Brendan Iribe secured the first position in the McLaren 720S LMGT3 EVO #70 during an exciting qualifying session for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Eight cars fought for the lead position, all with their respective Bronze-rated drivers. McLaren emerged victorious, marking their return to the event since 1999.
In the early stages of the session, Alex Malaykin from Manthey PureRxing’s Porsche 911 #92 was in the lead. However, Brendon Iribe from Inception Racing soon made his mark in the McLaren 720S #70, setting impressive lap times. Unfortunately, Iribe pushed too hard and spun out in the final corner, nullifying his next flying lap.
The session was briefly interrupted when Dries Vanthoor had a slide moment at Indianapolis. Iribe had just gone out for his warm-up lap with new tires. When the session resumed, there was little time remaining, allowing for only one flying lap.
Fortunately, Iribe made the most of his opportunity and improved his time, setting a time of 3:58.120. This extended his lead to +0.808 over Alex Malykin in Manthey PureRxing’s Porsche #92. Giacomo Petrobelli from JMW Motorsport secured third place with a time of 3:58.938 in the Ferrari 296 #66.
Ryan Hardwick secured fourth place in Proton Competition’s Ford Mustang #77 with a time of 3:59.443. Ian James, the team director of Heart of Racing, finished fifth in the Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3 EVO #27, recording a time of 3:59.655. Satoshi Hoshino in D’station’s Aston Martin #777 followed with a time of 4:02.787, and Hiroshi Koizumi in TF Sport’s Corvette Z06 GT3.R #82 achieved a time of 4:03.681.
The order of the top eight was completed by Claudio Schavonio in Iron Lynx’s Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 #60, who recorded a time of 4:06.495.
