Thursday evening’s Hyperpole shootout at Le Mans looked like a signed and sealed affair for the Ganassi-run Cadillac team, until Porsche Penske’s Kevin Estre pulled a scorching flyer out of his hat.
With just minutes left on the clock in the thrilling grid-defining session, and with the #2 and #3 Cadillac entries leading the field, Estre went all in with a 3m24.634s lap that edged the first of the two American machines by a mere 0.148s!
While Alex Lynn at the wheel of the #2 Cadillac had produced a monumental final sector to snatch the fastest tour, but there was no denying a stunning Estre his first career pole at Le Mans.
“It was crazy,” Estre told RACER. “We were last in the queue, there was traffic and I didn’t do a perfect lap but felt the tyres were still coming.
“Then on the second lap, I was convinced I wouldn’t have enough fuel. But the engineers kept pushing me and I had a very nice slipstream from an LMP2. I had to overtake him at Indy, but he blocked me so it wasn’t easy to get past.
“I am so happy I did though because the Porsche Curves were amazing, I really had a perfect run with the car I had. I didn’t know where I was (on the leaderboard) when I crossed the line, but I knew that the lap wasn’t too bad!”
Le Mans’ 62-car field will be unleashed on Saturday at 4:00pm local time.
