Ferrari has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans on its first factory assault on the race’s premier division in half a century.
Alessandro Pier Guidi, Antonio Giovinazzi and Briton James Calado steered their 499P Hypercar to a famous victory as Ferrari returned to Le Mans in an official works capacity for the first time since 1973.
The victory is the 10th for the Prancing Horse at Le Mans and its first since Jochen Rindt and Masten Gregory won in a Ferrari 250 LM way back in 1965.
CLICK HERE for earlier report, at the completion of Hour 18
The 100th anniversary edition of the world’s greatest endurance race more than lived up to its billing as the five major manufacturers in the Hypercar class put on one of the most competitive 24 Hours of Le Mans for years, in front of a record-breaking 300,000-strong crowd.
All five – Ferrari, Toyota, Cadillac, Porsche and Peugeot – led the race at one stage or another, with the first six hours offering a string of thrilling multi-car dogfights, incidents and accidents.
Spells of bad weather added to the jeopardy in the first half of the race, while new convoluted Safety Car rules and the use of slow zones all contributed to a sense of absorbing unpredictability.
But it was the battle between the #51 Ferrari and the #8 Toyota for which this race should be best remembered. The two crews fought it out at the front from the 11th hour, both cars taking turns to lead and with the gap between them ebbing and flowing.
Come Sunday morning it appeared the Ferrari had the crucial edge, aided by front floor damage to the Toyota robbing it of crucial downforce. A change of nose didn’t solve the problem and the extra time the pit stop took cost the #8 the lead.
The Ferrari opened a gap of nearly a minute but, in the 19th hour, trouble restarting the 499P from a pit stop handed the lead back to Sébastien Buemi, who was sharing with Kiwi Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa.
An inspired Pier Guidi charged on to Buemi’s tail to pass on the Mulsanne after the Swiss had found himself baulked by traffic.
Again, the gap between the pair ebbed and flowed amid further slow zone interruptions, until the race entered its closing stages.
Toyota chose to give Hirakawa, its most inexperienced driver, responsibility for chasing the Ferrari for the victory.
He was around 10 seconds behind the 499P when, with an hour and a quarter to go, it all went horribly wrong for the Japanese.
Hirakawa lost control under braking at Arnage, turned left into the barrier and caused damage to the front and rear of the GR010 Hybrid.
The 29-year-old made it back to the pits for rapid repairs and returned to the circuit still safe in second place – but with all realistic hope of victory now gone.
Pier Guidi was given the honour of delivering the historic victory.
More trouble restarting from the final pit stop with little more than 20 minutes to go caused Ferrari hearts to flutter, but the Italian calmly pulled away after a pause to begin his final stint to victory.
There had been dramas for the other Ferrari and Toyota. The pole-winning #50 499P was delayed by a long garage visit in the 10th hour and was out of contention thereafter, although Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen put in a recovery to finish fifth.
As for the #7 Toyota helmed by team principal Kamui Kobayashi, it was forced out of the race completely at midnight, when two cars collided with the GR010 as the Japanese braked for a slow zone at Tertre Rouge. Kobayashi was forced to abandon his car on the Mulsanne.
Cadillac make a successful return to Le Mans as the blue #2 Chip Ganassi Racing entry driven by Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn and Richard Westbrook enjoyed a relatively trouble-free run to score a podium – ensuring a trio of different makes in the top three.
Its sister #3 entry had a more troubled race, after Sébastien Bourdais was another victim of a rear-end collision in a slow zone, then team-mate Scott Dixon was among a number of cars to be caught out by a sudden deluge at the Porsche Curves on Saturday evening.
But despite its battle scars, the car they shared with Renger van der Zande climbed back into contention to finish fourth.
The third Caddy, run by Action Express, barely featured at all as Briton Jack Aitken lost control in treacherous conditions on the opening lap and nosed his V-Series.R into the barrier on the exit of the Mulsanne’s first chicane.
The repairs lost the car 16 laps, the heartbroken Aitken suffering another off around Sunday lunchtime.
Porsche’s hopes of a record-extending 20th Le Mans win briefly looked a possibility as all three Penske-run cars mixed it with the Toyotas and Ferraris early on, but its return to the top class ended in disappointment.
A fuel pressure problem forced out the #75 963 which had briefly led at half-distance, while the other two Penske cars hit trouble.
The #5 driven by Dane Cameron, Michael Christensen and Frederic Makowiecki looked set to salvage sixth place, only for Christensen to slow in the final half-hour.
He trundled slowly back to the pits and the car was sent to the garage, to be sent out for the final minutes to run slowly to an underwhelming ninth.
The most impressive Porsche performance was delivered by customer team Jota. Following an early Safety Car interruption that lasted an hour-and-a-half because of inconsistent weather conditions, rising star Yifei Ye stormed to the front, the Hertz-sponsored car making a clean break as incredible dices continued to play out behind him.
But the Chinese driver then overcooked it and spoilt his great work with a side-on crash in the Porsche Curves. Ye managed to make it back to the pits for repairs, but the incident lost Jota four laps and pushed it out of contention.
Further incidents forced the team to be logged among the 21 retirements in a race of high attrition.
One of the biggest surprises was the form of Peugeot’s innovative 9X8, which had struggled for pace and reliability in the World Endurance Championship rounds prior to Le Mans.
But at La Sarthe, the car was fully in the mix, the #94 entry assuming the lead on two occasions, only for American Gustavo Menezes to crash heavily at the first chicane on the Mulsanne while out front in the 12th hour. The shunt result in heavy front-end damage.
Its sister #93 entry was on the backfoot from the fourth hour when Jean-Eric Vergne slid off at Mulsanne corner while circulating behind the Safety Car.
But, he and his team-mates Paul di Resta and Mikkel Jensen put in a fine recovery and looked set to score a respectable fifth until a lengthy garage visit in the 22nd hour scuppered their prospects. The car dropped to eighth, behind the two Glickenhaus 007s.
The American-owned cars were never in contention to take on the big-name manufacturers, but although both cars endured similar accidents at Arnage on Sunday morning, they banked a respectable six-seven result following the #6 Porsche’s late drama – despite,
with less than 20 minutes on the clock, Frank Mallieux going off at the first chicane on the Mulsanne in the #709 entry.
The secondary LMP2 category once again proved impossible to predict, as the #34 Inter Europol Competition ORECA faced a late challenge for victory from the #41 Team WRT entry.
Fabio Scherer had put in a star performance, driving through the pain barrier with a suspected broken left foot, which was run over by the GTE Am pole-winning Corvette before the race!
But, in the closing hour, Louis Deletraz loomed. Scherer gritted his teeth to secure a heroic victory shared with Jakub Smiechowski and Albert Costa.
The Corvette helmed by Nicky Catsburg, Ben Keating and Nicolas Varrone took what had looked an unlikely GTE Am class victory when a damper issue caused a major delay in just the second hour.
However, the crew put it behind them to rise up the order to take the lead on Sunday to add to Corvette’s record of success at Le Mans, in the final appearance of the GTE cars before a GT3-based class replaces it in 2024.
Finally, the fan-favourite ‘Garage 56’ NASCAR Chevrolet rumbled to a strong (and noisy) performance driven by Jenson Button, Jimmie Johnson and Mike Rockenfeller.
The Camaro qualified and raced among the GTE Am frontrunners, only for late troubles to send the big car to the garage.
Hendrick Motorsports’ crew worked on the right-front corner before sending it out for the final hours. The car was classified 39th out of the 40 finishers.
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