Hyperpole Qualifying Results, Picking the Winners for the 2022 24 Hours of Le Mans

Who to watch at the 90th edition of the world's biggest sports car race.

• LMGTE Pro
• LMGTE Am

After qualifying and final practice, it’s time to do the impossible—handicap a 24-hour race, when one botched pit stop can mean the difference between victory and defeat.

Here’s a look at this year’s favorites in the 62-car field, led by the top qualifiers in each class: No. 8 Toyota Gazoo Racing in Hypercar, No. 31 WRT in LMP2, No. 64 Corvette Racing in LMGTE Pro and the No. 61 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE in LMGTE AM.

Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Brendon Hartley won the pole for the 24 Hours of Le Mans ahead of Toyota’s sister car.

James Moy PhotographyGetty Images

Hypercar

Let’s start with the Hypercar class. This is the easiest to handicap, given the top performance of the two Toyota Gazoo hybrid race cars, which showed what they had by Hyperpole-qualifying at the top of the charts. The repeated wins, the sheer dollar investment, the quality driver lineup and the experienced pit crews make the Toyota the best bet in the entire field.

It won’t take much for the Alpine to pounce, despite the penalty given by the Balance of Performance gods at the last minute, and the two Glickenhaus 007s will be right there, too. Reliability will be key with the three non-hybrids if the Toyotas stumble.

Hypercar Qualifying Results:

1. No. 8 Toytota Gazoo Racing (Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa)
2. No. 7 Toyota Gazoo Racing (Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez)
3. No. 36 Alpine (Nicolas Lapierre, Andre Negrao, Matthieu)
4. No. 709 Glickenhaus 007 LMH (Ryan Briscoe, Richard Westbrook, Franck Mailleux)
5. No. 708 Glickenhaus 007 LMH (Pipo Derani, Romani Dumas, Olivier Pla)

The No. 31 WRT Oreca 07-Gibson of drivers Robin Frijns, Sean Gelael and Rene Rast is on the LMP2 pole.

James Moy PhotographyGetty Images

LMP2

LMP2 is the hardest to handicap, given the fact that 26 of the 27 entries are exactly alike, and the odd car out, a Ligier in a sea of Orecas, doesn’t really have an advantage.

Qualifying was so close as the be academic, as well. Let’s go with the home teams: The Team Penske entry, No. 5, will be typically-Penske prepared, and the driver lineup is experienced, aside from Dane Cameron, making his first trip to Le Mans.

Also, the two United Autosports entries, Nos. 22 and 23, know their way around Le Mans, and should be strong, as do Team WRT, Nos. 31 and 32, dominant in qualifying.

Top LMP2 Qualifiers

1. No. 31 WRT (Robin Frijns, Sean Gelael, Rene Rast
2. No. 41 RealTeam WRT (Rui Andrade, Ferdinand Habsburg, Norman Nato)
3. No. 22 United Autosports USA (Felipe Albuquerque, Philip Hanson, Will Owen)
4. No. 38 Jota (Antonio Felix da Costa, Roberto Gonzalez, Will Stevens)
5. No. 9 Prema Orlen Team (Lorenzo Colombo, Louis Deletraz, Robert Kubica)
6. No. 23 United Autosports USA (Oliver Jarvis, Alex Lynn, Josh Pierson)
7. No. 1 Richard Mille Racing (Lilou Wadoux, Sebastien Ogier, Charles Milesi)
8. No. 65 Panis Racing (Julien Canal, Nicolas Jamin, Job Van Uitert)
9. No. 5 Team Penske (Dane Cameron, Emmanuel Collard, Felipe Nasr)
10. No. 32 Team WRT (Rolf Ineichen, Mirko Bortolotti, Dries Vanthoor)

LMGTE Pro

LM GTE Pro is a small class with just seven entries, and so far the two Corvette Racing cars, Nos. 64 and 63, have showed a lot of strength in qualifying at the top, and there’s no denying that the team would love a victory for the first time since 2015. The Porsches and Ferraris are always a factor, but it would be great to see a Corvette at the top of the podium for the first time in eight years.

LMGTE Qualifying Results

1. No. 64 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R (Tommy Milner, Alexander Sims, Nick Tandy)
2. No. 63 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette Racing C8.R (Nicky Catsburg, Antonio Garcia, Jordan Taylor)
3. No. 91 Porsche GT Team (Gianmaria Bruni, Richard Lietz, Frederic Makowiecki)
4. No. 92 Porsche GT Team (Michael Christensen, Kevin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor)
5. No. 52 AF Corse Ferrari (Miguel Molina, Antonio Fuoco, Davide Rigon)
6. No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari (Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, Daniel Serra)
7. No. 74 Riley Motorsports Ferrari 488 GTE Evo (Felipe Fraga, Sam Bird, Shane Van Gisbergen)

The No. 57 Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 GTE Evo qualified second in LMGTE Am.

Ker RobertsonGetty Images

LMGTE Am

LM GTE Am is a brutal class to handicap. We’ll go with the AF Corse Ferrari, No. 61, which was tops in qualifying. We also like the TF Sport Aston Martin No. 33, despite qualifying 19th, because cars with American amateur Ben Keating on the driver roster tend to end up on the podium. The strength of the driver lineup in the No. 57 Kessel Ferrari could also be a plus.

Top LMGTE Am Qualifiers

1. No. 61 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo (Vincent Abril, Conrad Grunewald, Louis Prette)
2. No. 57 Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 GTE Evo (Mikkel Jensen, Takeshi Kimura, Frederik Schandorff)
3. No. 77 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19 (Sebastian Priaulx, Christian Reed, Harry Tincknell)
4. No. 98 Northwest AMR Aston Martin Vantage AMR (Paul Dalla Lana, David Pittard, Nicki Thiim)
5. No. 54 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo (Thomas Flohr, Francesco Castellacci, Nick Cassidy)
6. No. 85 Iron Dames Ferrari 488 GTE Evo (Rachel Frey, Michelle Gatting, Sarah Bovy)
7. No. 86 GR Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19 (Michael Wainwright, Riccardo Pera, Benjamin Barker)
8. No. 56 Team Project 1 Porsche 911 RSR-19 (Brendan Iribe, Oliver Millroy, Ben Barnicoat)
9. No. 46 Team Project 1 Porsche 911 RSR-19 (Matteo Cairoli Mikkel Pedersen, Nicolas Leutwiler)
10. No. 79 Weathertech Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19 (Cooper MacNeil, Julien Andlauer, Thomas Merrill)

Keyword: Hyperpole Qualifying Results, Picking the Winners for the 2022 24 Hours of Le Mans