Brendan Hartley in the #8 Toyota took pole position in a dramatic final few minutes in Hyperpole qualifying at the Circuit de la Sarthe beating team mate Kamui Kobayashi by 0.420 seconds in the sister #7 Toyota.
This year saw the introduction of a new qualifying format with the top 23 cars out on track for just 30 minutes. Six cars from each class (there was a total of only 5 cars in the Hypercar class for those counting) which would hopefully leave a clear track to fight it out for the top spot in their respective classes.
LE MANS 24 HOURS | QUALIFYING REPORT | PRACTICE AND QUALIFYING GALLERY
With the pressure on track limits would also pose a problem with Tetre Rouge causing problems for a number of runners who had their times deleted in the opening laps whilst at the end the exit of the Ford Chicane would ruin the hopes of many.
It took nearly 10 minutes of running for a time to be put on the board. It came from Hartley in the #8 Toyota clocking up a 3.25.213.
Nick Tandy and Antonio Garcia held the early pole in LMGTE Pro for Corvette whilst the AF Corse Ferrari of Fuoco and Calado took the track late in the session trying to shake the grip of the Corvettes on pole position.
It was Fred Makowiecki who eventually split the Corvettes, putting his #91 Porsche between the two yellow Corvettes. By the end Garcia would put the #63 Corvette back in second place just 0.2 seconds ahead of the Porsche whilst Nick Tandy held onto pole position in the #64 Corvette.
LMP2 seemed a more ordered affair with the #31 WRT car of Robin Frijns taking pole with a 3.28.394 lap ahead of the sister Norman Nato in the #41 Realteam by WRT and Filipe Albuquerque in the #23 United Autosports car.
At the head of the grid things were heating up with the #36 Alpine of Nico Lapierre taking pole position with 6 minutes remaining. It looked to be short lived as Kobayashi in the #7 Toyota was putting in purple sectors all around the lap but a track limit infringement on the final corner kept the Alpine at the top.
Ryan Briscoe in the 907 Glickenhaus was also pushing hard and was looking at a potential P2 before the stewards ruled against him for the same infringement at the Ford Chicane. At the death Brendan Hartley kept everything together to claim pole position for the 2022 24 hours of Le Mans with team mate Kobayashi just behind and Lapierre taking third followed by the two Glickenhaus cars.
In LMGTE AM the #61 AF Corse Ferrari of Vincent Abril took pole position 0.157 seconds ahead of Mikkel Jenson in the #57 Kessell Racing Ferrari and Harry Tincknell in the #77 Dempsey Proton Racing Porsche in third place.
Please consider making a donation so we can keep bringing you our best content from the racetrack.
