[Concise and factual article]
On Thursday night, Porsche Penske Motorsport's No. 6 963 secured pole position for the 92nd edition of the Le Mans 24 Hours after an impressive performance by Kevin Estre during the Hyperpole shootout. Estre's best lap, clocked at 3m24.634s, was achieved at the session's end, surpassing the two Ganassi-run Cadillacs.
Estre, driving under overcast conditions on medium compound Michelins, edged out the fastest Cadillac by 0.148s, securing his first overall pole at Le Mans and marking Porsche's 18th pole in its history at the event. Alex Lynn, in the No. 2 Cadillac, made a notable attempt with his best lap at 3m24.782s, which initially put him on pole.
Sebastien Bourdais, in the No. 3 Cadillac, had temporarily held the top position with a lap of 3m24.816s before the session was interrupted by a red flag triggered by Dries Vanthoor's crash in the No. 15 BMW at Indianapolis. Subsequently, Bourdais' car did not return to the track, and he was overtaken by Lynn and Estre in the final minutes.
The provisional qualifying results place the No. 2 and No. 3 Cadillacs second and third, respectively, followed by the No. 51 Ferrari, and the No. 50 Ferrari. The No. 35 Alpine driven by Paul Loup Chatin ranked sixth.
In LMP2, Louis Deletraz of AO by TF clinched the pole with a 3m33.217s lap, beating IDEC Sport's Job Van Uitert by 0.6s. LMGT3 saw Brendan Iribe top the class for Inception Racing McLaren with a time of 3m58.120s.
The final practice session is scheduled to precede the race start, which is set for Saturday at 4 PM local time.