Jack Aitken took pole for the 2026 24 Hours of Le Mans for Cadillac, setting a 3:22.559, 0.005 faster than Dries Vanthoor in the #15 BMW. Third was Aitken’s teammate in the sister JOTA Cadillac, the #12 Cadillac.
Raffaele Marciello set the first representative lap Hypercar Hyperpole 1 in the #15 BMW, a 3:24.555, but Earl Bamber, onboard the #38 JOTA Cadillac, soon beat this with a 3:23.733. Mathieu Jaminet, in the #17 Genesis making their debut at Le Mans, took second in the session, 2 tenths off Bamber.
Mid way through the session, most teams changed to a new set of softs as the fuel loads lightened and the original soft tyres started to wear and heat.
Once he’d got a new set of rubber, Sheldon van der Linde was able to top the session times with a 3:23.246.
But Jaminet wasn’t finished with Hyperpole and came across the line to take the top spot, with an astonishing – for a relatively new car – 3:23.126.
He’d eventually finish third, though, as Charles Milesi was fastest in the #35 Alpine with 3:23.018. Bamber eventually took second after he was temporarily fastest earlier, just 0.073 off Milesi.
Going out, though, were some big names: the #007 Aston Martin Valkyrie, the #50 Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco, the #36 Alpine, and both Toyotas, #7 and #8, who were 14th and 15th.
Rather astonishingly, the only Ferrari to go through was the #51 of Antonio Giovinazzi, who took sixth in a last gasp lap for the Italian manufacturer.
Aitken takes Le Mans pole off Vanthoor by 0.005
Going into Hyperpole 2 is when it gets serious, for overall pole at Le Mans.
Dries Vanthoor in the #15 BMW had the top spot for much of the session, with his initial 3:22.745 standing for the majority of the session, his first representative lap.
He then improved this to a 3:22.564, and looked likely to take pole for BMW.
Will Stevens, in the #12 Cadillac, the polesitting car in 2025, came across the line to set a 3:23.078, but this wasn’t near enough to challenge Vanthoor.
However, Stevens’ teammate Jack Aitken in the #38 Cadillac was on a fast lap. His first sector was 0.002 up on Vanthoor, but his second was almost two tenths off.
He crossed the line, though, to take pole by an incredibly slim margin of just 5 thousandths of a second, putting Vanthoor into second.
Stevens took third in the sister #12 Cadillac, with fourth going to the best of the Alpines, Antonio Felix da Costa in the #35 Alpine, the car which had topped both the qualifying session on Wednesday, and Hyperpole 2. The Portuguese driver was, in the end, a second off Vanthoor.
Fifth was Robin Frijns in the #20 BMW, who earlier had told Motorsport Week he ‘didn’t care’ about qualifying.
It must be noted, however, that Aitken has an investigation hanging over him as he pulled out into the pitlane earlier than he should have done, thereby not following the race director’s instructions. We’ll have more news on this when we get it.
Discussion about this post