In LMGT3 Qualify, Ben Barker’s early benchmark of 3:55.263 proved to be good enough to top the new-for-2024 class in the No. 77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3.

Barker’s time was enough to knock Frederik Schandorff’s No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 Evo off the top of the times by just under two tenths, with a subsequent improvement for Schandorff leaving him 0.143 seconds shy.

Remarkably, the top seven times in the new class were occupied by seven different manufacturers, as Daniel Juncadella went third-fastest in the No. 82 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.

He was followed by Franck Perera’s Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, Klaus Bachler’s Manthey PureRxcing Porsche 911 GT3 R and Alex Riberas in the Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo.

Aston was the only manufacturer to get two cars into Hyperpole as Marco Sorensen bagged the eighth and final spot for D’station Racing behind the JMW Motorsport Ferrari 296 GT3 of Larry ten Voorde.

The only manufacturers to miss out on Hyperpole were Lexus, whose top representative was 10th-fastest, and BMW, which could only manage a best of 12th.