An all-round brilliant effort by the Porsche Penske Motorsport team during Qualifying for the 24 Hours of Le Mans has given Monaco Increase Management’s Pascal Wehrlein a row 3 start for the 93rd running of the French endurance racing classic, which starts at 1600 on Saturday afternoon.

Mainly thanks to the efforts of his more experienced endurance racing teammates Felipe Nasr and Nicky Tandy, who did the bulk of the driving duties throughout Hypercar Qualifying and Hyperpole, the #4 Porsche 963’s time of 3m23.547s set by Nasr in Hyperpole 1 for the top-15 qualifiers was good enough for seventh place on the grid. The top-10 then thrashed it out for a further 15 minutes, during which Tandy set a lap time of 3m23.983s around the 13.626 km circuit to secure fifth, just being nudged down from second place in the final minutes.

With the full support of the ultra-successful factory Porsche Penske Motorsport team and his two teammates, Pascal has been easing himself gradually into the Le Mans weekend, sharing some of the driving stints and notching up the miles throughout the four Free Practice sessions held over the last two days.

Row 3 is a fantastic result therefore for the 30-year-old German, whose fastest time of the weekend was 3m26.748s which he set in Free Practice 2 on Wednesday evening, when the FIA Formula E world champion had the opportunity to do a massive 23 laps of night lapping in cooler conditions, vitally important for the overall race strategy.

Friday is a day off for the 61 entrants for the 93rd edition of the race, which will start at 1600 on Saturday afternoon.

Photos: Courtesy of Porsche