1998 24 Hours of Le Mans

Events for the 24 Hours of Le Mans began on 2 May with technical inspections, before initial pre-qualifying on 3 May.

The United States was also represented properly with a two car team from Panoz, with Ford powered Esperante GTR-1s, and factory-backed Chrysler Viper GTS-R in the GT2 class entered by Oreca.

61 cars passed the scrutineering checks, but two entries - the #37 Newcastle United Lister Storm and the #59 Pilbeam Racing Designs Lotus Esprit, were denied on technical grounds.

A total of 49 starting slots were available for the entered cars, including those already automatically pre-qualified, and were divided on a session- and class-basis.

In the end it was the unfortunate Larbre and Zakspeed entries that were out of luck despite trying hard with in the case of number 38 spectacular moments.

Slowest of all in GT1 was the GTC McLaren with the Mercedes (which had a stop on the Mulsanne at 12:30, reason unknown) splitting the two non pre-qualifiers.

The non-qualifiers were the number 17 Kremer K8 (4:02) and the WR (3:56) which suffered a spin into the gravel trap at the Dunlop curve early in the session.

Fastest overall and in GT1 was the number 26 Porsche in the hands of Allan McNish after a titanic battle with Martin Brundle's Toyota in the closing hour, the difference ending up at only 0.09 seconds.

The Helem V6, which had been promoted following the withdrawal of the #52 Viper, ultimately failed race week scrutineering checks because of non-complying structural differences between the road car and the competition one entered in the 24 Hours.

[5] Porsche won the race as the faster cars from Mercedes, BMW and Toyota retired with mechanical difficulties and accident damage.