The Japanese manufacturer confirms its status as the favorite of the race, the start of which will be given on Saturday at 4:00 p.m. (2:00 p.m. GMT), by also placing its second hypercar, the Toyota N.7 victorious last year, in the front row.

It was on the last lap that Hartley managed to complete the best lap of the evening on the Sarthe circuit, in 3 min 24 sec 408/1000, ahead of the sister car driven by the Japanese Kamui Kobayashi (3 min 24 sec 828/1000), poleman last year.

The Kiwi also set the absolute best time since the start of this 90th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans during this hyperpole which brought together the six fastest cars in each category during the first qualifying session on Wednesday evening.

"It's great, the car is amazing," Hartley said after the session.

"We were under pressure on the last lap. Now we're going to focus on the weekend. I'm happy to be back with a large crowd for a pole start."

"Faster than us"

The Toyota N.7 also secured its place on the front row just before the checkered flag lowered, while the hyperpole had until then been dominated by the Alpine of Brazilian André Negrao, associated with the French Matthieu Vaxivière and Nicolas Stone.

The latter surprised by establishing the reference time for twenty minutes, after disappointing tests for the French team.

"We know that they are faster than us, the important thing is not to be too far away so as not to let them have a quiet race like last year", preferred to retain Lapierre after the hyperpole.

Third with 3 min 24 sec 850/1000, the Alpine will start in the second row, a lesser evil.

Frenchman Nicolas Lapierre and his crew at the wheel of the Alpine Hypercar finished 3rd in the "Hyperpole" of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, June 9, 2022 JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER AFP

On the other hand, the American team Glickenhaus has reason to be disappointed because its two cars set the worst lap times in the queen class, when they had been very fast on Wednesday.

The N.709 will therefore start in the second row, next to the Alpine, and the 708 in the third row.

None of the hypercars went as fast as Kobayashi last year, when he panicked the counters in 3 min 23 sec 900/1000.

But Hartley still came within half a second of the Japanese record time.

In the LMP2 category, the Oreca-Gibson N.31 of the Belgian team WRT was the fastest and earned its place on the third row, thanks to a very good time from Robin Frijns, alongside the Glickenhaus N .708.

As in the third free practice session contested in the afternoon, the Corvette N.64 finished top of the LMGTE Pro class.

Finally, in the LMGTE Am category, that of the "gentlemen drivers", the Ferrari N.61 of the Italian team AF Corse, also pulled out of the game.

© 2022 AFP