Ferrari takes Le Mans pole for first time in 50 years

Ferrari AF Corse has put a car on the pole at Le Mans for the first time in 50 years, locking out the front row ahead of this weekend’s event.

Ferrari’s Antonio Fuoco and Alessandro Pier Guidi traded blows over the 30-minute session before Fuoco set the pole time with eight minutes remaining, turning in a blistering 3:22.982s.

The result sees Ferrari break Toyota’s six-year run of consecutive poles and is the first for Maranello since 1973.

Guidi’s #51 499P will start alongside on the front row after turning the second fastest lap of 3:23.755s.

“It was a really good lap, really tough qualifying. My first lap was slower than the sister car, then I put it all together. It’s something special, to be honest!” Fuoco said. “I want to enjoy the moment, then we will think about the race.”

Sebastien Bourdais brought out the red flag with five minutes remaining in the session after his #3 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R stopped on track with a fire.

Bourdais’ third-place time was disallowed due to causing the red flag. The Cadillac will now start the race in the eighth position.

When the session went back green, the Toyota GR010 Hybrids took a final shot at the Ferraris, but the fastest of the World Endurance Championship leaders, Kiwi Brendon Hartley in the #8, was unable to split the Ferraris and had to settled for third on the grid.

Porsche elected to sit out the first 15 minutes of the qualifying session. The #75 clocked the fourth fastest time, and the sister #5 will start in seventh.

The remaining six Hypercars couldn’t get any closer than seven-tenths of a second to the pair of prancing horses.

Paul Loup Chatin put the #48 IDEC Sport ORECA on pole in the LMP2 class with a time of 3:32.923.

Ben Keating gave Corvette Racing the pole in their final GTE race at Le Mans with a 3:52.376 time.

The teams took advantage of three hours of track time during Free Practice 3 earlier Thursday afternoon to optimise car set-ups prior to the Hyperpole session.

Thursday night’s hour-long Free Practice 4 was extended 15 minutes after a red flag came out with 22 minutes remaining in the session.

Hendrick Motorsports elected to make wholesale changes to the #24 car and only saw the track for 30 minutes in the afternoon practice session.

Jimmie Johnson, Mike Rockenfeller and Jenson Button took turns pushing the stock car around the track on the night-time session.

All 62 cars will be on track for the morning warm-up at 11:00 Saturday June 10 local time/19:00 AEST.

1. #50 Ferrari 499P Ferrari AF Corse: Antonio Fuoco*/Miguel Molina/Nicklas Nielsen – 3:22.982
2. #51 Ferrari 499P Ferrari AF Corse – Alessandro Pier Guidi*/James Calado/Antonio Giovinazzi – 3:23.755
3. #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid Toyota Gazoo Racing – Sebastien Buemi/Brendon Hartley*/Ryo Hirakawa – 3:24.451
4. #75 Porsche 963 Porsche Penske Motorsport – Felipe Nasr*/Mathieu Jaminet/ Nick Tandy – 3:24.531
5. #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid Toyota Gazoo Racing – Mike Conway/Kamui Kobayashi*/Jose Maria Lopez – 3:24.933
6. #2 Cadillac V-Series.R Cadillac Racing – Earl Bamber*/Alex Lynn/Richard Westbrook – 3:25.170
7. #5 Porsche 963 Porsche Penske Motorsport – Dane Cameron*/Michael Christensen/Frederic Makowiecki* – 3:25.176
8. #3 Cadillac V-Series.R Cadillac Racing – Sebastien Bourdais*/Renger Van Der Zande/Scott Dixon – 3:25.521