The 94th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans got its first major storyline on Wednesday evening, as qualifying produced a significant upset: the #83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P, winner of last year’s race, failed to advance to Hyperpole. Both Peugeot TotalEnergies entries also fell at the first hurdle. At the front, Ferdinand Habsburg set the pace for Alpine Endurance Team with a 3:23.135 in the #35 A424, with three Cadillac V-Series.Rs filling three of the top five positions. The session ran 30 minutes, with the top 15 of the 18 Hypercars advancing to Thursday’s Hyperpole 1 shootout.

Hypercar

Habsburg’s time edged the #12 Cadillac Hertz Team Jota of Louis Delétraz by just 0.013 seconds, with Jordan Taylor third in the #101 WTR Cadillac, René Rast fourth in the #20 BMW M Team WRT M Hybrid V8, and Sébastien Bourdais fifth in the #38 Cadillac Hertz Team Jota. Both Aston Martin Thor Team Valkyries came through comfortably, Genesis Magma Racing got both GMR-001s into Hyperpole at their first Le Mans attempt, and the two factory Ferrari AF Corse entries of #50 and #51 finished 14th and 15th — through, but only just.

Phil Hanson was unable to find the pace needed in the #83 Ferrari, going off at Tertre Rouge and losing further time to track limits violations. His best of 3:25.495 left the defending champions 17th, joined outside the top 15 by both Peugeots — Stoffel Vandoorne 16th in the #93 and Malthe Jakobsen last in the #94. All three will take no part in either Hyperpole session.

LMP2

Mercedes junior and reigning F1 Academy champion Doriane Pin headlined the LMP2 session — the only female driver in the class — posting a 3:34.662 for the #30 Duqueine Team, nearly six tenths clear of teenage Mexican Ian Aguilera in the #37 CLX Motorsport Oreca. Bijoy Garg was third in the #343 Inter Europol Competition car. All ten Silver-rated entries advanced, including the #9 Proton Competition Oreca of Jonas Ried, who received a reprimand after making contact with the #2 TF Sport Corvette at Tertre Rouge.

Among the Pro/Am runners, PJ Hyett (#99 AO by TF) was fastest through, followed by George Kurtz, François Perrodo, Tobias Lütke, and Daniel Schneider — the latter bumping Horst Felbermayr Jnr from the top 15 with under six minutes remaining. The #44 Proton Competition, #25 Algarve Pro Racing, #48 RD Limited, and #3 DKR Engineering miss Hyperpole.

LMGT3

Peter Dempsey put the #34 Racing Team Turkey by TF Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R on top of the Bronze driver session with a 3:55.744, repeating the form he showed at Imola. Eric Powell was second in the #77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang, Gray Newell third in the #23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin, James Cottingham fourth with a late lap in the #91 Manthey DK Engineering Porsche, and Darren Leung fifth in the #32 WRT BMW — the opening seven positions covered by seven different manufacturers.

Yasser Shahin held on to 15th in the #92 The Bend Manthey Porsche by just 0.065 seconds, sending the reigning class-winning car through to Hyperpole. Ben Keating in the #33 TF Sport Corvette missed the cut, as did both Garage 59 McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evos. Free Practice 2 runs tonight from 22:00 local time, with Hyperpole 1 to follow on Thursday.