Toyota drivers Mike Conway and Kazuki Nakajima say that they are both looking forward to the return of the Hyperpole session at Le Mans, which takes place later on Thursday.
The ACO’s special qualifying format for the 24 Hours of Le Mans was first introduced for the 2020 edition of the race. It saw the top cars in each of the four categories advance from regular qualifying to a shorter, second session where the battle for pole position in each of the classes is decided.
Last year, Toyota’s Kamui Kobayashi came out on top in the session and took pole, and the shootout-style format was met with positive reception. It has therefore also returned to the calendar for the 2021 edition, with this year’s Hyperpole session set to take place at 21:00 pm on Thursday night.
When asked by MotorsportWeek.com if Mike Conway, who saw team-mate Kobayashi take pole position last year, if he supports the return of the format, he was very positive.
“I like it,” said Conway. “Because I think we’ve all been asking for the last few years. You barely get a clear lap and if you do, then you’ve got a good chance of being on pole.
“So to split the classes and have a dedicated time to knock out a good lap – I think it’s cool. The fans want to see the ultimate lap time, and so do we. So, yeah, I think it’s a good idea and I think it will hang around.”
Conway’s team-mate on the other side of the garage, Kazuki Nakajima, says he fully agrees with his team-mate as it also lessens the impact of traffic from slower categories.
“I totally agree with Mike,” said Nakajima. “Before it was kind of a gamble in qualifying if you get traffic or not, especially when every car was on the track at the same time, including GTs and the prototypes.
“It was a big nightmare. But now it’s separate and also the lap times between Hypercar and the LMP are much smaller than before so there is much less risk of traffic so for this point, I think it’s good. And also it’s good for the show as well. It highlights qualifying maybe more than before.”
Albuquerque: Hyperpole format needs work
Not everybody is universally positive about the current qualifying format, however.
United Autosports’ Filipe Albuquerque, who missed out on a spot in Thursday’s session after getting blocked in regular qualifying, believes the format is too compressed compared to previous years.
“I know that they changed qualifying last year to have Hyperpole to see the true pace of everyone, but we’re not really seeing true pace,” he said.
“Because beforehand, you had like three qualifyings that was working as a session and you could put tyres whenever you want. At least it gives you a bigger window to put a lap, one single free lap when you have like more than one hour.
“One hour, it means that everyone’s going ballistic crazy to put a lap together and we see more crashes in one hour then the whole session together.”
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