Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA ready for six-hour battle on fast Spa-Francorchamps circuit
STAVELOT, Belgium (May 9, 2025) – Alex Lynn’s prediction of quicker lap times in Hypercar qualifying on the recently resurfaced 7.004-kilometer (4.532-mile), 19-turn Spa-Francorchamps road course was spot on.
In fact, Lynn’s best lap of four in the 12-minute Hyperpole session Friday for the top 10 cars advancing from the 15-minute qualifying was a hefty 3 seconds quicker than 2024, when he qualified second in the Cadillac V-Series.R.
Lynn, driving the No. 12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R, qualified fifth on the 18-car grid for Saturday’s TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa with a lap of 2 minutes, 00.246 seconds. Lynn has advanced to Hyperpole in all three rounds of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) season.
Both Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA cars will start in the top 10 for the second time this season as Earl Bamber recorded a lap of 2:00.887 in the No. 38 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R to qualify 10th. Both Bamber and Lynn improved their lap times from the initial qualifying by nearly a second in Hyperpole.
The No. 50 Ferrari AF Corse earned the pole with a lap of 1:59.617.
Lynn will share driving duties with Will Stevens and Norman Nato, while Sebastien Bourdais and Jenson Button will have time behind the wheel of the No. 38 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R along with Bamber.
Last year, Stevens and Callum Ilott triumphed with another manufacturer in a 1-hour, 44-minute run to the checkers following a lengthy red flag to give Hertz Team JOTA scored its first outright WEC victory as well as the first for a privateer entry in the Hypercar era. The lone Cadillac V-Series.R entry in the 2024 race, after qualifying on the front row, had pace before retiring on Lap 95 of 141 because of contact.
In its WEC Spa debut in 2023, the No. 2 Cadillac V-Series.R (Bamber, Lynn, Richard Westbrook) placed fifth after qualifying fourth. The Cadillac Racing trio went on to earn a podium in the next race at Le Mans. Hertz Team JOTA placed sixth in the 2023 race after qualifying seventh.
The race on the picturesque Spa-Francorchamps course — considered second only to Circuit de la Sarthe in speed on the WEC calendar – is key in preparation for the 24 Hours of Le Mans in four weeks. The 93rd edition of the endurance classic will be Cadillac Racing’s 20th race in WEC competition.
The race is scheduled for 8 a.m. ET / 2 p.m. CET Saturday. Live streaming coverage will be available on the FIA WEC app and the MAX app in the U.S. Radio Le Mans will stream audio coverage.
What they’re saying
No. 12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R
Alex Lynn: “I think it was a decent qualifying session. We dreamt of more as we always do, but P5 on the grid is a solid place to start tomorrow and we’ve improved the car a lot over the weekend. Both Cadillacs into Hyperpole, which is great for the team and we’re going to score some heavy points tomorrow.”
No. 38 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R
Earl Bamber: “The session was OK; didn’t really get the most from it. But top 10 is OK and we’ll see what we got tomorrow and score some points.”
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