Mattia Drudi secured LMGT3 pole position in the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage for the 93rd Le Mans 24 Hours on 14-15 June.
The first of two Hyperpole qualifying sessions eliminated four cars from the 12 participating, thus allowing eight cars to progress through and fight for pole position.
With 11 minutes and 26 seconds remaining of the 30-minute Q2 session, Francesco Castellacci beached himself in a gravel trap after a snap of oversteer unsettled his #54 AF Corse Ferrari into the entry of the Porsche Curves.
United Autosports’ #95 McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo driver Sean Gelael stopped on the driver’s left side out of harm’s way to perform a power cycle on his car’s electronic systems. As he did not trigger a red flag, he did not face the same fate as the #54 Ferrari, to no longer participate.
After it looked like he would be eliminated, the Indonesian driver mastered a strong lap to grasp eighth, therefore enabling him to continue in the final shootout.
Lin Hodineus also grasped fifth place to make it through to the final shootout in the #61 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG LMGT3. The FIA World Endurance Championship and Le Mans rookie asserted himself on track to get into Hyperpole. Fastest in the session was Kelvin van der Linde, in the #46 BMW, with a 3:54.345.
Eliminated cars/drivers: (P9) #193 Ziggo Sport Tempesta Ferrari 296 LMGT3/Chris Froggatt, (P10) #88 Proton Ford Mustang LMGT3/Giacommo Levorato, (P11) #59 Seb Baud, (P12) #54 Francesco Castallacci
Aston Martin on pole, Iron Lynx impresses further
Heart of Racing took pole after Drudi set a 3:52.789, having fought with Alessio Rovera (#54 AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3) for the honour during an intense shootout.
Behind Rovera’s 3:53.085 lap time, Valentino Rossi put himself in third place in the #46 WRT BMW M4 LMGT3 Evo (3:54.966).
Maxime Martin claimed fourth in the #61 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG (3:54.998) with by far the best qualifying performance this season for the team and the manufacturer returning to Le Mans after a 26-year absence.
Five-time Le Mans class winner and reigning winner from last year, Richard Lietz, finished fifth for the #92 Manthey Porsche 911 LMGT3.R (3:55.140).
Rui Andrade took sixth for the #81 TF Sport Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R (3:55.740) followed by Marino Sato’s 3:55.965 in the #95 United Autosports McLaren.
Jack Hawksworth rounded out the top eight positions in the #78 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F LMGT3 (4:03.660).
See here for yesterday’s qualifying report confirming the positions from P13-24, or see here.
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