After post qualifying technical checks, the No.50 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P Hypercar and the No. 95 United Autosports McLaren were both found not to comply with the minimum car weight.
The penalty means that the pole-sitting No. 50 car will start the TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps from the back of the Hypercar grid.
The No.5 Porsche Penske 963 Hypercar, which was qualified by Matt Campbell will now start the race from pole position. The No.2 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R Hypercar will start alongside it on the front row of the grid. This was the best ever best-ever WEC grid starting position as Alex Lynn set a time of 2m03.115s. No.99 Proton Competition Porsche qualified by Julien Andlauer starts third on a 2m03.314s best and best privateer Porsche 963.
Callum IIlott in the No.12 Hertz Team JOTA takes forth ahead of the No.6 Porsche Penske 963 Hypercar driven by Kevin Estre.
Charles Milesi in Alpine Endurance Team A424 Hypercar takes best qualifying result of season with seventh but ended the session stopped with a technical issue on the Kemmel Straight
The rest of the top ten is made up of: No.8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Hypercar (6th); No.35 Alpine (7th); No.83 AF Corse Ferrari (8th), No.20 BMW M Hybrid V8 Hypercar (9th) (lost best lap due to track limits) and rounding out the top ten is the No.51 Ferrari AF Corse Hypercar.
The official stewards’ bulletin read: ‘After having checked the Technical Delegate report, the Stewards considered the minimum car weight did not comply with the relevant regulations. Consequently, the Stewards decided to impose the disqualification of car 50 of the qualifying and Hyperpole sessions and the deletion of the lap time of these sessions.”
The No. 95 United Autosports entry driven by Joshua Caygill was also penalised for the same underweight infringement. The McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo will start the race from the back of the grid.
LMGT3
No.85 Iron Dames Lamborghini Huracan took a brilliant pole position as Sarah Bovy topped both qualifying and Hyperpole session. This is Bovy’s first WEC pole at her home track after setting a best lap of 2m20.775s and take her first pole since Bahrain 2023.
No.46 Team WRT BMW M4 LMGT3 is second as 2023 pole sitter Ahmed Al Harthy set a best of 2m21.138s.The Manthey EMA Porsche 911 starts third.
Starting grid
1 #5 2:03.107 Porsche Penske Motorsport HYPERCAR Porsche 963 Matt CAMPBELL Michael CHRISTENSEN Frédéric MAKOWIECKI
2 #2 2:03.115 Cadillac Racing HYPERCAR Cadillac V-Series.R Earl BAMBER Alex LYNN
3 #99 2:03.314 Proton Competition HYPERCAR Porsche 963 Neel JANI Julien ANDLAUER
4 #12 2:03.384 Hertz Team JOTA HYPERCAR Porsche 963 Will STEVENS Callum ILOTT
5 #6 2:03.448 Porsche Penske Motorsport HYPERCAR Porsche 963 Kévin ESTRE André LOTTERER Laurens VANTHOOR
6 #8 2:03.572 Toyota Gazoo Racing HYPERCAR Toyota GR010 – Hybrid Sébastien BUEMI Brendon HARTLEY Ryo HIRAKAWA
7 #35 2:03.685 Alpine Endurance Team HYPERCAR Alpine A424 Paul-Loup CHATIN Jules GOUNON Charles MILESI
8 #83 2:04.048 AF Corse HYPERCAR Ferrari 499P Robert KUBICA Robert SHWARTZMAN Yifei YE
