Pier Guidi-Giovinazzi-Calado’s 499P won the centenary edition of the legendary endurance race
– le mans (france)
Mademoiselle Le Mans chose Red. Ferrari is back after 50 years of absence, has studied a lot and put a solid car on the track, entrusted to a concrete team. Ferrari is back on the Circuit de la Sarthe in an official capacity and has triumphed at the first attempt. The number 51 Hypercar 499P driven by James Calado-Alessandro Pier Guidi-Antonio Giovinazzi won the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans ahead of the number 8 Toyota of Buemi-Hartley-Hirakawa and the number 2 Cadillac of Bamber-Lynn-Westbrook. Maranello puts up its tenth success in the most prestigious endurance race in the world, ending the Japanese manufacturer’s streak of five consecutive victories with a show of anger and speed. The best present for the centenary edition, where above all something else happened. The visit of Charles Leclerc on the starting grid is enough to say it, to pay homage to the two redheads in the front row, with the 50 driven by Fuoco-Molina-Nielsen in front of the “sister” 51, then first at the finish line. Simply, the enthusiasm that is missed in F1 he reappeared close to the heart here, in a weekend that counted 300,000 spectators on the track.
muscles in chaos
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At 4.00 pm the start was not calm, from the third and fourth position there is immediately the assault of the two Toyotas on the Ferrari #51 of James Calado on the infinite straight of the Hunaudieres, and then Sebastien Buemi also overtakes the red number 50, grabbing that exact idea of leadership in the race to which the Japanese manufacturer and his Gazoo Racing have accustomed us in the last 5 editions. Everything seemed to have already been seen, but a few meters are enough, with the accident of the Cadillac 311 which ended up on the wall scattering debris, and a convulsive phase is triggered which Ferrari manages with a firmness at the debut that makes the difference. It is immediately safety car, with the new procedure called “drop back” and the cars of the individual categories line up allowing the passage of the fastest ones left behind. At the restart Conway passes Nielsen, with the two Toyota GR010 Hybrids that seem to be able to increase the gap with the Ferraris, chased by Porsche, Cadillac and Peugeot.
it’s not an escape
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Everything seems to resemble a breakaway, but it’s not true, the first 13 Hypercars are collected in less than a second and two accidents lead to the slow zone in points of the track where it is necessary to slow down. Toyota takes advantage of this to make the second stop with car 8, while Calado’s Ferrari 51 stays out and is in the lead. Three hours before the start, the rain then floods Hunaudières, with accidents and safety cars which lead to the classification still being shuffled into an at times incomprehensible chaos. The No. 94 Peugeot took the lead ahead of Yifei Ye’s Porsche Jota, with the Ferraris third and fourth, the Toyotas slipping to eighth and ninth. And it is exactly here that Le Mans 2023 really begins.
one on one
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At the ninth hour of the race, Le Mans 2023 takes its way. The number 51 Hypercar 499P with Pier Guidi, who had just returned to the track after a refueling, ended up in a spin at the exit of the Daytona chicane to avoid a collision with a Porsche in the Gte Am category. The Peugeot 94 was now the leader, but it was not this is the real twist. Kobayashi’s Toyota 7 retires due to mechanical damage sustained in a severe accident. It happens at 1 in the morning. Only an hour later the Ferrari #50 driven by Fire suffers a drop in performance and is overtaken by Pier Guidi’s 51, then stops in the pits and is admitted inside to be able to intervene on the technical problem with the powertrain cooling system hybrid. He gets back on track, but the race is compromised. The number 8 Toyota leads, followed by the Ferrari 51, with the Peugeot 94 which had held the lead for a long time and which then goes into the wall at the first chicane of the Mulsanne straight. The duel, the real one, is now wide open.
twists
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At the stroke of the 12-hour race, the red 51 is in the lead, kicking off a real man-marking with the Toyota 8 based on the duration of the pit stops, with or without replacement of tires, and above all on pace. Toyota GR010 Hybrid has never proved capable of getting out of the rubber band with the 499P, with a peak speed of 340 times for the Italian against 337 for the Japanese: certainly not enough alone to build the advantage. The difference in Ferrari’s favor is felt, if anything, in the better balance between drag and aerodynamic load, further diminished on the Toyota by problems with the bottom. At 10.33 in the morning the worst nightmare calls the Ferrari pit phone, with a long stop of the 499P number 52, forced to carry out a complete reset of the hybrid system which costs one minute. Pier Guidi, back at the wheel, takes half an hour to recover the leadership of the race with a spectacular overtaking on Buemi from the outside at the second chicane of the Mulsanne straight, all this while the Cadillac remains solid in performance and stably third with Earl Bamber. At 14.20 the blood freezes elsewhere. The #8 Toyota with Hirakawa lost control under braking and hit the barrier. The pit stop for repairs was quick, but the gap from the leading 499P had now risen to 3’22” with less than an hour and forty minutes to go. That is, the happy ending, by now already written.
historical first place
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The Ferrari AF Corse team earns a historic first place at the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2023 with the 499P number 51 of the Calado-Pier Guidi-Giovinazzi crew. On the podium the number 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid driven by Buemi-Hartley-Hirakawa, on the third step the number 2 Cadillac driven by Bamber-Lynn and Westbrook. The second 499P, number 50 driven by Fuoco-Molina and Nielsen, conquered a very solid fifth place finish. Ferrari convinced before dominating, it concretely built a comeback not resting on the laurels of tradition or name. He marked and beat absolute professionals of endurance and 24 hours such as Toyota, Porsche and Peugeot in a race where lucidity was needed, with 3 hours of neutralization and Safety car of overall time out of the total of 24. Mademoiselle Le Mans is unpredictable, but not she is confused. He didn’t choose at random.
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