Team Jota’s Alex Lynn drove his No. 12 Cadillac Hypercar to the automaker’s first-ever pole position for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. However, the British privateer team didn’t stop there, as the No. 38 sister car secured the second place on the starting grid, giving Cadillac a historic front-row lockout for next weekend’s endurance race.
Despite a strong performance by the Cadillac Whelen No. 311 car in the first round of qualifying, Jack Aitken could only secure eighth place, while the No. 101 of Wayne Taylor Racing will start 14th. Even with the disparity between starting positions, all Cadillacs looked strong during different moments of qualifying and should put up a good fight once the race gets underway.
After suffering a May from hell due to a cheating scandal at the Indy 500, Penske got off to a poor start at Le Mans due to the disqualification of the No. 6 Porsche for being underweight. That car will start at the back of the Hypercar grid, though the No. 5 will start third from the grid thanks to an impressive performance by Julien Andlauer. The No. 5 actually lost its right-rear wheel during the session, but Andlauer had set a good-enough lap time to retain his third place.
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the day was by the Ferrari team, which only managed to qualify in seventh and 11th positions. Having won the race two years in a row, Ferrari is the favorite to do so again, but it will have its work cut out due to its poor qualifying.
Cadillac has been building momentum over the last two years, and all of its effort seems to be paying off. In 2023, for its return to Le Mans after 21 years, it managed to finish third place overall, but it missed the podium by one place last year. With such a strong performance by Jota today, it certainly makes us believe that the American automaker has what it takes to win the most prestigious endurance race in the world next week.
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