Le Mans (AFP)
The Toyota N.7 of the Japanese Kamui Kobayashi, the Briton Mike Conway and the Argentinian José Maria Lopez took pole position on Thursday at the 89th 24 Hours of Le Mans, the start of which will be given on Saturday at 16:00 (14:00 GMT).
His sister car and other favorite in the new premier hypercar category, the Toyota N.8, will accompany him in the front row, ahead of the Alpine N.36 and the Glickenhaus N.708 in the second row.
The third row goes to the fifth and final Hypercar, the Glickenhaus N.709, and the first LMP2, the Oreca N.38.
At dusk, Kobayashi, already poleman three times at Le Mans in 2017, 2019 and 2020, drove the lap times in 3 min 23 sec 900/1000 at the wheel of the N.7, to get ahead of New Zealander Brendon Hartley, who was driving N.8, from 295/1000.
To measure the course passed by the Toyotas during this second part of qualifying (called Hyperpole and which determines the first three rows in the four categories), it must be remembered that the best time so far was 3 min 26 sec 279 / 1000, already owned by the Japanese.
And before the event, the lap times on the 24 Hours of Le Mans circuit were estimated at 3 min 30 sec for the new Hypercars!
Driven by the French Nicolas Lapierre, the Alpine N.36 (which is not a Hypercar but an old adapted LMP1) is clocked at 1 sec 674/1000, and the Glickenhaus N.708 and N.709 of its compatriots Olivier Pla and Romain Dumas at 1 sec 739/1000 and 3 sec 031/1000 respectively.
The first LMP2, it finished 4 sec 050/1000 from pole in the hands of the Portuguese Antonio Félix Da Costa.
The Alpine N.36 driven by Matthieu Vaxivière took the second row before the start of the 24 Hours of Le Mans on August 19, 2021 JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER AFP
The best LMGTE Pro is the private Porsche N.72, which beats the factory crews of Porsche, Ferrari and Corvette thanks to Belgian Dries Vanthoor.
The fastest LMGTE Am is also a Porsche, the N.88 of Frenchman Julien Andlauer.
A final two-hour night free practice session started at 10:10 p.m. (20:10 GMT).
© 2021 AFP