Corvette Racing is rolling into the 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans with a trio of Z06 GT3.R race cars at the ready, and while they didn’t exactly scorch the pavement in qualifying, they certainly held their own. One of the sleek yellow beasts snagged a spot on the third row in its class, proving that The Bow Tie Brand has some decent pace heading into the iconic endurance race.
The No. 81 Vette Z06 GT3.R will take the green flag from sixth place in the packed LMGT3 field. Tag-teamed by Rui Andrade and Charlie Eastwood, that No. 81 Vette galloped to a fastest time of 3:54.646, followed by Andrade’s career-best GT lap at Circuit de la Sarthe with a 3:55.740 time.
“Clearly, the top couple of cars are super-fast, but we haven’t been the sixth-fastest cars since we’ve been here all week,” Eastwood said after qualifying. “So again, I think all three of us did a really good job… Tom yesterday to get us in and continue on and then Rui had a really good last lap there. In the mix for sure. We’re not the fastest but definitely not the slowest. We can definitely fight from there.”
He added, “The Corvette and the team have been super-faultless. We’ve been tuning the car more and more to a really good place. As we have in the last couple of races, we have executed really well up to now. We just need to make sure we continue to execute this weekend as well.”
Andrade echoed his driving partner’s sentiments, saying, “The starting position doesn’t determine your race, but it’s always nice to start up ahead, avoiding a little bit of the mess at the start. It’s a long race and you want to have a nice, easy start to just flow into it.”
Meanwhile, the No. 13 Corvette Racing trio of Matt Bell, Orey Fidani, and Lars Kern will take the green from 20th. The No. 33 Vette, driven by Daniel Juncadella, Jonny Adam and Ben Keating, will start in 23rd. In short, the Corvette teams have some ground to cover, but they’ve got 24 hours to make something of it when the green flag falls on June 14th, 2025.
Comments
It’s never good for american cars to qualify well there, as then they’re placed back in the rear at the start. -It’s a bad move. At least they didn’t show all their cards.
Corvette would win most of the races if not for targeted rule disadvantages like weight added and other measures. This racing against the Europeans is like the tariffs . The rest of the world really can’t compete with the USA so they always have to stack the deck against us whether it be auto racing, industry or trade and technology.
It’s not only the dipstick Euros that penalize the Vette’s but domestic IMSA too. Run what ya’ brung at the advertised weight of the production car and stop screwing around to produce the desired results from the Manufacturer that kisses your ass the most.
Let the vets roar and do this
On their own