2023 Le Mans 24 Hours: Ferrari lead hyperpole contenders with 1-2 finish
8th June 2023Ferrari AF Corse stood on the top of qualifying ahead of the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans, leading the hypercar class to Hyperpole on Thursday evening.
How qualifying practice unfolded…
As the Hypercars, LMP2 and GTEam cars waited for the pit exit light to go green, the Peugeot TotalEnergies hypercar was the first to peel out onto the circuit driven by Loic Duval. Naturally, Duval was the first driver to start his flying lap in the one-hour qualifying session.
After nearly 10 minutes, drama unfolded. The first red flag was brought out as Alpine Elf Endurance’s Matthieu Vaxiviere made contact with the LMP2 of United of Philip Hanson into the final corner. As the two cars separated, Vaxiviere was left beached in the gravel and was quickly extracted from the gravel trap while Hanson promptly returned to the pitlane.
Prior to that incident, AF Corse’s Ben Barnicoat – in his LMP2 – bounced across the circuit as he approached the final sequence of corners. Barnicoat bounced across the gravel trap and was lucky to avoid the barrier before he rejoined the course.
During the red flag, Toyota Gazoo Racing topped the timing sheets with their Hypercar – driven by Kamui Kobayashi – ahead of Ferrari AF Corse and Porshe Penske cars. In the LMP2 category
The session was soon red-flagged again, eight minutes after the session resumed after Cool Racing Malthe Jakobsen crashed his LMP2 car into the barrier at turn 13 – Indianapolis. Jakobsen soon returned to the pitlane. Despite the red flag, the Cool Racing team sat in fourth place on the timing sheets, and within the hyperpole positions.
With just less than 20 minutes left on the clock, Antonio Fuoco topped the timing boards with the latest fastest lap with a 3:23.213. This was quickly followed by Ferrari AF Corses’ second car – driven by Alessandro Pier Guidi – which sat 0.199 seconds off the pace.
The running order of the top eight of the hypercar class looked visually pleasing as the cars ran two-by-two in the hyperpole-qualifying positions with Ferrari out in front ahead of both Toyota Gazoo Racing’s, both Porsche Penske’s and both Cadillac Racing cars.
That’s all for the article: 2023 Le Mans 24 Hours: Ferrari lead hyperpole contenders with 1-2 finish!
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
