Jack Aitken put the #38 Cadillac V-Series.R on top with a 3:22.559s to pip Dries Vanthoor in the #15 BMW M Team WRT V8 Hybrid by five thousandths of a second.
However, post-qualifying, Aitken lost his fastest time in Hyperpole 2 for failing to follow the race director’s instructions.
RESULTS: 24 Hours of Le Mans Qualifying after Hyperpole
Stewards said Atiken left the working lane to join the fast lane before being authorised to do so.
The fastest time was scratched as a result, which means the Aitken/Earl Bamber/Sebastien Bourdais entry dropped to 10th with a 3:26.865s.
“Yeah, unfortunately, the lap was deleted due to a procedural error,” said Aitken.
Secure your spot today.
“However, it does show that we had fantastic pace to be quickest, third quickest and three Cadillacs all in the Hyperpole 2.
“Even if we don’t get to start in the pole position, we’re still going to work our way through on the weekend and have shown that we have great pace.
“The car felt really, really strong. The guys did an amazing job to just improve it step-by-step over the last couple of days.
“To put a lap together like that is always something kind of special and even more at a track like this.
“So, it was very enjoyable for the 20 minutes that I had the pole. And even now it’s still a cool lap to have done.”
Jota Sports will still have a Cadillac on the front row with the #12 of Louis Deletraz/Will Stevens/Norman Nato inheriting second.
For BMW, it’s the first time the German brand has won pole position outright at Le Mans.
“I have to be honest, I didn’t expect we’d make it into Hyperpole 2, although it was clearly our goal,” said Team WRT boss Andreas Roos.
“We managed in the end to be on pole, even if Dries was five-thousandths down on Jack Aitken, it’s nearly an equal lap time. It was nice to see we can really fight for pole.”
“In the end, we can be super happy with P1 and P4. We didn’t really concentrate on qualifying preparation, just on our long-run pace, the tyres and so on, so it’s even nicer to see the single lap time is there.
“We’ll enjoy the moment, and we’ll enjoy it when we see the car on pole on Saturday, and we’ll go from there.”
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Despite dropping to 10th, Bamber was the best of the Kiwi contingent.
Toyota struggled in qualifying with neither of its cars making it out of Hyperpole 1.
The #8 Toyota Racing GR010 of Brendon Hartley/Ryo Hirawaka/Sebastien Buemi qualified 15th, one place behind the #7 GR010 of Mike Conway/Kamui Kobayashi/Nyck De Vries.
“We hoped for better in qualifying, but we know that the race is long and ultimately it doesn’t matter too much where we’re starting,” said Hartley.
“We’ve been focusing on long-run pace. It’s not going to be easy because we are down a bit on top speed, so it will be hard to overtake.
“But the car actually feels quite good to drive so we’re ready to take on the challenge.”
Worse still, Peugeot failed to make Hyperpole.
Nick Cassidy will start 16th in the #93 9X8 with Paul Di Resta and Stoffel Vandoorne while the sister #93 9X8 will roll off 18th with Loic Duval/Malthe Jakobsen/Theo Pourchaire.
“We’re deeply disappointed with today’s qualifying result, especially on home soil,” the team said in a statement.
“Finishing where we did is not where we expect to be. That said, this team has proven its resilience time and again.
“We turn our focus to the race, determined to keep fighting and to make the most of every opportunity.”
The 94th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans gets underway at midnight on Sunday AEST.
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