Jack Aitken of Cadillac clinched the pole position for the 2026 Le Mans 24 Hours, beating BMW's Dries Vanthoor by a razor-thin margin of 0.005 seconds during a thrilling Hyperpole session.
Cadillac has taken pole position for the 2026 Le Mans 24 Hours by the tiniest of margins, with Jack Aitken outpacing BMW’s Dries Vanthoor by five-thousandths of a second.
In Hyperpole 1, Earl Bamber’s early 3m23.722s effort in the #38 Cadillac led the way halfway through, as Genesis held second place with Mathieu Jaminet in the #19 car, in 3m23.965s. The Aston Martins were struggling at the bottom of the classification, with Ross Gunn’s #007 entry 1.2s off the pace, while Marco Sorensen’s #009 car was 1.9s down on the leader.
The #20 BMW, the #51 Ferrari and the #12 Cadillac – which had set the fastest opening sector – were also at risk of elimination. There were improvements aplenty in the final minutes of the session, with Sheldon van der Linde taking a comfortable lead in the #20 BMW, half a second faster than the reference.
However, he was narrowly – but swiftly – outpaced by Bamber’s new marker in 3m23.187s… and the #17 Genesis with Mathys Jaubert in 3m23.126s. Cadillac’s New Zealander might have had the last word in 3m23.091s, but Alpine’s Charles Milesi surged ahead in the #35 entry, setting a 3m23.018s. Less than three tenths covered the top seven cars.
The Toyotas ended up at the bottom of the timesheet, with Kamui Kobayashi and Ryo Hirakawa respectively 1.25s and 1.56s down on Milesi. The sister #36 Alpine , the #50 Ferrari and the #007 Aston Marin also failed to make the cut for Hypercar 2, with only the top 10 cars qualified. Dries Vanthoor set the early pace in Hyperpole 2. The #15 BMW achieved the first sub-3m23s lap of the week, a 3m22.745s.
Robin Frijns made it a provisional BMW 1-2 with the #20 entry, albeit 1.2s off. With five minutes remaining, nobody else lapped within two seconds of the Belgian. Vanthoor actually doubled down with a 3m22.564s, but Aitken achieved an excellent final sector to snatch pole position away by just 0.005s in the #38 Jota Cadillac.
Will Stevens made it a Cadillac 1-3 with a 3m23.078s in the sister #12 car, followed by the #35 Alpine , the #20 BMW , the #101 WTR Cadillac and the #19 Genesis , the latter three within 0.06s. Aston Martin and Ferrari were well off the pace with Roman de Angelis and James Calado respectively, though the #17 Genesis propped up the order with Andre Lotterer.
Toyota youngster Esteban Masson put the #29 Forestier Racing by Panis Oreca 07 on pole position in the LMP2 class. The Canadian-Frenchman set two laps that were good enough for the top spot, eventually ending up 0.387s clear of Job van Uitert in the #28 IDEC Sport Oreca.
Van Uitert led the early part of the 15-minute Hyperpole 2 session but gradually dropped down the order, before locking a spot on the LMP2 front row with a last-gasp effort of 3m33.242s. The Dutchman’s time left former Formula 1 driver Jack Doohan in third place ahead of his debut appearance at Le Mans. Nick Yelloly qualified last year’s class-winning #43 Inter Europol car in fourth, ahead of Alex Quinn’s CrowdStrike by APR entry.
Porsche GTP drivers Julien Andlauer and Kevin Estre ended up sixth and seventh for Duqueine and TDS Racing respectively, while the top 10 was completed by Matthieu Vaxiviere and Reshad de Gerus Neither of the United Autosports cars made it to Hyperpole 2, joining the #26 Vector Sport, the #37 CLX Motorsport and the #9 Proton entries in the elimination zone. CLX Motorsport had been second-fastest in the opening qualifying on Wednesday, but Michael Jensen could never quite recover from a spin early in the session, ending up 14th on the grid.
Heart of Racing dominated qualifying for the LMGT3 category, with factory Aston Martin driver Mattia Drudi claiming pole position by almost a full second. After his first flyer was deleted due to a track limits infringement, Drudi managed another blistering time of 3m52.433s to put the #27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 at the front of the LMGT3 grid. That was despite his second time being fractionally slower than his previous effort that was cancelled.
Alessio Rovera qualified a strong second in the #21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3, beating the two ASP Lexus RC F GT3s of Jose Maria Lopez and Jack Hakwsworth. The two WRT BMW M4 GT3s ended up fifth and sixth, Sean Gelael edging out the sister car of Parker Thompson. Dennis Marschall was seventh in the Kessel Ferrari, while eighth place went to Jonny Adam in the #23 Heart of Racing Aston.
Timur Boguslaskiy was ninth-fastest in the #91 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R, while Ben Tuck was 10th in the #77 Proton Ford. Former Williams F1 driver Logan Sargeant missed the cut for Hyperpole 2 by just half a tenth, leaving the #88 Proton Ford Mustang GT3 11th on the grid.
Neither of the two Iron Lynx Mercedes AMG GT3s progressed to the pole shootout either, qualifying 12th and 13th respectively, while a spin for Francesco Castellacci contributed to the #54 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 ending up 14th place. However, the most notable absentee from Hyperpole 2 was the championship-leading #92 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3, which ended up 15th and slowest with Riccardo Pera at the wheel.
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