The Ferrari that was expected to win the legendary race did not. Ex-F1 pilot Robert Kubica, Phil Hanson, and Yifei Ye instead drove Ferrari’s satellite #83 entry to victory in the 93rd running of the legendary Le Mans 24 Hours.
Since factory Audi outfit Joest Racing finished 1-2-3 at the Circuit de la Sarthe in 2012, the Italian constructor until late in the race, looked like being the first brand to lock out the podium. However, the #6 Porsche (Campbell-Estre-Vanthoor) eventually outpaced the sister #50 Ferrari (Fuoco-Molina-Nielsen) and #51 (Calado-Giovinazzi-Pier Guidi) cars to capture a hard-earned 2nd place.
Although more hypercar rivals periodically joined the battle, with Toyota and Cadillac both fighting their way into 3rd place for short periods, the race was mostly a four-way contest between three Ferraris and one Porsche, all of which finished within 30 seconds of one another.
Ferrari gained significantly from a mid-race safety car period that wiped out its deficit following several mistakes, after which its race performance improved, leaving no openings for rival teams.
Following their impressive performance in Hyperpole, the Cadillac Jota cars started 1-2 on the grid. But Sebastien Bourdais’ concerns regarding their raceability due to lack of top speed were well-founded.
Julien Andlauer in the #5 Porsche took the lead in less than a minute, overtaking Earl Bamber (#38 Cadillac) and Will Stevens (#12 Cadillac).
The Cadillac machines still maintained second and third during the first hour, but by the end of the third hour, they had fallen out of the top 10, some 45 seconds behind.
When the #6 car was disqualified from qualifying because it was underweight, Porsche emerged as a strong contender for the win. Within an hour, Kevin Estre went from 21st to fifth place, then passed the Cadillacs to take third place.
The #51 Ferrari passed the #6 Porsche just after 8 p.m. local time, making it a Ferrari 1-2-3. However, as the Scuderia continued to make mistakes, the Campbell-Estre-Vanthoor team fought back and eventually regained the lead.
After a collision with a Corvette that resulted in a left-front puncture and a five-second penalty, the #51 car was given a 20-second stop-go penalty after it did 73 km/h instead of 60 km/h at the pitlane speed trap.
The #50 entry, meanwhile, received a drive-through penalty for violating a yellow flag. Crucially, the dominant #6 was not one among the three Porsches that had to serve drive-through for slow-zone antics, but two of them did.
After a total of 387 laps, it was the #83 AF Corse Ferrari piloted by ex-F1 driver Robert Kubica who captured the highest spot on the podium together with co-drivers Phil Hanson, and Yifei Ye with a 14 second gap over the Porsche Penske Motorsport team coming in second, and the Ferrari AF Corse in third.
CARLIST THOUGHTS
With this significant result, Ferrari has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the third consecutive year. It is the greatest result since Toyota won the event five times in a row from 2018 to 2022. Even though the Japanese carmaker put in a good show, it could only squeeze into third place for a short time once during the middle sections of the race before falling to 6th. One other surprise of this event was Cadillac’s strong early performance–especially its ability to capture a 1-2 position on the starting grid. But unlike Ford’s sensational 1-2-3 finish in 1966, the American Cadillac was not able to pull off a 1-2 finish.