Alpine Upset: Habsburg Snatches Top Spot as Cadillac and Aston Martin Show Strength in Dramatic Le Mans Qualifying
June 10, 2026Pin dominates LMP2 Grid as 2025 Winners Faced Shock Early Knockout
LMP2 & LMGT3 Qualifying Review
The joint 30-minute opening qualifying session delivered a highly intense battle as teams fought to secure their places inside the crucial top 15 cutoff. In LMP2, the spotlight belonged firmly to Doriane Pin. The dynamic French star put on a masterclass behind the wheel of the #30 Duqueine Team Oreca, putting in a blistering 3:34.662 around the 24 Hour circuit. Pin’s pace left her over half a second clear of the #37 CLX Motorsport entry and the rest of the chasing LMP2 field. Further down the order, Kevin Estre and the #14 TDS Racing squad survived a late scare, squeezing through to safety in 14th position.
Meanwhile, the LMGT3 class provided its typical dramatic swings in momentum. It was Peter Dempsey who ultimately piloted the #34 Racing Team Turkey Chevrolet Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R to the top of the timing screens with a 3:55.744. Dempsey held off a late charge from Dustion Blattner’s Kessel Racing Ferrari, while Team WRT demonstrated strength in depth with their duo of BMW M4 LMGT3 Evos. Piloted by Anthony McIntosh and Darren Leung, the #32 and #69 cars both finished in the top ten in class, ensuring that the Belgian squad remains in the hunt for pole.
Hypercar Qualifying Review
The 30-minute Hypercar qualifying session displayed the drama which we’ve come to expect from the senior class at Le Mans with tyre gambles, Balance of Performance dynamics and outright pace all playing their part to make the session a fascinating glimpse of what might be to come in the 2026 running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The top spot was taken by the #35 Alpine Endurance Team with Ferdinand Habsburg lapping in 3:23.135 while the #12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac V-Series.R piloted by Will Stevens missed out on the top spot by just .013 seconds. Stevens’ garage-mate Jordan Taylor kept the momentum rolling by putting his #101 WTR Cadillac firmly into third.
Yet it was the pace of the Aston Martin Valkyries that continued to surprise. The #007 and #009 Valkyries showed the true pace of their Cosworth V12s to lock out the top two positions early in the session. As the session came to an end, however, the Aston Martins had to settle for seventh and ninth but the form of the British squad will have many revising their forecasts of who could win at Circuit de la Sarthe on Sunday.
There was drama for Peugeot who saw both their entries fail to make the top 15 for the Hyperpole shootout on Thursday June the 11th while 2025 winners AF Corse with its #83 Ferrari 499P, for the qualifying session piloted by Phil Hanson, also struggled to find the pace to make the Thursday Hyperpole sessions.
Hyperpole gets underway at 8.00pm, starting with the first 20-minute session for the LMP2 and LMGT3 classes where five further entries will be eliminated before the remaining ten take part in Hyperpole 2 to establish the pole-sitters in both classes. Hypercar Hyperpole 1 gets underway at 9.05pm.
