Immense Ferrari, Le Mans wins after Monaco: encore at the 24 hours | FP

By Carlo Platella
It was a heart-pounding 24 hours at Le Mans, with constant reversals and an uncertain outcome literally until the final seconds. To win is the Ferrari #50 of Fuoco-Nielsen-Molina, capable of saving a stop at the end which earned him his second overall success at Le Mans. The other Red #51 is on the podium, behind the Toyota #7 which came up from the back.

Great balance

At the start Nicklas Nielsen surprised everyone in the #50 Ferrari, overtaking the #2 Cadillac at the start and then overtaking the #6 Porsche a few corners later. The first stages of the race saw a heated battle between Ferrari, Porsche, Cadillac and Toyota, until the rain arrived. At that point he takes the chair Robert Kubica with the yellow Ferrari #83, which brings the 499P to the lead, where it remains until midnight. However, the crew was given a 30-second Stop&Go for the contact between Robert Kubica and the BMW #15 of Dries Vanthoor, with the former being responsible and where the latter was the one to get the worst of it, ending up on the wall.

The rain gave no respite during the night, so much so that race management was forced to keep the Safety Car on the track between 4 and 8 in the morning. The sun appears again on Sunday morning, when there are still many protagonists fighting for victory. Around midday, however, Ferrari #83 raises the white flag following an electrical blackout at the pit stop, when it was still in full battle for the overall victory.

The rain returns

At 2pm the rain returns to wet La Sarthe, marking two final hours of high tension. The Ferrari #50 leads, followed by the Toyota #8 which however encounters a mishap at the pit stop, favoring the return of the Red #51. Alessandro Pier Guidi and Brendon Hartley thus began to battle, but came into contact in Mulsanne, where the Toyota #8 spun, losing five positions.

At that point Jose Maria Lopez charged forward, author of a monstrous stint in the wet with Toyota #7, which started in last position. With 100 minutes to go the Argentine gets into the Ferrari #51, only to then inherit the lead of the race on the same lap. In fact, the Red #50 is forced to make an unscheduled stop to close the right door, which had remained open in the previous pit stop, taking the opportunity to top up with fuel.

Heart-pounding finale

With Lopez in great form and the Ferraris lagging behind, the race seems to be going in Toyota’s direction. Nicklas Nielsen in the Red #50, however, begins to save fuel, extending the stint and trying to avoid an extra refueling. The Cavallino holds its breath until the last lap, but the Dane succeeds in the feat. Nicklas Nielsen, Miguel Molina and Antonio Fuoco give away Ferrari’s 11th overall and 2nd consecutive success at the 24 Hours of Le Mansafter the one gained in 2023 with the crew of #51.

The Toyota #7 of Lopez-Kobayashi-De Vries closed its comeback in second place, ahead of the Ferrari #51 of Pier Guidi-Giovinazzi-Calado, once again on the podium in the French marathon. Fourth is the first of the Porsches, the #6 of Estre-LottererVanthoor, while the best of the Cadillac-Dallaras is #2, seventh with Palou-Lynn-Bamber. An amazing one Lamborghinis achieved tenth position on debut, with Kyvat-Bortolotti-Mortara in the #63, ahead of the Peugeot #94. Good debut also for Isotta Fraschini, struggling on pace but free from reliability problems, finishing in fourteenth position overall.

Lmp2 and LMGT3

Among the GT3s, Porsche is the one to celebrate, with the #91 Manthey driven by Richard Lietz, Morris Schuring and Yasser Shain, preceding the #31 BMW of Gelael-Farfus-Leung and the #88 Ford of the Proton Competition of Roda-Pedersen-Olsen. Fifth was the Lamborghini #85 of the Iron Dames, while the best Ferraris were seventh and eighth, respectively the #55 of AF Corse and the #155 of Spirit of Race. Regret for Valentino Rossi, whose BMW #46 shared with Maxime Martin and Ahmad Al Harty retired during the night following a driving error by Al Harty himself, after having also been leading the race. In Lmp2 he wins United Autosport #22 by Jarvis-Siegel-Garg. Second is Inter Europol #34, ahead of Idec Sport #28. AF Corse instead took the victory in the Pro/Am subclass, with the #83 driven by Nicolas Varrone, Ben Barnicoat and Francois Perrodo.