Dakar Rally: Porsche 911 Dominates Qualifying for 24 Hours of Le Mans
In a thrilling last-lap battle, Kevin Estre in the #6 Penske Porsche 911 Dakar secured a surprise pole position for the 92nd 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race. The Porsche driver pulled off the stunning maneuver, snatching the top spot from the favored Cadillac team.
Throughout the session, the Cadillac squad had looked strong, with Sebastian Bourdais in the #3 car setting multiple fastest laps. However, it was Estre who emerged from the pack in the closing moments to claim pole position with a time of 3:24.634, just 0.148 seconds ahead of the #2 Cadillac driven by Alex Lynn.
In the LMP2 class, Louis Deletraz took the pole position early on and held off a late challenge from the #28 IDEC Racing car of Jan van Uitert. Meanwhile, in the LMGT3 category, Brendan Iribe in the #70 Inception Racing McLaren secured the class pole despite a spin at the final chicane.
“The highly anticipated Hyper pole session at the Le Mans 24 Hours was delayed by 34 minutes due to repairs to the trackside barrier following a previous incident.”
Once underway, Dries Vanthoor in the #15 BMW M Team WRT led the way, but his times were later invalidated due to multiple track limit infringements, pushing him down to sixth place.
In the end, it was the #6 Penske Porsche 911 Dakar that emerged victorious, with Estre’s last-lap heroics securing a surprise pole position for the legendary endurance race. The Porsche’s impressive performance has set the stage for an exciting showdown between the German marque and the Cadillac team in the upcoming 24 Hours of Le Mans.
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