MIA Member JOTA Group: Cadillac Powers to First 24 Hours of Le Mans Pole

Cadillac Powers to First 24 Hours of Le Mans Pole

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Cadillac Racing has sought to present a unified front across its four cars from three teams and two championships – both the FIA World Endurance Championship and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Their pace from all four cars was on display in qualifying for the 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans, with the manufacturer’s new FIA WEC entrant, Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA, sweeping the front row of the grid.

By just 0.167 of a second around the 8.467-mile Circuit de la Sarthe, Alex Lynn beat teammate Earl Bamber to pole. Driving the No. 12 JOTA Cadillac, Lynn set a best time of 3 minutes, 23.166 seconds in the Hyperpole 2 session that showcased the top 10 Hypercar class runners.

Bamber’s best lap was 3 minutes, 23.333 seconds in the No. 38 JOTA Cadillac. He shifts over from his IMSA team, Cadillac Whelen, to JOTA this race. Jack Aitken, Bamber’s IMSA teammate in the No. 311 Cadillac Whelen entry, set the fastest qualifying time in Hyperpole 1 (3 minutes, 22.742 seconds) which determined the 10 cars that advanced to the final qualifying shootout.

Lynn will share his No. 12 JOTA Cadillac with Will Stevens and Norman Nato, while Bamber will share his No. 38 JOTA Cadillac with another IMSA full-timer, Sebastien Bourdais, and 2009 Formula 1 World Champion Jenson Button.

“I think every time you have the opportunity to drive this kind of car around Le Mans on low fuel and new tires is an honor,” Lynn said. “Truly honored to be able to put in a performance and deliver this for Cadillac how they deserve, in the first position. It’s such a magical circuit, a place I love to perform my best. Now just 24 hours left, what else? We’ll enjoy this tonight and reset.”

The pole is the first for Cadillac at Le Mans, coming 75 years after its first Le Mans appearance in 1950 with a pair of Cadillac Coupe DeVille Series 61s, one mostly stock and another modified with a low-profile aluminum body nicknamed “Le Monstre.”

Porsche Penske Motorsport placed well within the Hyperpole 2 session. IMSA regular Mathieu Jaminet qualified the No. 5 Porsche 963 he shares with Michael Christensen and Julien Andlauer in third. In pursuit of the unprecedented single-season endurance “Triple Crown,” Nick Tandy and Felipe Nasr will roll off fifth in the No. 4 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 they share with Pascal Wehrlein.

They sandwiched four-time 2025 IMSA Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) polesitter Dries Vanthoor in his No. 15 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 in fourth; the younger Vanthoor brother shares his car with Kevin Magnussen and Raffaele Marciello.

Aitken’s co-driver Felipe Drugovich qualified the No. 311 Cadillac Whelen entry in eighth. Both that car and the sister No. 101 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing entry, which qualified 14th for its Le Mans debut, will feature a special decal at Le Mans supporting the Michael J. Fox Foundation in the race to a cure for Parkinson’s disease.

Pre-race favorites Ferrari and Toyota struggled in qualifying, with the best Ferrari in sixth and the best Toyota in 10th. Ferrari seeks its third straight overall Le Mans win while Toyota, which won five Le Mans consecutively from 2018 to 2022, seeks to add its sixth.