Alex Lynn produced a sensational lap of 3m23.166s behind the wheel of the #12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R to cement his second career pole position in the FIA World Endurance Championship. This was achieved 12 months after missing out on the top spot on the starting grid at La Sarthe by a tiny 0.138 seconds. Today, the Briton put that pain firmly in the past.
“I can’t tell you how much I wanted this,” Lynn told his team over the in-car radio on his slowing-down lap, holding back tears. “I’ve thought about it for a long time. One tenth last year hurt a lot. You guys gave me all the tools today. We have bigger things to do this weekend, but project pole position has come through!”
After climbing out of the cockpit, he added: “Every time you have the opportunity to drive this kind of car around Le Mans with low fuel and new tyres, it’s an honour – and I’m truly honoured to be able to put in a performance like that in front everyone and deliver for Cadillac in the way they deserve. This is a magical circuit and this is a special feeling. I can’t describe it. We will enjoy this tonight, have a good sleep and re-set.”
If the 31-year-old found himself on the wrong side of a single tenth-of-a-second in 2024, today he was not to be denied, clinching the prime starting berth by 0.167 seconds as Cadillac became the first American marque to claim the outright pole for the race since 1967 and Lynn the first British driver to do so since Johnny Herbert in 2004.
Not only that, but to complete the Detroit-based brand’s delight, Earl Bamber put the #38 V-Series.R alongside the sister car in second on the grid – a feat previously accomplished by only four other manufacturers.
Mathieu Jaminet ran the Caddy pair closest in Porsche Penske Motorsport’s leading #5 963 entry, delivering the reigning world champions a timely boost in what has been a tough season to-date.
After yesterday’s disqualification for the #6 963 Hypercar, the wheels looked to be falling off Porsche’s challenge again in H1 – quite literally for Julien Andlauer, as his rear-right wheel parted company with the car while the Frenchman was sat at the summit of the timing screens – but the German prototype made it through to the Q2 top ten shootout and Jaminet rewarded the team’s efforts by securing third on the grid, after again topping the timesheets for much of the session.
Dries Vanthoor produced a rapid last lap to fire BMW M Team WRT’s #15 M Hybrid V8 up to fourth ahead of IMSA championship leader Nick Tandy in the #4 Porsche and Sheldon van der Linde in the second BMW Hypercar.
The biggest surprise of the session was the comparative lack of speed from the three Ferrari 499Ps, which have dominated proceedings thus far in FIA WEC in 2025. Antonio Fuoco could manage no better than seventh in last year’s race-winning #50 scarlet machine, with the championship-leading #51 499P piloted by Alessandro Pier Guidi and the privately-run #83 AF Corse entry in the hands of Yifei Ye failing to make the H2 cut at a track where the Prancing Horse has won in each of the past two years.
Aston Martin on pole in LMGT3 and TDS Racing #29 on LMP2 pole
Mattia Drudi put Heart of Racing Team’s Aston Martin Vantage LMGT3 #27 on pole position for this weekend’s 24 Hours of Le Mans (14-15 June), as motorcycling legend Valentino Rossi secured a top three starting berth on only his second appearance at La Sarthe.
After Zacharie Robichon progressed safely through H1 in the two-part Hyperpole session in the #27 entry, Drudi then got the better of Ferrari factory driver Alessio Rovera in the #21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari to claim the prime spot on the grid for the twice-round-the-clock contest on his debut at the event.
“It’s always difficult to have a super-clean lap, but the team did a mega job and the car has handled superbly since the Test Day,” Drudi reflected. “Qualifying for a 24-hour race is not the most important thing, but it’s still nice to get pole of course and we’re really looking forward to the race now!”
Lin Hodenius and Maxime Martin produced a stellar joint performance to secure fourth place in Iron Lynx’s #61 Mercedes-AMG LMGT3 – sporting a striking ‘Silver Arrows’ livery to celebrate the three-pointed star’s return to the world’s most famous race – with Richard Lietz grabbing fifth in last year’s championship-winning Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3.
The biggest casualties of the first half of the knockout session were the #54 Vista AF Corse entry of Francesco Castellacci – who beached his Ferrari 296 LMGT3 in the Porsche Curves gravel trap, bringing out a red flag – Sébastien Baud who fell foul of track limits in the #59 United Autosports McLaren and Giammarco Levorato in Proton Competition’s #88 Ford Mustang, all three of which have been podium-finishing cars so far in 2025.
In LMP2, Mathias Beche leapfrogged an epic three-way tussle for honours to vault from fourth to first in the TDS Racing entry, with a lap that none of his rivals proved able to beat. That shaded a spectacular scrap between Tom Dillmann, Louis Délétraz and Ben Hanley, with the trio ultimately blanketed by just over a tenth-of-a-second in favour of the former.
