{"id":85747,"date":"2026-06-11T16:37:48","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T20:37:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=85747"},"modified":"2026-06-11T16:37:48","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T20:37:48","slug":"2026-le-mans-hyperpole-results-cadillac-bmw-pole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=85747","title":{"rendered":"Cadillac Set the Fastest Lap at Le Mans \u2014 Then Lost Pole To BMW"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"post-summary-wrap\">\n<h3 class=\"post-summary-title\">Article Summary<\/h3>\n<ul class=\"post-summary-list\">\n<li>Jack Aitken&#8217;s final lap in the #38 Cadillac edged Dries Vanthoor&#8217;s BMW by just 0.005s, the smallest pole margin in Le Mans history.<\/li>\n<li>A pit lane release violation saw the #38 penalised and dropped to 10th, handing pole to the #15 BMW of Vanthoor, Magnussen, and Marciello.<\/li>\n<li>Cadillac still dominated the session, placing three V-Series.Rs in the top six, while Ferrari and Toyota had sessions to forget.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/section>\n<p>The 2026 Le Mans 24 Hours Hyperpole session had everything: a pole that changed hands in the final seconds, the tightest margin in the race\u2019s history, and then a penalty that rendered the whole drama moot. Thursday evening at the Circuit de la Sarthe was Le Mans at its most chaotic.<\/p>\n<h2>How It Unfolded<\/h2>\n<p>Dries Vanthoor set the early pace in Hyperpole 2, with the #15 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bmwblog.com\/2026\/05\/09\/bmw-m-hybrid-v8-wins-6-hours-spa-wec-1-2\/\">BMW M Hybrid V8<\/a> achieving the first sub-3m23s lap of the entire week \u2014 a 3m22.745s. He then improved further to a 3m22.564s, and with five minutes left, nobody else had come within two seconds of the Belgian. BMW looked to be heading for pole at Le Mans for the first time in the hybrid era. Then Jack Aitken found something in the final sector.<\/p>\n<p>Aitken, in the #38 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R, snatched pole position away by just 0.005s on his final flying lap. The margin \u2014 five thousandths of a second over 13.6 kilometers \u2014 is, according to reports from the circuit, the closest pole position margin in Le Mans history. Aitken shares the car with S\u00e9bastien Bourdais and New Zealander Earl Bamber, who had set the pace throughout Hyperpole 1 to keep the #38 in contention.<\/p>\n<p>Will Stevens made it a Cadillac 1-3 with a 3m23.078s in the sister #12 entry of Stevens, Louis Del\u00e9traz, and Norman Nato, followed by the #35 Alpine of Antonio Felix da Costa in fourth and Robin Frijns\u2019 #20 BMW in fifth.<\/p>\n<h2>A Penalty Changed Everything<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cdn.bmwblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/bmw-m-hybrid-v8-le-mans-2026-01.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-514422\" title=\"BMW M HYBRID V8 LE MANS 2026 01\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.bmwblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/bmw-m-hybrid-v8-le-mans-2026-01-830x553.jpg\" alt=\"BMW M HYBRID V8 LE MANS 2026 01\" width=\"830\" height=\"553\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.bmwblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/bmw-m-hybrid-v8-le-mans-2026-01-830x553.jpg 830w, https:\/\/cdn.bmwblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/bmw-m-hybrid-v8-le-mans-2026-01-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.bmwblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/bmw-m-hybrid-v8-le-mans-2026-01-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.bmwblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/bmw-m-hybrid-v8-le-mans-2026-01-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.bmwblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/bmw-m-hybrid-v8-le-mans-2026-01.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 830px) 100vw, 830px\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The celebrations at Hertz Team JOTA did not last long. The #38 was placed under investigation after the session, and the stewards ultimately found against them: the #38 entry was penalized, demoting the car to 10th on the grid. The #15 BMW was consequently promoted to pole position. The infringement was a pit lane release violation \u2014 the car left too early.<\/p>\n<p>The #15 crew \u2014 Vanthoor, Kevin Magnussen, and Raffaele Marciello \u2014 will line up at the front of the Hypercar field on Saturday.<\/p>\n<h2>Frijns Had A Difficult Night<\/h2>\n<p>BMW\u2019s #20 ended up fourth despite the team\u2019s aspirations. Robin Frijns was candid about his own performance: \u201cIt 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. But my lap times were pretty far off. I wasn\u2019t so happy with my runs in Hyperpole 2. I\u2019m not where I should be, so we need to see where we can improve for the race.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fourth for the #20 is a solid grid slot. But Frijns is right that there is a gap to find, and at Le Mans that kind of honesty matters \u2014 the cars that underperform in qualifying and improve in the race are often the ones to watch come Sunday morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Article Summary Jack Aitken&#8217;s final lap in the #38 Cadillac edged Dries Vanthoor&#8217;s BMW by just 0.005s, the smallest pole margin in Le Mans history. A pit lane release violation saw the #38 penalised and dropped to 10th, handing pole to the #15 BMW of Vanthoor, Magnussen, and Marciello. Cadillac still dominated the session, placing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":85748,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=85747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/85748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=85747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=85747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=85747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}