Perhaps not the ace within the pack of the Porsche Penske Motorsport World Endurance Championship squad in 12 months one of many 963 LMDh race programme, Kevin Estre got here of age in 2024 when he had the automotive below him to do the enterprise – and likewise, maybe, when he didn’t!
The lap he pulled out of the bag to place the factor on pole on the Le Mans 24 Hours is at the very least a part of the explanation for his elevated standing right here.
That and an ultra-consistent season that helped safe the WEC driver’s title. The Le Mans lap was particular – the 963 most undoubtedly wasn’t the quickest automotive.
Estre’s Le Mans pole stunner
Estre solely simply made the reduce to undergo from first qualifying to the Hyperpole session at Le Mans. He ended up sixth and solely a few tenths forward of the primary automotive to overlook out on a spot within the ultimate quali session.
The observe was altering by race week and the Porsche’s table-topping tempo from the earlier weekend’s Check Day regarded like a factor of previous.
It did, too, within the half-hour of working on Thursday night that set the primary 4 rows of the grid for the race.
Estre and his Porsche squad dropped to fourth within the Le Mans 24 Hours, however that does not detract from his particular pole lap
Picture by: Emanuele Clivati | AG Picture
Earlier than a pink flag that interrupted the session, Estre languished down the order. When the observe went inexperienced, time and gas have been brief to get in one other fast lap or two. That meant not altering tyres to the second set of Michelin softs that have been allowed for the half hour.
What adopted was one other traffic-interrupted lap and a time that will have left the Frenchman on the fourth row. However he simply had time to do yet one more, and he produced something special to seek out greater than a second.
PLUS: Ranking the top 10 Hypercar drivers of the 2024 WEC
That a lot was clear as a result of he went inexperienced in each sector on what he admits was a just about traffic-free lap. There have been no purples, which relates again to the truth that he didn’t have the quickest automotive across the Circuit de la Sarthe. Additionally important was that he did the time on tyres that already had 5 push laps on them.
“I just about maximised all the things; perhaps there have been one or two micro-sectors the place I had gone quicker earlier than,” he explains. “Trying again on the lap, I don’t assume I might have accomplished a lot better.”
Estre will stay with Porsche to defend his WEC title in 2025
Picture by: Andreas Beil
On this article
Gary Watkins
WEC
Normal
Kevin Estre
Be the primary to know and subscribe for real-time information e mail updates on these subjects
Subscribe to news alerts