Porsche Hypercar Runs Off Track in Le Mans Qualifying After Near-Miss With Lamborghini

Two Hypercars had a very close call during a qualifying session at the 24 Hours of Le Mans on Wednesday. An onboard video posted by the FIA World Endurance Championship shows just how close to disaster the incident came.

The near-miss came when the No. 6 Penske Porsche 963 was trailing behind the No. 63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini SC63 on the infamous Mulsanne straight. The Porsche was steadily gaining on the Lamborghini as the pair headed into the Mulsanne corner, but as the two Hypercar racers dove for the apex of the preceding kink, the driver of the Lamborghini applied braking forces seemingly beyond what the Porsche was prepared for, sending the Porsche sliding through the corner.

Porsche driver Kevin Estre and his Hypercar escaped damage thanks to his quick thinking and a lack of hard barriers on the exit of the Mulsanne corner. The Frenchman managed to spin the hypercar sideways onto a blocked-off, local road after dissipating some energy in the gravel run-off. After coming to an alarming but safe stop, Estre turned the race car around and got back on track to continue the lap.

According to the qualifying leaderboard at the time of the smoke show, Estre and the No. 6 Porsche were in the seventh qualifying position for its class. Running around six seconds behind the top qualifying lap time of 3 minutes and 24 seconds, Estre was on track to continue his pole position-grabbing run before the incident. Notably, Estre set the fastest provisional lap of his class in test days earlier this week, running a 3-minute 26-second lap.

It's not immediately clear what led to the delayed braking, but the Porsche Penske team will get to see a few more days of qualifying and racing thanks to Estre's evasive maneuvers. The official start of the 24-hour endurance race is set for Saturday at 4 p.m. Central European Time.

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