A very encouraging day today from Le Mans
Thursday, June 12, 2025
Unlike what was previously reported from yesterday evening’s Qualifying session where we though that the #009 Valkyrie of Marco Sorensen (Alex Riberas and Roman De Angelis) had missed out on progressing through to at least Hyperpole 1 thanks to them being baulked upon one flying lap to be pipped at the post at the end of his final flying lap – a post session disqualification for the #6 Penske Porsche for being underweight suddenly threw the #009 Aston Martin back into the equation.
At least having the full length of Free Practice 3 to consider their action plan within their first ever Hyperpole experience with the new hypercar, it was just a case of strapping the Dane Train into the car with a new set of tyres to see just what could be achieved by the end of that thirty-minute session.
That was a lap time with a decreasing gap between him and the rest of the field as Sorensen finally came home fifteenth at the tail end of the fifteen strong Hyperpole running with a best lap time just over two seconds off the lead pace but still a motivationally quicker than one of the Toyotas and both Peugeots that didn’t make it through last night.
That was a lap time with a decreasing gap between him and the rest of the field as Sorensen finally came home fifteenth at the tail end of the fifteen strong Hyperpole running with a best lap time just over two seconds off the lead pace but still a motivationally quicker than one of the Toyotas and both Peugeots that didn’t make it through last night.
That means that the #009 will start the race on Saturday from P15 whilst the #007 sister car of Harry Tincknell/Tom Gamble and Ross Gunn start from P20 with that disqualified Porsche bringing up the rear of the Hypercar class.
If that was good (which is was for the still new race car programme), the results from the combined LMP2/LMGT3 Hyperpole 1 and 2 session were even better as both Zacharie Robichon and later Mattia Drudi thrust their Heart of Racing AMR Vantage up to class pole position at the end.
It was all plain sailing though as Hyperpole 1 was interrupted with a midway point red flag for a Ferrari beached in the gravel at the Porsche Curves and by then, the #27 car of Robichon hadn’t posted a notable lap time. Quickly out of pit lane at the restart saw the #27 place a better P3 placed ‘banker’ lap – position which elevated down to P6 before going back up to P4 by the end of the first session.
Drudi was out next in Hyperpole 2 for what would be a fifteen-minute top eight shoot out where the Italian didn’t leave things to chance starting off with a lap time worthy of P2 before improving to a P1 placed lap time next time around. That proved itself to be more than enough for him, Robichon and Ian James to start from pole position on Saturday whilst the #10 Racing Spirit of Leman AMR Vantage LMGT3 of Derek DeBoer, Valentin Hasse-Clot and Edurado Barrichello will start from P17 in class.
Before that, however, they have just one more Free Practice session to run tonight before a track free day tomorrow. Congratulations to all so far – and we still have a 24-hour race still to go!
Before that, however, they have just one more Free Practice session to run tonight before a track free day tomorrow. Congratulations to all so far – and we still have a 24-hour race still to go!
Photo Credits – Kelvin Pope (Red Firecracker)
