Inception Racing claim McLaren's first-ever pole position at the 24 Hours of Le Mans

If there’s ever a place to make history, Circuit de la Sarthe is the stage to make your mark.

Last month, Inception Racing took on the biggest endurance race in the world, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The team received an invitational entry to the World Endurance Championship’s blue riband event following their success in 2023’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

Brendan Iribe finished last season as the highest placing Bronze driver in the series’ GT Daytona class, a feat which not only awarded him the Bob Akin Cup, but also granted Inception Racing the honour of entering into the all-new, highly competitive LMGT3 class in last month’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Teams kickstarted the action with a day of testing prior to the race weekend, where the official action resumed Wednesday afternoon. The evening’s one-hour qualifying session saw Frederik Schandorff clock the second fastest time amongst the LMGT3 field, seeing Inception Racing’s McLaren advance to Hyperpole, a top-8 shootout with the fastest in each class (Hypercar, LMP2 & LMGT3) claiming pole position for Saturday’s event.

In a disrupted Hyperpole session with a red flag just 7 minutes towards the end of the 30-minute pole qualifier, Iribe proved to be the quickest in class, claiming pole with a lap time almost a second ahead of his closest rival, claiming not only Inception Racing’s first-ever pole position at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but also McLaren’s.

Frederik Schandorff took to the start come Saturday afternoon, leading the field for the opening hour before boxing to hand over to Iribe shortly after. As the rain began to fall, as did many teams into the pitlane, including Inception where the team boxed to change to wets and to Ollie Millroy.

With fluctuations in the weather throughout the evening and night, prolonged Safety Car periods neutralised the field before racing was resumed Sunday morning. The team crossed the line 13th in class as the sole remaining McLaren to finish this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Brendan Iribe, 2024 Le Mans LMGT3 Pole winner said: “The weekend had a lot of ups and downs. Le Mans in a tough race, and it’s full of emotion. We started off the week, and we achieved something that I never dreamed of in taking pole position, and I think that was already a win to take home.

“We jumped into the race, and it was long and hard, but we crossed the line. I’m really proud of the team. I’ve loved the journey, it’s been incredible. There’s a lot of emotion around it, and to go from Pure McLaren to McLaren’s first pole position at Le Mans is just a dream come true, and we made history. McLaren is back!”