Mattia Drudi put Heart of Racing Team’s Aston Martin Vantage LMGT3 on pole position for this weekend’s 24 Hours of Le Mans (14-15 June), as motorcycling legend Valentino Rossi secured a top three starting berth on only his second appearance at La Sarthe.
After Zacharie Robichon progressed safely through H1 in the two-part Hyperpole session in the #27 entry, Drudi then got the better of Ferrari factory driver Alessio Rovera in the #21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari to claim the prime spot on the grid for the twice-round-the-clock contest on his debut at the event.
“It’s always difficult to have a super-clean lap, but the team did a mega job and the car has handled superbly since the Test Day,” Drudi reflected. “Qualifying for a 24-hour race is not the most important thing, but it’s still nice to get pole of course and we’re really looking forward to the race now!”
Lin Hodenius and Maxime Martin produced a stellar joint performance to secure fourth place in Iron Lynx’s #61 Mercedes-AMG LMGT3 – sporting a striking ‘Silver Arrows’ livery to celebrate the three-pointed star’s return to the world’s most famous race – with Richard Lietz grabbing fifth in last year’s championship-winning Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3.
The biggest casualties of the first half of the knockout session were the #54 Vista AF Corse entry of Francesco Castellacci – who beached his Ferrari 296 LMGT3 in the Porsche Curves gravel trap, bringing out a red flag – Sébastien Baud who fell foul of track limits in the #59 United Autosports McLaren and Giammarco Levorato in Proton Competition’s #88 Ford Mustang, all three of which have been podium-finishing cars so far in 2025.
In LMP2, Mathias Beche leapfrogged an epic three-way tussle for honours to vault from fourth to first in the TDS Racing entry, with a lap that none of his rivals proved able to beat. That shaded a spectacular scrap between Tom Dillmann, Louis Délétraz and Ben Hanley, with the trio ultimately blanketed by just over a tenth-of-a-second in favour of the former.
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