Ferrari drove the third victory in the Circuit de la Sarthe in the 93 edition of Le Mans 24 hours. However, a triple victory was prevented by several punishments and a heroic struggle of the Porsch #6 (Estre/L. Vanthoor/Campbell).
In the end, Ferrari still shines. And not only that: Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye and Phil Hanson have won the first victory of a privately used car for 20 years. 2005 triumphed Tom Kristensen, Marco Werner and JJ Lehto on a privately used Audi R8. Since then, only factory cars have won the race.
The yellow Ferrari made the fewest mistakes in the race. This was the decisive factor in combination with a strong pace that was at least equal to the factory cars. It is the first LE MANS overall victory for all three drivers, only Phil Hanson won the class victory in the LMP2 in 2020. For Robert Kubica it is a satisfaction after the drama in the last round in LMP2 2021.
The factory team has to ask uncomfortable questions, because there were several mistakes in the night. Miguel Molina (#50) received a passage because he was on the road too quickly with double yellow flag. Antonio Giovinazzi (#51) was too fast in the pit lane 13.2 km/h that he got a 20-second-stop-and-go penalty.
Video: crazy pictures! Le-Mans driver completely freaks out
Violent discussions on the radio
In addition, there was a flat foot at the #51, which caused both work ferrari to gain two minutes behind the night. But when Cem Bölkübasi with the Nielsen-Oreca #24 (Rao/Bölükbasi/Braun) hit Tertre Rouge in the twelfth hour, the race management decided on Safety-Car. Due to the regulations that have been in force since 2023, in which the whole field is brought back together, the red Ferrari were back in the game.
The private Ferrari also collects a punishment before the SC phase, but only one of five seconds on Saturday evening. It didn’t take long for Ferrari to restore the triple management after the restart. After that, the question went to which Ferrari would win the race. At times, violent discussions were held on the radio when the feeling of being treated unfairly.
There were two more punishments on Sunday morning, this time for the #51 and the #83. They were also for too fast driving at yellow flag – a offense that has been punished much more consistently for around a year than in the past. At that time, however, the #50 had so much deficit that it only came back into the fight.
The only car that Ferrari was able to offer at least somewhat and the Porsche #6 (Estre/L. Vanthoor/Campbell) benefited from this. Kevin Estre stormed into the top group from the last starting point in a fabulous triple boot at the beginning of the race, after which #6 put the Ferrari under noticeably under pressure. And Ferrari made mistakes.
Porsche back in the event by safety car phase
In the meantime, the Porsche also had a setback through a creeping flat foot, but was drawn back into the action by the Safety car phase. The Ferrari bulwark crumbled under the hussar ride of #6, which felt a complete 24-hour race in qualifying mode.
The permanent pressure had an effect: on the Ferrari #51 there was a sensor problem in the last two hours. And Antonio Fuoco made a small mistake at the crucial moment, which only cost five seconds, but which were decisive in the final phase of the race.
So Porsche took second place, but no herb had grown against the #83. After 387 rounds, only 14.084 seconds were missing on the yellow Ferrari.
In the LMP2 class it was a close duel between the Inter-European Ora #43 (Smiechowski/Dillman/Yelloly) and the Panis-Ora #48 (Gray/Masson/Perera). Already in the initial phase, the Polish team took the lead with Kuba Smiechowski. In hour 6, Oliver Gray and later Franck Perera briefly took the lead.
In the course of the night it was mainly the Panis Ora, which determined what was happening, but Inter Europol remained in favor of lurk. At dawn it was the yellow-green #43, which took over the lead in the LMP2 class and gradually expanded the lead afterwards. Panis-VDS started again.
And a passage penalty against Nick Yelloly for driving too fast in the pit lane in the last hour could have had the thing overturned again. But the #48 in the end dramatically lost pace, so that Inter-Europe was still allowed to celebrate. Esteban Masson dragged the LMP2 home, the gap of almost two minutes does not reflect the narrow race.
The third party was the TF-Oreca #199 (Hyett/Cameron/Deletraz) on the podium, which also won the Pro-Am sub-class. Behind the first two places, especially breakdowns and punishments, determined the action.
The race was bitters, especially for IDEC Sport. The team, which cooperates with Genesis in the coming year, only lost #18 (Chadwick/Jaubert/Lotterer) in the morning and #28 (Lafargue/van Uitert/Alvarez) lost at noon. And the departure of Bölükbasi in the Nielsen-Ora #24 (Rao/Bölükbasi/Braun) triggered the Safety car against Rennmitte.
Lietz with the preliminary decision
In the LMGT3 class, the RSL-Aston-Martin #10 (Deboer/Barrichello/Hasse-Clot) was initially in the lead, but an engine damage threw it out of the fight for victory early on. After that it was the WRT-BMW #46 (Al Harthy/Rossi/K. van der Linde) that checked the race from the top until night. But then the defect devil struck.
Without power steering, Kelvin van der Linde slipped into the Porsche curves into the gravel bed, because of an electronics defect the M4 was finally out of the race. And it should come even worse for WRT, because the #31 (Shahin/Boguslawski/Farfus) also had to give up with a rabbit after a collision.
After that, the Manthey-Porsche #92 Free Bahn for the victory, the Trio Hardwick/Pera/Lietz only had to withstand the pressure of the AF Corse Ferrari #21 (Heriau/Mann/Rovera). Richard Lietz led the preliminary decision with a strong stint in the morning, after which Manthey checked the gap backwards.
The Austrian drove his sixth class victory home on the Sarthe and finished 33.259 seconds on the Ferrari. The third drove the TF Sport Corvette #81 (Van Rompuy/Andrade/Eastwood) via the finish line.
The LMGT3 class always caused action and twists in Le Mans. In the evening, Gammarco Levorato said goodbye to the guardrails in Tertre Rouge in Tertre Rouge in the Proton-Ford #88 (Gattuso/Levorato/Olsen) after losing a bike. The incident caused the first DNF and the first Full Course-Yellow in this race.
And in the morning Rahel Frey was only turned over in the Manthey-Porsche #85 (C. Martin/Frey/Bovy), shortly afterwards she stopped and thus triggered the yellow phase that, among other things, was expensive for #51 and #83 in the form of passage.
With the 24h from Le Mans, the highlight of the long-distance World Cup (WEC) calendar is completed, next in mid-July the 6h from Sao Paulo in Interlagos.