AO by TF clinched 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans pole position
Thanks to Louis Delétraz, who is in top form, AO by TF’s #14 ORECA 07 managed to claim LMP2 pole position for its first entry. On the first row of the starting grid will also be IDEC Sport’s #28 ORECA 07 (in pole position last year). The 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans will start this Saturday 15 June at 4pm.
Free Practice 3:
LMP2:
Panis Racing can be confident ahead of the Hyperpole. Having made it into the Top 8 during Wednesday’s qualifying session, Rodrigo Sales, Mathias Beche and Scott Huffaker’s #65 ORECA 07 took the lead in this third free practice session. Despite having run off track, the crew managed to top the timesheet with a 3:37.217 lap.
Although its #47 ORECA 07 will be in fourteenth place on the starting grid this Saturday, Cool Racing reassured itself with a second-place finish. Naveen Rao, Matthew Bell, and Frederik Vesti’s best lap was just 0.125 sec slower than the leader (3:37.342). The Top 3 was rounded out by AO by TF’s #14 ORECA 07 (PJ Hyett, Louis Delétraz, Alex Quinn), 0.486 sec behind Panis Racing (3:37.703). AF Corse’s #183 and Vector Sport’s #10 finished fourth and fifth respectively.
Rain arrived towards the end of the session, meaning that Hyperpole qualifiers might be racing on a wet track later should the showers continue over the next few hours – conditions are unique this year.
Hypercar:
Nicolas Lapierre, Mick Schumacher, and Matthieu Vaxiviere’s #36 Alpine A424 took tenth place (3:28.879), three places ahead of Paul-Loup Chatin, Ferdinand Habsburg-Lothringen, and Charles Milesi’s #35 sister car (3:29.373).
Qualifying:
LMP2:
Louis Delétraz definitely proved fastest in qualifying. Sharing the wheel of AO by TF’s #14 ORECA 07 with teammates PJ Hyett and Alex Quinn, the Swiss driver showed how talented he is and claimed LMP2 pole position. With a 3:33.217 lap, last year’s runner-up was more than six tenths ahead of the rest of the field, among which IDEC Sport’s #28 ORECA 07 (Job van Uitert, Paul Lafargue, Reshad De Gerus). Job van Uitert set a personal best time of 3:33.827.
Panis Racing’s #65 ORECA 07 (Mathias Beche, Rodrigo Sales, Scott Huffaker) took third place with a 3:34.053 lap. Both United Autosports cars – Ben Keating, Filipe Albuquerque, Benjamin Hanley’s #23 and Oliver Jarvis, Bijoy Garg, Nolan Siegel’s #22 – rounded out the Top 5.
Cool Racing’s #37 ORECA 07 finished sixth. For the first time in its history, DKR Engineering’s #33 ORECA 07 took part in Hyperpole and finished seventh. Vector Sport’s #10 ORECA 07 brought up the rear.
Hypercar:
Though within the Top 5 for most of the session, the #35 Alpine A424 (Paul-Loup Chatin, Ferdinand Habsburg-Lothringen, Charles Milesi) finished sixth in class (3:25.713). As a true expert of Le Mans qualifying, Paul-Loup Chatin once again managed to get the most out of his car.
Free practice 4:
LMP2:
The 92nd 24 Hours of Le Mans final free practice session was another opportunity for teams to drive in night-time conditions. The 16 ORECA 07s in the LMP2 class made the most of this final one-hour track time to fine-tune their set-ups ahead of the race. United Autosports USA’s #23 ORECA 07 (Ben Keating, Filipe Albuquerque, Benjamin Hanley) topped the timesheet (3:37.121).
In cooler conditions, Nielsen Racing’s #24 ORECA 07 finished second (3:37.416). United Autosports’ second car (#22 – Oliver Jarvis, Bijoy Garg, Nolan Siegel) came in third (3:37.873), ahead of Cool Racing’s #37 and Inter Europol Competition’s #34.
Hypercar:
Following on a good qualifying session, the #35 Alpine A424 finished Thursday’s race in sixth place (3:29.745). The second French Hypercar (#36) made it into the Top 10 too, with a ninth-place finish (3:30.071).
The 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans will start this Saturday 15 June at 4pm.