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.
On this day at Spa-Francorchamps in 1967, an Eagle descended upon the Belgian Ardennes and…
F1 fans in London will be transported into the heart of the sport this summer…
Renault is reportedly debating its future in Formula 1 as an engine manufacturer, which has…
Formula 1 and Apple Original Films have announced the release date for their highly anticipated…
Nico Hulkenberg believes that something was amiss on his VF-24 after the Canadian Grand Prix…
Young Polish driver Kacper Sztuka has learned the hard way that Red Bull’s junior programme…