Ferrari will start the centenary Le Mans 24 Hours from pole position for the first time in 50 years in what is expected to be one of the most competitive runnings of the World Endurance Race in several years.
Toyota have started the last six Le Mans 24 Hours on pole but saw their domination of qualifying brought to an end for the 2023 edition as the return of Ferrari to the Hypercar class brought a shake-up to proceedings.
The No 50 Ferrari 499P of Antonio Fuoco, which he shares with Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen, set the fastest time in Thursday evening’s Hyperpole qualifying session, with the No 51 car of Alessandro Pier Guidi, Britain’s James Calado and ex-Formula One driver Antonio Giovinazzi will start alongside it in a Ferrari front-row lockout.
Fuoco set the benchmark of 3:22.982 minutes midway through the session, pipping Pier Guidi by 0.773 seconds before the red flag came out when the No 3 Cadillac of Sebastien Bourdais burst into flames at the first Mulsanne Chicane.
When the session resumed with just five minutes remaining, the two Ferraris remained in the pits content with their times, laying the challenge down to Toyota to beat them, and despite both the No 8 of Brendan Hartley and No 7 of Kamui Kobayashi and both improving, they could only make do with the second row. That was until the No 75 Porsche of Felipe Nasr put its first time on the board with his final lap of the session, snatching fourth away from 2021 winner Kobayashi after the Japanese had his best time deleted for track limits.
The remaining No 2 Cadillac of Earl Bamber and Britons Alex Lynn and Richard Westbrook will start sixth, with team-mate Bourdais having his fastest lap time deleted for causing the red flag, resulting in dropping down to eighth behind the No 5 Porsche.
In LMP2, a late charge from No 28 Jota driver Pietro Fittipaldi narrowly missed out on pole position as IDEC Sport took pole via the No 48 of Paul-Loup Chatin, Laurents Horr and Paul Lafargue, while in GTE Am the timesheets were lit up by Ben Keating, the American amateur driver who put the No 33 Chevrolet Racing Corvette on pole 1.529 seconds faster than their nearest competitor, the No 25 Ort by TF Sport Aston Martin.
The No 24 ‘innovative’ Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, driven by ex-F1 world champion Jenson Button, seven-time Nascar champion Jimmie Johnson and 2010 Le Mans winner Mike Rockenfeller qualified an impressive 38th, ahead of the entire GT Am field by nearly four seconds – the Hendrick Motorsports team filling the ‘Garage 56’ slot after being invited to bring a converted Nascar to the event for the first time.
When is the race?
The 91st running of the Le Mans 24 Hours takes place on Saturday June 9 and Sunday June 10, 100 years on from the first running of the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1923.
What time does it start?
The race is due to get under way at 3pm BST on Saturday and will finish when the first lap after 3pm BST on Sunday is completed.
How many laps is it?
As Le Mans is a time-limited race, drivers are tasked with completing as many laps as possible in the allocated 24 hours. The existing record remains the 397 laps completed in 2010 by the Audi team of Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Mike Rockenfeller, with race distances impacted by reliability issues and bad weather.
What is the weather forecast?
Rain showers are expected across the weekend and there is a 40 per cent chance that the race will start in wet conditions and could increase to thunderstorms on Saturday evening due to the hot temperatures. A dry night is expected that should continue into Sunday morning, before the threat of rain returns at the end of the race on Sunday.
Where can I watch it?
Coverage in the UK will be shown on Eurosport 2. The warm up will be shown from 11am (BST) on Saturday, with pre-race build-up from 2pm, and the entire 24 Hours will be shown live through the night until 4pm on Sunday.
In the USA, MotorTrend will show the full race live from 10am ET/7am PT.
What is the entry list?
