Ferrari has won the 93rd running of the Le Mans 24 Hours with its satellite #83 entry, driven by Phil Hanson, Robert Kubica and Yifei Ye.
The Italian constructor could have been the first manufacturer to lock out the podium at La Sarthe since factory Audi outfit Joest Racing took a 1-2-3 in 2012, but the sister #50 (Fuoco-Molina-Nielsen) and #51 (Calado-Giovinazzi-Pier Guidi) cars were eventually outpaced by the #6 Porsche (Campbell-Estre-Vanthoor) which claimed second.
The race largely was a four-way fight between those cars, which all finished within 30 seconds of one another, though other Hypercar competitors did occasionally join the fray.
Ferrari benefitted greatly from a mid-race safety car period that nullified its deficit following several mistakes, after which the Scuderia’s race execution improved, leaving little opportunity to competitors.
The Cadillac Jota cars started 1-2 on the grid after impressing in Hyperpole, but Sebastien Bourdais’ fears about their raceability related to a lack of top speed, proved well-founded.
It didn’t take more than a minute for Julien Andlauer (#5 Porsche) to take the lead at the expense of Will Stevens (#12 Cadillac) and Earl Bamber (#38 Cadillac).
The Cadillac Jota cars still maintained second and third in the first hour of the race, but by the end of hour three they had plummeted out of the top 10, though their deficit was under 45 seconds.
The #8 Toyota subsequently took the lead, but it was rather short-lived as Ryo Hirakawa was overtaken by Ye (#83) at 4:51am.
The Toyota was definitively taken out of the fight for the podium positions – or top 10, for that matter – by a loose wheel following a pitstop later n the race, the #83 car pulled away with a 33-second advantage.
The #12 Cadillac (Lynn-Nato-Stevens) had a very solid race, taking fifth position just two minutes away from victory, after a mostly trouble-free race. The sister #38 car can’t say as much, with a front-left puncture and a couple of driving errors by veteran Bourdais, who did set the fastest lap of the race with a 3m26.063s on lap 310.
The Alpines went largely unnoticed, except when Paul-Loup Chatin hit the #94 Peugeot at Mulsanne with the #35 car and Jules Gounon beached the #36 entry in the gravel at the same corner. That car also got two severe penalties for pitlane speeding.
Peugeot knew it was going to struggle after complaining about the Balance of Performance, but while the #93 car’s race took a turn for the worse as Paul Di Resta crashed in the first hour, the #94 entry was sometimes seen at the front early on, having opted for an alternate strategy with longer stints thanks to fuel-saving. It eventually finished 12th.
BMW suffered a horrid race with a mix of technical issues, penalties and driver errors, with both cars out of the top 15, while Aston Martin was very low-key – but for lack of actual speed, the Valkyries were consistent and largely stayed out of trouble, with its #009 car taking 13th.
