Which driver has the most WEC pole positions?

The Toyota No. 7 dominance

Five of the top six pole-getters were on the Toyota No. 7 driver list at some point. The car ran with Conway, Kobayashi and Lopez as a fixed lineup from 2017 to the end of 2022, with Conway and Kobayashi locking down their qualifying responsibilities and trading the headline laps. The crew won the 2021 Le Mans overall and finished second three times.

The No. 7's pole record stretches across two regulatory eras. Eight of Kobayashi's 17 poles came in LMP1-Hybrid years, with the TS050 setting two outright Le Mans qualifying records. The remaining poles came in the early Hypercar seasons with the GR010 Hybrid, including the headline lap that still stands as the all-time Le Mans qualifying record: Kobayashi's 3:24.408 in the 2022 Hyperpole.

How the record actually accumulates

A driver who qualifies for the works LMP1 or works Hypercar car runs the qualifying session in roughly half of the season's events. With eight rounds in a typical year, a primary qualifier gets between three and five qualifying opportunities. Convert one or two and the season ends with a pole or two on the record.

The pace of accumulation has slowed in the Hypercar era. The eight-manufacturer field, the Balance of Performance calculation and the tightening of the Hyperpole shootout format mean that the qualifying margin is now measured in hundredths rather than tenths. Antonio Fuoco's 4 Hypercar-era poles for Ferrari are the most by any non-Toyota driver in the new era, and he has been the primary qualifier for the No. 50 since the 499P's debut in 2023.

Drivers no longer on the WEC grid

Three drivers in the top eight are now retired from full-season WEC competition or have moved to other categories.

Bernhard's 9 poles came with Porsche's LMP1 programme in 2014 to 2017. He retired from top-level WEC after Porsche's withdrawal at the end of 2017 and now manages his Bernhard Eifel Racing customer programmes.

Mark Webber's 7 poles also came with Porsche LMP1, between 2014 and 2016. He retired from active racing at the end of 2016. Andre Lotterer's 7 poles were split between Audi LMP1 (2012-2016) and Porsche Hypercar (2023-present); Lotterer remains on the grid with Porsche Penske Motorsport and could still add to his tally.

Will the Kobayashi-Conway record be broken

Conway is no longer in full-season WEC competition; he stepped down from the works Toyota seat at the end of 2024. His record is therefore frozen at 17.

Kobayashi is still active. He drives the No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid in the 2026 season and could extend his lead. But the qualifying landscape is harder. Toyota took 5 of 8 Hypercar poles in 2022 and 2 of 8 in 2025; the same trend continues into 2026 as the Ferrari 499P has dominated qualifying and Porsche, Cadillac and BMW have all converted occasional pole laps.

A realistic path to 20 poles for Kobayashi is two to three more poles per year for the remainder of his career. Fuoco's track to challenge the record is harder because he starts from 4 and the same competitive landscape applies to him. The pace of pole-record progress has slowed, and the Conway-Kobayashi 17-pole shared record may stand longer than any of the other open WEC records.

What the pole record tells us

Pole position correlates loosely with race outcomes in the WEC, and not at all at Le Mans. Conway and Kobayashi have a combined 34 poles and three overall WEC race wins between them. Buemi has nine poles and 27 wins. The two records reward different skills: pole rewards a single perfect lap from a driver and team, the win rewards 6, 8 or 24 hours of execution. The deepest endurance-driver records are won on the second skill, not the first.