pole position after Jack Aitken's fastest time was cancelled after the race!Alpine Antonio Félix Da Costa is 3th and the Toyotas have plummeted!

24 Hours of Le Mans 2026

Hypercar ranking

The 24 Hours of Le Mans 2026 experienced a great moment on Thursday evening with the Hyperpole session. It took several minutes after the checkered flag to determine the pole sitter. Following a final attempt, Jack Aitken thought he had snatched pole from BMW, who had held the fastest time for much of the session thanks to Dries Vanthoor. 

Jack Aitken, driver of the Cadillac V-Series.R #38 which he shares with Frenchman Sébastien Bourdais and New Zealander Earl Bamber had indeed beaten Dries Vanthoor by 5 thousandths. For Cadillac and the Hertz Team JOTA, this should have been their second consecutive pole position at the 24 Hours of Le Mans after 2025 and Alex Lynn.

But the stewards decided to cancel Aitken's time after the podium ceremony! Aitken, Bourdais, and Bamber dropped back to 10th place. Cadillac nevertheless consoled itself by placing all its Hypercars in the top 6 (the #12 of Will Stevens, Louis Delétraz, and Norman Nato finished 2nd, and the #101 of Jordan, Ricky Taylor, and Filipe Albuquerque finished 5th).

BMW is rubbing its hands together. Kevin MagnussenRaffaele Marciello and Dries Vanthoor will open the proceedings of the 94th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Saturday at around 4pm! In addition to pole position, the Bavarian brand will start 16th with the No. 20 entrusted to Robin Frijns, René Rast and Sheldon van der Linde, the crew that won the 6 Hours of Spa in May.

Among the French hopefuls, the credit goes to...Alpine No. 35 of Antonio Félix Da Costa, Ferdinand Habsburg and Charles Milesi. Holder of the fastest time in Hyperpole 1, the French car slowed down in Hyperpole 2 but still managed a solid 3th place. Enough to make up for the elimination of the sister car, No. 36, in Hyperpole 1 (13th).

Genesis impresses

For their debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Genesis Magma Racing is making a strong showing. The South Korean team placed both of its GMR-001s in the top 10! The fluorescent orange prototype driven by Mathieu Jaminet, Paul-Loup Chatin, and Daniel Juncadella finished 6th, while the car entrusted to three-time Le Mans winner André Lotterer, partnered with Mathys Jaubert and Luis Felipe Derani, achieved the 9th fastest time.

Disappointment for Toyota

The Hyperpole went very badly for ToyotaThe two TR010 Hybrids brought up the rear of the top 15, Ryo Hirakawa (No. 8) had a poor Sector 1 performance while Kamui Kobayashi (No. 7) had his time cancelled due to track limits being exceeded. The Japanese will have their work cut out for them to climb back up the order during the race!

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