Hypercar
2: Cadillac Racing – Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn, Richard Westbrook
3: Cadillac Racing – Sebastien Bourdais, Renger van der Zande, Scott Dixon
4: Floyd Vanwall Racing Team – Tom Dillmann, Esteban Guerrieri, Jacques Villeneuve
5: Porsche Penske Motorsport – Dane Cameron, Michael Christensen, Frederic Makowiecki
6: Porsche Penske Motorsport – Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer, Laurens Vanthoor
7: Toyota Gazoo Racing – Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez
8: Toyota Gazoo Racing – Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa
38: Hertz Team JOTA – Yifei Ye, Antonio Felix da Costa, Will Stevens
50: Ferrari AF Corse – Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina, Nicklas Nielsen
51: Ferrari AF Corse – Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi
75: Porsche Penske Motorsport – Felipe Nasr, Mathieu Jaminet, Nick Tandy
93: Peugeot TotalEnergies – Paul di Resta, Mikkel Jensen, Jean-Eric Vergne
94: Peugeot TotalEnergies – Loic Duval, Gustavo Menezes, Nico Muller
311: Action Express Racing – Pipo Derani, Alexander Sims, Jack Aitken
708: Glickenhaus Racing – Romain Dumas, Olivier Pla, Ryan Briscoe
709: Glickenhaus Racing – Franck Mailleux, Nathanael Berthon, Esteban Gutierrez
LMP2
9: Prema Racing – Juan Manuel Correa, Romania Filip Ugran, Bent Viscaal
10: Vector Sport – Ryan Cullen, Gabriel Aubry, Matthias Kaiser
13: Tower Motorsports – Steven Taylor, Ricky Thomas, Rene Rast
14: Nielsen Racing – Rodrigo Sales, Mathias Beche, Ben Hanley
22: United Autosports – Phil Hanson, Filipe Albuquerque, Frederick Lubin
23: United Autosports – Oliver Jarvis, Tom Blomqvist, Josh Pierson
28: JOTA – David Heinemeier Hansson, Pietro Fittipaldi, Oliver Rasmussen
30: Duqueine Team – Neel Jani, Rene Binder, Nico Pino
31: Team WRT – Sean Gelael, Robin Frijns, Ferdinand Habsburg
32: Inter Europol Competition – Mark Kvamme, Jan Magnussen, Anders Fjordbach
34: Inter Europol Competition – Jakub Smiechowski, Fabio Scherer, Albert Costa
35: Alpine Elf Team – Andre Negrao, Memo Rojas, Olli Caldwell
36: Alpine Elf Team – Matthieu Vaxiviere, Charles Milesi, Julien Canal
37: Cool Racing – Nicolas Lapierre, Alexandre Coigny, Malthe Jakobsen
39: Graff Racing – Roberto Lacorte, Guido van der Garde, Patrick Pilet
41: Team WRT – Rui Andrade, Robert Kubica, Louis Deletraz
43: DKR Engineering – Tom van Rompuy, Ugo de Wilde, Maxime Martin
45: Algarve Pro Racing – George Kurtz, James Allen, Colin Braun
47: Cool Racing – Reshad de Geru, Vlad Lomko, Simon Pagenaud
48: IDEC Sport – Paul Lafargue, Paul-Loup Chatin, Laurents Horr
63: Prema Racing – Doriane Pin, Mirko Bortolotti, Daniil Kvyat
65: Panis Racing – Manuel Maldonado, Tijmen van der Helm, Job van Uitert
80: AF Corse – Francois Perrodo, Ben Barnicoat, Norman Nato
923: Racing Team Turkey – Salih Yoluc, Tom Gamble, Dries Vanthoor
GTE Am
16: Proton Competition – Ryan Hardwick, Zacharie Robichon, Jan Heylan
21: AF Corse – Stefano Costantini, Simon Mann, Ulysse de Pauw
25: Oman ORT by TF – Ahmad Al Harthy, Michael Dinan, Charlie Eastwood
33: Corvette Racing – Ben Keating, Nicky Catsburg, Nicolas Varrone
54: AF Corse – Thomas Flohr, Francesco Castellacci, Davide Rigon
55: GMB Motorsport – Gustav Dahlmann Birch, Kasper H Jensen, Jens Reno Moller
56: Project 1-AO – PJ Hyett, Gunnar Jeanette, Matteo Cairoli
57: Kessel Racing – Takeshi Kimura, Scott Huffaker, Daniel Serra
60: Iron Lynx – Claudio Schiavoni, Matteo Cressoni, Alessio Picariello
66: JMW Motorsport – Thomas Neubauer, Louis Prette, Giacomo Petrobelli
72: TF Sport – Arnold Robin, Maxime Robin, Valentin Hasse-Clot
74: Kessel Racing – Kei Cozzolino, Yorikatsu Tsujiko, Naoki Kozamino
77: Dempsey-Proton Racing – Christian Ried, Mikkel Pedersen, Julian Andlauer
83: Richard Mille AF Corse – Luis Perez Companc, Lilou Wadoux, Alessio Rovera
85: Iron Dames – Rahel Frey, Sarah Bov, Michelle Gatting
86: GR Racing – Michael Wainwright, Benjamin Barker, Ricardo Pera
88: Proton Competition – Harry Tincknell, Donald Yount, Jonas Ried
98: NorthWest AMR – Ian James, Daniel Mancinelli, Alex Riberas
100: Walkenhorst Motorsport – Chandler Hull, Andrew Haryanto, Jeffrey Segal
777: D’station Racing – Satoshi Hoshino, Tomonobu Fujii, Casper Stevenson
911: Proton Competition – Michael Fassbender, Richard Lietz, Martin Rump
Innovative Car
24: Hendrick Motorsports – Jimmie Johnson, Mike Rockenfeller, Jenson Button