Just as he did 12 months ago, Mattia Drudi put Heart of Racing Team on LMGT3 category pole position for this weekend’s 24 Hours of Le Mans (13-14 June), dominating this evening’s second Hyperpole session around the legendary Circuit de la Sarthe.
The #27 Aston Martin Vantage had already shown its pace in Hyperpole 1, when Zacharie Robichon similarly topped the times, but Drudi did not make life easy for himself after going quickest on his first flying lap only to immediately lose it due to a track limits transgression.
That meant the Italian had to do it all over again, and with the pressure on, he responded magnificently, delivering an almost identical benchmark run that would not subsequently be threatened. Indeed, Drudi ended up almost a full second clear of his closest rival as he cemented the top spot on the starting grid in style.
“It feels really great – it’s nice to be on pole again here after last year,” the 27-year-old acknowledged. “The car is quick and behaving really well, and both Ian [James] and Zach [Robichon] did a good job in their sessions, too. We’re feeling really confident. Of course, the race is a different story, but it’s always a good starting point to be on pole.”
“It’s super-special,” echoed Robichon. “We knew if we could get through to the Hyperpole 2 shootout, every time Mattia is in the car, we have a chance of pole and he proved that again.”
In another echo to 2025, it was Alessio Rovera who secured second place in VISTA AF Corse’s #21 Ferrari 296, after the Italian saw off a dual Lexus threat behind, with former world champion José María López and ‘super-sub’ Jack Hawksworth locking out row two for Akkodis ASP Team. The session was not without drama for the Brit, however, as he found himself stuck in the pit-lane at the start due to an issue preventing the door from closing on the #78 RC F.
The Noah’s Ark theme continues on row three of the grid, with a pair of Team WRT-run BMW M4s in the hands of Sean Gelael and Parker Thompson.
The most notable casualty from the first part of Hyperpole was last year’s race-winning #92 Manthey Porsche – the current LMGT3 championship leader – which had narrowly advanced from yesterday’s initial qualifying session but would go no further as Riccardo Pera could manage no better than 15th.
In LMP2, Esteban Masson produced a sensational effort to outpace all of his adversaries – including 2024 world champion Kévin Estre and fellow Porsche factory driver, Julien Andlauer.
The Frenchman was on scintillating form in Hyperpole 2, sending the Forestier Racing by Panis crew into rapture in the pits, but the team’s joy was tempered somewhat by an overhanging penalty from yesterday’s qualifying session after Louis Rousset was found guilty of impeding another car during a fast lap.
That means the #29 Oreca-07 Gibson prototype will drop to second on the grid for the race, promoting the #28 IDEC Sport entry – piloted in Hyperpole 2 by Job van Uitert – to pole.
Check out the full Hyperpole times and grid positions.
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