In tricky conditions, Ferrari AF Corse’s Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen won the 24 Hours of Le Mans Sunday morning (June 16). It is Ferrari’s second straight victory in the endurance classic, although it was the team car that won last year.
“It was amazing,” Molina said after the race. “It is the best day of my career. Thanks to everyone that has supported me since I was young. To my family, my parents, my wife, to my kids and to everyone.”
Fuoco, Molina and Nielsen’s margin of victory was 14.221 seconds over Toyota GAZOO Racing’s Nyck de Vries, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez. Ferrari AF Corse’s No. 51 for James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi were third, followed by Porsche Penske Motorsport’s No. 6 driven by Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer and Laurens Vanthoor. The No. 8 Toyota comprised of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa ran fifth. Even after 24 hours, nine cars in total finished on the lead lap.
Vanthoor started from the overall pole in his Porsche 963, but he was overhauled on the first lap by Nielsen at the Indianapolis corner.
The first line in the sand for the race occurred during the second hour. A rain shower descended upon the 8.467-mile circuit, leaving teams to choose what to do. Most of the leaders chose to pit for rain tires. The leading No. 50 Ferrari stayed out, as did Robert Kubica in the AF Corse No. 83 Ferrari and Hertz Team JOTA’s Will Stevens.
That was ultimately the right move as the track dried relatively quickly. The teams that stopped ended up having to make another pit stop in order to switch back to slicks and ultimately lost a couple of minutes.
As the race went on, focus shifted to the BMW M Team WRT which had a terrible race. Dries Vanthoor‘s weekend started well with the fastest time in qualifying practice.
Then, he crashed a couple hours later in the next practice. He crashed again in Hyperpole qualifying. During the race, Dries had contact with Kubica and crashed out.
The No. 20 didn’t have things much better. Robin Frijns spun and hit the barrier in the Ford chicane early on past pit-in. As a result, he had to drive eight miles with a busted suspension.
Frijns got the car back to the garage, but repairs took a very long time. The team did get the car back out, but it was 215 laps down at the finish and not classified as a finisher.
Ultimately, weather played a huge role in the race. While the track dried from the first shower, rain would come and go throughout the race. The worst of the rain came in during the overnight hours. As a result, the safety car was deployed for more than four hours as conditions were simply too wet to race safely.
The No. 83 Ferrari was one of the contenders for overall victory until their race came to an end due to electrical problems. That made the race into a battle between the two remaining Ferraris, the two Toyotas and the No. 6 Porsche.
In the 23rd hour, Nielsen was forced to pit out of sequence due to receiving “the meatball.” The right side door on Nielsen’s Ferrari 499P was opening on course, which is viewed as a safety hazard. The crew was able to get the door properly latched and filled the car with fuel, but their lead was sharply reduced.
Nielsen made his final stop with 51 minutes remaining and stretched his energy to the finish. On the final run, his lead dropped from 31 to 14 seconds. What could have been the difference at the end of the race was a spin for Lopez at the Dunlop chicane shortly after Nielsen’s last stop that cost him time.
Of the nine teams that finished on the lead lap, likely the biggest surprise was the No. 12 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche for Stevens, Callum Ilott and Norman Nato that finished eighth. While the team did win at Spa last month, they had to struggle just to make the Le Mans grid.
Right at the end of Free Practice No. 2 Wednesday night, Ilott crashed their car at the Esses de la Foret. The official broadcast did not catch the crash in progress, but a fan in the stands did.
The crash resulted in tub damage to the car. The team didn’t really have a backup car so much as a shell. Normally, it would take three weeks to build the rest. Instead, the Hertz Team JOTA squad built that car up in two days, got special dispensation to shake the car down at a nearby airstrip Friday, then participated in the 15-minute warmup session Saturday before racing 24 hours.
In LMP2, AO by TF with Louis Deletraz at the wheel started from pole and led early. Much of the middle stages of the race saw Vector Sport and Inter Europol Competition share the lead despite the Inter Europol No. 34 losing a wheel early on.
In the 22nd hour, United Autosports’ Nolan Siegel took the No. 22 ORECA 07-Gibson to the class lead. It would be an advantage that the team would not give up. Despite Oliver Jarvis having a brief off-course excursion in the final 30 minutes, he was able to hold on to take the class win with Siegel and Bijoy Garg.
Garg, Jarvis and Siegel’s margin of victory was 18.651 seconds over Inter Europol Competition’s Vladislav Lomko, Clement Novalak and Jakub Smiechowski. IDEC Sport’s Reshad de Gerus, Paul Lafargue and Job van Uitert were third, followed by AF Corse’s Ben Barnicoat, Francois Perrodo and Nico Varrone. Vector Sport’s Ryan Cullen, Patrick Pilet and Stephane Richelmi were fifth.
In the LMP2 Pro-Am subclass, AF Corse’s fourth-place finish in class was good enough to win. They won by two laps over AO by TF’s Deletraz, PJ Hyett and Alex Quinn.
In LMGT3, Inception Racing dominated the early portion of the race from pole with their McLaren. However, they were caught out by the first rain shower, like a number of the Hypercar contenders were.
Once the rain first showed up, the Manthey EMA No. 91 Porsche moved up into contention, along with the Team WRT No. 46 BMW. A crash at the Dunlop bridge for Ahmad Al Harthy ultimately put the No. 46 out in the ninth hour, crushing fans of Al Harthy’s teammate, Valentino Rossi.
As the rains increased overnight, the two Manthey-run Porsches put themselves at the front. The Heart of Racing and the Iron Dames were their primary competition.
The scariest incident of the race occurred in the 18th hour when overall leaders ran down The Heart of Racing’s Daniel Mancinelli on the rundown to Indianapolis. Mancinelli yielded to the leaders, but got in the wet surface off-line. Mancinelli then spun his Aston Martin and went rear-end first into the tire barriers with enough force to flip his car over.
Mancinelli, who previously raced full-time in the United States in 2017 for TR3 Racing in what was then the Pirelli World Challenge GT, was OK. However, his Aston Martin was done for the day.
Manthey EMA’s Richard Lietz, Morris Schuring and Yasser Shahin were never seriously threatened over the last couple of hours of the race en route to the class win (they were 27th overall). For Schuring and Shahin, they both took class victories in their first time at Le Mans.
Lietz, Schuring and Shahin’s margin of victory was a lap over Team WRT’s Augusto Farfus, Sean Gelael and Darren Leung. Proton Competition’s No. 88 Ford for Dennis Olsen, Mikkel Pedersen and Giorgio Roda wound up third, followed by their teammates in the No. 44 Ford: John Hartshorne, Christopher Mies and Ben Tuck. The Iron Dames Lamborghini of Sarah Bovy, Rahel Frey and Michelle Gatting were fifth.
FIA World Endurance Championship 24 Hours of Le Mans Unofficial Results
For WEC teams, they will take a little time off before regrouping for the fifth race of their season, the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo on July 14. Coverage of that race will be split between Motor Trend and Max.
Meanwhile, more than 40 of the drivers that competed at Le Mans will be at Watkins Glen next weekend for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Sahlen’s Six Hours at the Glen. Frontstretch will be on-site to bring you all the action from the Finger Lakes.
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Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.