9 #20 2:04.062 BMW M Team WRT HYPERCAR BMW M HYBRID V8 Sheldon VAN DER LINDE Robin FRIJNS René RAST
10 #51 2:03.002 Ferrari AF Corse HYPERCAR Ferrari 499P Alessandro PIER GUIDI James CALADO Antonio GIOVINAZZI
11 #36 2:03.186 Alpine Endurance Team HYPERCAR Alpine A424 Nicolas LAPIERRE Mick SCHUMACHER Matthieu VAXIVIERE
12 #15 2:03.408 BMW M Team WRT HYPERCAR BMW M HYBRID V8 Dries VANTHOOR Raffaele MARCIELLO Marco WITTMANN
13 #93 2:03.616 Peugeot TotalEnergies HYPERCAR Peugeot 9X8 Mikkel JENSEN Nico MÜLLER
14 #7 2:03.738 Toyota Gazoo Racing HYPERCAR Toyota GR010 – Hybrid Mike CONWAY Kamui KOBAYASHI Nyck DE VRIES
15 #94 2:03.898 Peugeot TotalEnergies HYPERCAR Peugeot 9X8 Paul DI RESTA Loïc DUVAL
16 #63 2:04.426 Lamborghini Iron Lynx HYPERCAR Lamborghini SC63 Mirko BORTOLOTTI Andrea CALDARELLI Daniil KVYAT
17 #38 2:04.553 Hertz Team JOTA HYPERCAR Porsche 963 Jenson BUTTON Philip HANSON Oliver RASMUSSEN
18 #11 2:05.953 Isotta Fraschini HYPERCAR Isotta Fraschini Tipo6-C Antonio SERRAVALLE Carl Wattana BENNETT Jean-Karl VERNAY
19 #85 2:20.755 Iron Dames LMGT3 Lamborghini Huracan LMGT3 Evo2 Sarah BOVY Rahel FREY Michelle GATTING
20 #46 2:21.138 Team WRT LMGT3 BMW M4 LMGT3 Ahmad AL HARTHY Valentino ROSSI Maxime MARTIN
21 #91 2:21.285 Manthey EMA LMGT3 Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3 Yasser SHAHIN Morris SCHURING Richard LIETZ
22 #59 2:21.293 United Autosports LMGT3 McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo James COTTINGHAM Nicolas COSTA Grégoire SAUCY
23 #27 2:21.350 Heart of Racing Team LMGT3 Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3 Ian JAMES Daniel MANCINELLI Alex RIBERAS
24 #54 2:21.583 Vista AF Corse LMGT3 Ferrari 296 LMGT3 Thomas FLOHR Francesco CASTELLACCI Davide RIGON
25 #81 2:22.215 TF Sport LMGT3 Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R Tom VAN ROMPUY Rui ANDRADE Charlie EASTWOOD
26 #92 Manthey PureRxcing LMGT3 Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3 Aliaksandr MALYKHIN Joel STURM Klaus BACHLER
27 #78 Akkodis ASP Team LMGT3 Lexus RC F LMGT3 Arnold ROBIN Clemens SCHMID Ritomo MIYATA
28 #88 2:22.485 Proton Competition LMGT3 Ford Mustang LMGT3 Giorgio RODA Mikkel PEDERSEN Dennis OLSEN
29 #77 2:22.558 Proton Competition LMGT3 Ford Mustang LMGT3 Ryan HARDWICK Zacharie ROBICHON Benjamin BARKER
30 #31 2:23.042 Team WRT LMGT3 BMW M4 LMGT3 Darren LEUNG Sean GELAEL Augusto FARFUS
31 #55 2:23.091 Vista AF Corse LMGT3 Ferrari 296 LMGT3 François HERIAU Simon MANN Alessio ROVERA
32 #777 2:23.094 D’Station Racing LMGT3 Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3 Clément MATEU Erwan BASTARD Marco SØRENSEN
33 #82 2:23.527 TF Sport LMGT3 Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R Hiroshi OIZUMI Sébastien BAUD Daniel JUNCADELLA
34 #87 2:25.021 Akkodis ASP Team LMGT3 Lexus RC F LMGT3 Takeshi KIMURA Esteban MASSON Jose Maria LOPEZ
35 #60 2:25.396 Iron Lynx LMGT3 Lamborghini Huracan LMGT3 Evo2 Claudio SCHIAVONI Matteo CRESSONI Franck PERERA
36 #50 2:02.600 Ferrari AF Corse HYPERCAR Ferrari 499P Antonio FUOCO Miguel MOLINA Nicklas NIELSEN
37 #95 2:21.092 United Autosports LMGT3 McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo Joshua CAYGILL Nicolas PINO Marino SATO By Melissa Warren
