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

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, 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.

Hypercar Class

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)

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)

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.

Top LMGTE Pro Qualifiers

1. No. 64 Corvette Racing (Tommy Milner, Alexander Sims, Nick Tandy)

2. No. 63 Corvette Racing (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)

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, 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)