LE MANS, France — Cadillac looked to have defeated BMW to take pole position for the 2026 Le Mans 24 Hours, as a last-gasp improvement from Cadillac driver Jack Aitken stole the top spot from BMW’s Dries Vanthoor by just 0.005 seconds. But a post-session penalty dropped Aitken to 10th place and boosted Vanthoor to pole.Behind the battle at the top of the Hypercar pack, the Ferrari cars that have dominated this race since 2023 qualified well down the order.Qualifying at Le Mans is split into three sessions — a 30-minute initial outing on Wednesday evening, followed by two more sessions, Hyperpole 1 and Hyperpole 2, on Thursday.At each stage, the slowest cars in each of the three Le Mans classes (Hypercar, LMP2 and GT3) are eliminated, while for the top-flight Hypercar class, Hyperpole 2 is a shootout for the 10 fastest cars. A different driver must drive each car in each of the three sessions, with a crew of three drivers per car for the only 24-hour race on the World Endurance Championship’s calendar.On Thursday evening, with darkness falling at Le Mans (the Hypercar Hyperpole 2 session began at 9.42 p.m. local time), Vanthoor had initially set the pace in the No 15 BMW.The Belgian driver put in the first of his three flying laps at 3:22.745 seconds, before improving to a 3:22.564-second time on his third effort. That looked to have secured pole when Will Stevens put the No 12 Cadillac car into provisional second place, 0.5 seconds adrift.But Aitken changed the night’s story with the checkered flag already being waved, as he climbed from provisional ninth place to first with a stunning final lap in the No 38 Cadillac. His top time of 3:22.559s featured a big gain in the track’s final sector, which squeaked him just ahead of Vanthoor.“It was a super-tight quali,” said Aitken afterward. “We came together really well to get the car ready for today and improve it day by day.“It’s always tough to know where you are in the test sessions before the hot stuff starts, but the car felt amazing.”But just as Aitken and his teammates were celebrating their achievement on the Le Mans podium, it was announced that they had been demoted down the order and stripped of pole. This was because Aitken had been sent out into the pit lane too early, before the start of Hypercar 2, which is not allowed under WEC rules.As well as boosting Vanthoor and Stevens one spot in the final order, that meant Antonio Felix da Costa Alpine’s No 35 car ended up third, ahead of BMW’s No 20 car, driven in Hyperpole 2 by Robin Frijns, in fourth. Fifth place went to the No. 101 Cadillac of Filipe Albuquerque, with Paul-Loup Chatin sixth for Genesis Magma Racing (Genesis is the premium car brand of the South Korean manufacturer Hyundai).The top Aston Martin Valkyrie Hypercar finished in seventh, with the second Genesis in ninth, either side of the fastest Ferrari 499P Hypercar, which has won Le Mans three times in a row since 2023.In James Calado’s hands, the No 51 Ferrari ended up 2.5 seconds slower than Aitken’s deleted leading time. Although Cadillac beat Ferrari to pole here in 2025, there is a wide expectation ahead of the race that a different manufacturer could triumph in Hypercar for the first time since 2022, when Toyota triumphed.This is due to a series of aerodynamic changes made to each Hypercar, as well as the implications of the secret Balance of Performance ruling, which aims to equalize top speeds across the cars at Le Mans through specific performance restrictions on engine systems that are not made public.In the two races held so far in the 2026 WEC season — at Imola and Spa-Francorchamps — Toyota and BMW have taken a victory each. Ferrari was second at Imola and third at Spa.The #12 Cadillac Hertz Team Jota hypercar drives during qualifying for the 2026 Le Mans 24 Hours (Ker Robertson / Getty Images)In Hyperpole 1 earlier on Thursday, a late improvement by Charles Milesi put the No 35 Alpine into first place with a best time of 3:23.018s, which shuffled down the No 007 Aston Martin into 11th place and the highest position in the five elimination spots.But the big fallers behind were the No 50 Ferrari, with Antonio Fuoco at the wheel, and both Toyota Hypercars.Fuoco might have progressed along with Antonio Giovinazzi in the No 51 Ferrari. Still, he appeared to make a mistake at the track’s final chicane and lose critical time on his final lap.The best Toyota car was the No. 7, driven by team principal Kamui Kobayashi, in 14th place, while the No. 8 finished 15th and last of the Hyperpole 1 runners, with Ryō Hirakawa aboard.On Wednesday evening, the three slowest Hypercars (of a class total of 18) were eliminated.Ferdinand Habsburg topped that running in the No 35 Alpine, with a best lap of 3:23.135s, while behind there was a stunning elimination for the 2025 race-winning Ferrari.The No 83 AF Corse Ferrari was one of the unlucky trio not to progress to Hyperpole 1, as Phil Hanson was eliminated in 17th place. But in an encouraging sign for the Briton and his teammates — 2008 Canadian Grand Prix winner Robert Kubica and Yifei Ye — they also missed the cut for the second Hyperpole session a year ago and still scored a famous race triumph.The other two cars to fail to make the Wednesday cut were the two Peugeot cars, with ex-McLaren F1 driver Stoffel Vandoorne and Malthe Jakobsen eliminated in 16th and 18th, aboard the No 93 and No 94 9X8 cars respectively.That means Peugeot is yet to progress to a Hyperpole session since it returned to top-level global sports car racing in 2022. The Hyperpole format was first introduced at Le Mans in 2020.The #29 Forestier Racing Team By Panis LMP2 car drives during the 2026 Le Mans qualifying (Ivan Couturier / Hans Lucas / AFP via Getty Images)In LMP2, the No 29 of the Forestier Racing by Panis team (led by 1996 Monaco Grand Prix winner Olivier Panis) took pole position, with Esteban Masson at the wheel in this class’s Hyperpole 2 session.Masson had held provisional pole, but then went even quicker on his final lap to set the LMP2 pole time at 3:32.855s. The No 29 had progressed from LMP2 Hyperpole 1 in third place, with Oliver Gray then at the wheel.“Amazing — what a car, what a team,” Masson said. “Now we have 24 hours of racing ahead of us, but it doesn’t get better than this for a lap of Le Mans.”While Masson was in command at the front of the pack, ex-Alpine Formula 1 driver Jack Doohan was knocked off the front row at the last minute, as Job van Uitert in the No 28 car of the IDEC Sport team nipped ahead to take second place behind Masson.In GT3, which had its Hyperpole sessions take place at the same time as the LMP2 cars were also running on track, Mattia Drudi took pole for the slowest of the three classes on track at this event in the No 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage. Drudi also scored GT3 pole in 2025.Drudi lost his first lap in GT3 Hyperpole 2 due to a track limits infringement, but battled back to set the fastest time on his second lap.He then did not improve his time of 3:52.433s on a third tour, but held on to beat the No. 21 Ferrari of the Vista AF Corse team in second place by 0.979 seconds. The No 27 Aston had also topped GT3 Hyperpole 1, with Zacharie Robichon driving.“It feels really great,” Drudi said. “The car is quick, we are feeling really confident. Of course, the race is another story, but it’s a good starting point for sure.”The race will begin at 4 p.m. local time in France (10 a.m. ET) on Saturday.