Ball – Toyota on the pillar at Le Mans (Motor Racing)

Antonio Felix da Costa, driving Team Jota’s Oreca 07-Gibson #38, earned a “Hyperpole” in the LMP2 class for the 89th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which begins Saturday at 15:00. The Portuguese driver traveled 13,626 km from La Sarthe in 3,27,950 m, with an average speed of 235.9 km/h, and overall achieved the sixth fastest time in the crucial qualifying session, just 4.050 seconds from the fastest car, Toyota GR010 Hybrid #7 Designed by Kamui Kobayshi, who took fourth place in the “pole” in five years in the world’s most famous endurance race (first in a supercar)!

Felipe Albuquerque, at Oreca 07-Gibson #22 of United Autosports USA, the 2020 LMP2 class winner, was not at “Hyperpole,” the course that collects only the six fastest cars during the first qualifying stage at Le Mans, in the four classes running in This marathon, thus not getting better than seventeenth place on the starting grid. The other Portuguese driver at the 2021 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Alvaro Parente, in a Porsche 911 RSR-19 From Hub Auto Racing, he also took first place in the LMGTE Pro class, but the qualification was done by his teammate (Belgian Dries Vanthoor).

This year, at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, 62 cars: 5 Hypercars – debuted at La Sarthe, behind the LMP1 that “goed out of the picture” after the end of World Endurance (WEC) 2020 -, 25 LMP2, 8 LMGTE Pro and 23 LMGTE Am.