Ferrari outgunned Toyota and Porsche to claim its second consecutive victory in the Le Mans 24 Hours.
Both its factory cars encountered trouble late in the race, but they still managed to secure the win. Nicklas Nielsen, Antonio Fuoco, and Miguel Molina took the chequered flag in the #50 Ferrari 499P. They finished with a 14-second margin over the #7 Toyota GR010 HYBRID, driven by Nyck de Vries, Kamui Kobayashi, and Jose Maria Lopez. The #51 Ferrari of Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, and Antonio Giovinazzi rounded out the podium.
In the penultimate hour, the right-side door of the #50 Ferrari began flapping rapidly. Race control showed a black-and-orange flag, forcing Nielsen to pit just six laps into his stint. Despite this, he held the lead over the #7 Toyota. Lopez’s spin at the Dunlop Curve and his brief stop on track ended any remaining chance of a Toyota victory. This mistake made Nielsen’s run to the finish easier, securing Ferrari’s triumph.
Ferrari displayed impressive speed from the start in the 92nd running of Le Mans.
All three 499Ps, including the AF Corse-entered customer entry, charged to the front in the opening hour. When rain hit the track briefly on Saturday evening, the #50 factory car and the #83 customer entry elected to stay out. This decision put them well clear of the rest of the field. Most cars, including the #51 Ferrari, had to return to the pits to switch back to slicks.
The race was neutralized for the first time after night fell at La Sarthe. The #15 BMW of Dries Vanthoor crashed at the end of Mulsanne after contact with the #83 Ferrari, then driven by Robert Kubica. Marshals took nearly two hours to replace the barriers, resuming action just past midnight. Another safety car period followed in the early morning hours. Rain and fog made the track unsafe for racing, with Toyota, Porsche, and Ferrari trading the top spot.
At dawn, the race resumed, with the lead changing almost every hour as various manufacturers enjoyed stints at the front.
The #50 Ferrari made significant headway in the 18th hour before the final rain shower.
Fuoco overtook the #83 Ferrari and the #5 Porsche of Frederic Makowiecki, taking second place. This position became first when an out-of-sync #2 Cadillac stopped to switch to wet tires.
Pier Guidi managed to hold onto the final podium spot in the #51 Ferrari, despite serious pressure from Laurens Vanthoor in the #6 Porsche 963. Pier Guidi received a five-second penalty for colliding with the #8 Toyota of Brendon Hartley in the penultimate hour. This incident left Hartley facing the wrong side of the track at Mulsanne Corner.
Porsche, the pre-race favorite, had to settle for fourth position.
Vanthoor finished just 1.1 seconds behind Pier Guidi in the #6 963 LMDh, shared with Kevin Estre and Andre Lotterer. The #6 Porsche moved to the front in the 18th hour after pitting under a slow zone caused by Felipe Nasr’s crash in the #4 entry. However, a subsequent pit stop under a safety car dropped the trio back down the order.
The #8 Toyota, delayed by the incident with Pier Guidi, ended up fifth. Sebastien Buemi brought the car he shared with Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa to the finish line ahead of the #5 Porsche. Matt Campbell, Michael Christensen, and Frederic Makowiecki drove the #5 Porsche.
Cadillac emerged as a surprise contender for victory on Sunday afternoon. A well-timed pit stop before the last safety car put the #2 V-Series.R of Alex Lynn, Earl Bamber, and Alex Palou in the lead. However, rain in the final three hours negated their advantage, putting the entire Hypercar field on wet tires simultaneously. Palou eventually brought the #2 Cadillac to seventh place, ahead of the two customer Jota Porsches.
The #12 Jota Porsche, rebuilt around a new chassis after a crash in FP2 on Wednesday, finished eighth, followed by the #38 car. Peugeot endured another troubled outing with the new 9X8 2024, debuting in the Imola round of the World Endurance Championship. The car struggled for pace in all conditions. Stoffel Vandoorne, Paul di Resta, and Loic Duval finished 11th in the best of the two factory cars. A drive-through penalty for overtaking under the slow zone hurt their chances. The #93 Peugeot also had to drive through the pit lane after Mikel Jensen was deemed responsible for a collision. This, combined with a crash for Nico Muller, left the #93 car in 12th place.
Lamborghini was the best of the newcomers in the Hypercar class.
The Iron Lynx-run factory squad had a solid, if unremarkable, run at Le Mans. The Italian marque’s two SC63s ran without major hiccups, save for a couple of spins in the fourth hour. The #63 Lamborghini, entered for the full WEC season, finished 10th. Mirko Bortolotti, Daniil Kvyat, and Edoardo Mortara drove the #63 car. The sister #19 car, driven by Romain Grosjean, Andrea Caldarelli, and Matteo Cairoli, ended up in 13th place.
Isotta Fraschini was the only other new manufacturer classified. Jean-Karl Vernay, Carl Wattana Bennett, and Antonio Serravalle drove the #11 Tipo6-C to 14th place. Both BMW and Alpine were out of the running before midnight on Saturday, despite showing promising pace in the lead-up to the race.
Engine failures led to Alpine’s double retirement at Le Mans.
Ferdinand Habsburg parked the #35 A424 LMDh at Arnage in the fifth hour, and Nicolas Lapierre pulled the sister car into the garage shortly after. BMW’s troubles began in the opening hour itself. Marco Wittmann went off at the Esses, putting the #15 M Hybrid V8 on the back foot. Dries Vanthoor’s collision with the #83 AF Corse Ferrari of Kubica sent him head-on into the barriers at Mulsanne. The #20 BMW was already in the garage due to damage from Robin Frijns running over the kerbs at the Ford Chicane. Although BMW repaired the car and sent Sheldon van der Linde back on track in the final hour, it was not classified as it failed to complete the required 70% distance.
The #83 customer Ferrari led much of the race on Saturday but retired with technical issues in the 20th hour. TV images showed smoke plumes from the front. The #3 Cadillac and the #4 Porsche were among the six Hypercar entries not classified.
United Autosports took an unlikely LMP2 win.
Oliver Jarvis, Bijoy Garg, and Nolan Siegel drove the #22 ORECA. Siegel grabbed the lead from the #28 IDEC Sport driver Reshad de Gerus in the 22nd hour. The IDEC Sport team and the #34 InterEuropol ORECA had a long battle on Sunday. The #10 Vector was also in the mix before the rain shook up the LMP2 order. Last year’s race-winning InterEuropol team took second, with IDEC Sport finishing third.
Porsche triumphed in the new-for-2024 LMGT3 class.
Richard Lietz, Yasser Shahin, and Morris Schuring drove the #91 Manthey EMA 911 GT3 R to victory. The race boiled down to a fight between Manthey Porsche and the #31 WRT of Augusto Farfus, Sean Gelael, and Darren Leung. Gelael briefly took the lead when rain returned, but Lietz reclaimed it to secure Porsche’s win. The sister #92 Manthey PureRxcing entry led much of the race but faced electrical problems. Proton Competition took third and fourth with their Ford Mustang GT3s. All three McLaren 720S GT3 entries suffered issues on Sunday, leaving them out of contention.