Mike Rockenfeller - Le Mans GT2 pole

Mike Rockenfeller earned the biggest pole position of his racing career,
topping the GT2 class in final qualifying for les 24 Heures du Mans, but the
lap wasn't intended to be his qualifier. Rockenfeller, of Neuwied, Germany,
covered the 13.65-kilometre road course in four minutes 5.326 seconds –
1.332 seconds faster than the second-place class qualifier – in the No. 71
Porsche 911 GT3 RSR fielded by Alex Job Racing sponsored by BAM!. His quick
lap came in the first of two Thursday evening sessions, the last track time
before the green flag on Saturday, June 18.

 

"It wasn't really our qualifying run. We just thought we'd put a new set of
tires on and see how the car was," he said. "At the end of the first
session, we wanted to go for our qualifying run with a softer set. I was
already ahead, but then I had bad traffic in the Porsche corners, so I did
the same lap time again. We could have done a little better, but it was good
enough at the end. It feels great!

 

"Thanks to the team and thanks to Yokohama – they brought a good tire. It's
good to be on pole, but the race is long and we have to finish. But it's
cool!"

 

Rockenfeller and his co-drivers Leo Hindery, Jr. of New York and Marc Lieb
of Leipzig, Germany, were happy with the set-up of their car. "Marc did a
long run in the night session, and it was really good. We didn't change
anything from the first to the second session," Rockenfeller reported. "So I
think we did our homework good enough!"