Alex Lynn was fastest in the opening qualifying session for the 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans, with the #12 Cadillac V-Series.R driver setting a 3:22.847.
The Briton was 0.040 faster than Dries Vanthoor, in the #15 BMW M Hybrid V8, who until the last few minutes of the session was dead last after having multiple laps deleted due to exceeding track limits.
Ferrari’s Antonio Giovinazzi was third fastest in the #51 Ferrari 499P. The Italian was just over three tenths off Lynn.
Ferrari rule early running
D. Vanthoor’s teammate Robin Frijns set the first competitive, representative lap, a 3:24.683. The three Ferraris quickly beat this, Yifei Ye in front, with Giovinazzi’s teammate Alessandro Pier Guidi second and #50 Ferrari Nicklas Nielsen third.
Kevin Estre then slotted into second, onboard the #6 Porsche.
For a while, it looked like a Ferrari would be fastest. However, with six cars going ‘out’ in this first qualifying session before two Hyperpole sessions tomorrow, the last six were the key positions in this half hour session.
Half way in, and the #4 Porsche of Felipe Nasr, #99 Proton Porsche of Neel Jani, both the #94 Peugeot of Stoffel Vandoorne and #93 of Jean-Eric Vergne, the #007 Aston Martin Valkyrie of Harry Tincknell, and the #15 BMW of D. Vanthoor were all heading out unless they could improve.
Unfortunately for both Aston Martin and Peugeot, neither of the four cars could improve enough to get through. The two Aston Martins bookended the ‘out’ positions at the chequered flag, with Marco Sorensen in the #009 car in 16th and Tincknell last in 21st.
Porsche’s Nasr, who until the dying moments of the session, was going out, was able to set a lap good enough for 14th to put him through, on his final lap of the session. This eliminated Sorensen, who until then had been going through to Hyperpole for Aston Martin.
Behind Sorensen, shockingly, was the #7 Toyota of Nyck de Vries, who could not find the speed required to take him into Hyperpole on Thursday.
Peugeot’s Vandoorne and Vergne were behind him, with Proton Competition’s Jani 20th in front of Tincknell.
Lynn tops session for Cadillac
Back at the sharp end, Alex Lynn had put in a magnificent lap to go fastest, a smidge quicker than D. Vanthoor. The Belgian in the #15 BMW had gone from the bottom of the timesheets to the top, before being beaten by Lynn.
“That was lovely!”, said Lynn after the session.
“The car was great. Honestly no complaints. I didn’t make any set up adjustments between the first and second run and just improved my performance. It’s a strong start, we’ll take that one.”
With Giovinazzi third for Ferrari, Porsche’s Kevin Estre made it four manufacturers in the top four, just over half a second off Lynn. #38 Cadillac’s Sebastien Bourdais was fifth, followed by #50 Ferrari’s Antonio Fuoco, #5 Porsche’s Julien Andlauer in seventh, #20 BMW’s Robin Frijns, #311 Cadillac’s Jack Aitken ninth, and the fastest Alpine, the #36 machine of Mick Schumacher, in 10th.
‘See the full session results on the FIAWEC website.
READ MORE – Louis Deletraz fastest in ‘Spike the Dragon’ during LMP2 qualifying and Ahmad Al Harthy tops initial LMGT3 qualifying for BMW WRT
Editor’s Note:
The #6 Porsche Penske 963 was disqualified for a weight infraction, meaning that the #009 Aston Martin Valkyrie has progressed to Hyperpole.
144. Curious about general stone/marble use! Found amazing ideas on [sangemarmarmarble.com]. Can I use marble in the bathroom?