Le Mans. Fantastic qualifying for the 24 Hours of Le Mans
(FRA)! Dries Vanthoor (BEL), driving the #15 BMW M Hybrid V8 for BMW
M Team WRT, secured the very first pole position ever for BMW M
Motorsport at Le Mans. With a time of 3:22.564 minutes, Vanthoor was
initially second by the tiniest margin of 0.005 seconds, but the
fastest lap of the Cadillac ahead of him was cancelled. In the #20
Shell BMW M Hybrid V8, Robin Frijns (NED) completed the excellent
team result in the Hypercar class by finishing fourth.

 

Both WRT cars also made it into Hyperpole 2 in the LMGT3 class.
There, Sean Gelael (INA) and Parker Thompson (CAN) put the two BMW M4
GT3 EVOs into the fifth and sixth starting positions. The 24 Hours of
Le Mans will begin on Saturday at 16:00 CEST.

 

Quotes after qualifying for the 24 Hours of Le Mans:

 

Andreas Roos (Head of BMW M Motorsport): “A fantastic
qualifying session for the 24 Hours of Le Mans – it couldn’t have gone
any better. Just getting all four cars into Hyperpole 2 was a huge
success in itself, but to have now secured BMW M Motorsport’s first
ever pole position at Le Mans is simply fantastic! Congratulations to
Dries Vanthoor on a brilliant lap and many thanks to everyone who has
worked on this project over the years. This is a fantastic reward for
their efforts. We’ll relish seeing our BMW M Hybrid V8 right at the
front of the grid on Saturday, but now we’re focusing fully on race preparation.”

 

Vincent Vosse (Team Principal, BMW M Team WRT): “That
is a great surprise! I am very happy to be on pole position for the
first time in Hypercar. I take that, of course, but at the same time
congratulations to Cadillac and Jack Aitken for putting on a great
show! Overall, we at WRT can be extremely happy with the qualifying
results. Now let’s focus on the race.”

 

Dries Vanthoor (BMW M Team WRT, #15 BMW M Hybrid V8, Pole
position): “I’m super happy to be on pole at Le Mans! This
is such a great event, and now being on pole here and giving everyone
in the team what they deserve, is awesome. At the same time our goal
is to win the race, so we need to keep it clean over 24 hours to be
right there on Sunday.”

 

Robin Frijns (BMW M Team WRT, #20 Shell BMW M Hybrid V8, 4th
place): “It was the goal to be in the top-five, and in the
end we are in P4. That means we are a bit out of the jungle at the
start, which is good. My laptimes were pretty far off. I wasn’t so
happy with my runs in Hyperpole 2. I’m not where I should be, so we
need to see where we can improve for the race.”

 

Sean Gelael (Team WRT, #32 BMW M4 GT3 EVO, 5th place LMGT3):
“It‘s probably one of the best positions to start the big
24-hour race from. Third row, the slip stream in front of us – that’s
good! We are happy, and we are where we want to be for the start of
the race.”

 

Parker Thompson (Team WRT, #69 BMW M4 GT3 EVO, 6th place
LMGT3): “Overall a very nice job by both sides of the
garage at Team WRT. Starting P5 and P6 is a great result for the team
and a fantastic place to start the race from. We are out of the areas
of chaos at the back. Great job by everybody!”