AF Corse’s Phil Hanson, Robert Kubica and Yifei Ye scored overall honors in the 93rd running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans Sunday (June 15) in their Ferrari 499P. It is the third straight year that a Ferrari has won overall. It is also the first overall victory at Le Mans for a privateer team since the mid-1990s.
The margin of victory was 14.084 seconds over Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Matt Campbell, Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor. Ferrari AF Corse’s No. 51 for James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi were third, then the No. 50 Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen. Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA’s Alex Lynn, Norman Nato and Will Stevens were fifth. These were the only teams on the lead lap after 3276.73 miles.
Stevens started from the overall pole, but did not last long at the front. Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Julien Andlauer was able to take the overall lead from third on the third on the run to Indianapolis on the first lap.
While Andlauer showed good pace on the first lap, it was the Ferrari triumvirate that ultimately put their stamp on the race. In effect, Le Mans ended up being an extension of the WEC season to this point. Near total domination by the Ferrari 499P.
Nielsen was the highest starting Ferrari in seventh. By the end of the first hour, he was up to fourth and still charging. After the first driver change, Fuoco was able to snatch the lead from Andlauer in the right turn before Indianapolis, a popular place for passing, 150 minutes into the race.
While the No. 50 was the first Ferrari to get to the front, the Nos. 51 and 83 weren’t far behind, despite starting outside of the top 10. By the end of the fourth hour, the Ferraris were running 1-2-3.
Porsche Penske Motorsport’s No. 6 was the only team that could take the fight to the Ferraris. That is notable since they had to come from even further back than any of the Ferraris to compete. Back on Wednesday, the team was disqualified from the opening round of qualifying when the car was discovered to be underweight. As a result, Estre had to start 21st.
Ye ultimately took the overall lead in the 20th hour when Pier Guidi made a pit stop. This sequence put the customer team out front for the remainder of the race.
Fuoco and Giovinazzi attempted to give chase. Fuoco was pressuring Estre in the final hour for second before the final pit stops. However, the Ferrari squad had a bad stop that cost the No. 50 seven seconds and put Fuoco behind Giovinazzi.
A couple of position swaps happened so that they would be better equipped to run down Estre for second, but issues in the engine cropped up. That prevented the 499Ps from trying to sweep the podium.
Meanwhile, at the head of the field, Kubica ran hard for the final half-hour of the race, trying to expand his advantage over Estre. There would be no procession on this day as Kubica ran hard to take the overall win.
There wasn’t much attrition in the Hypercar class. What attrition did show up hit the IMSA teams hard. Wayne Taylor Racing’s Filipe Albuquerque suffered engine issues on the Mulsanne Straight and was forced to retire in the overnight hours.
Action Express Racing’s Frederik Vesti had a similar familiar just past the pits after sunrise. They ended up being the only Hypercars not to finish.
In LMP2, TDS Racing’s Mathias Beche started from pole and led early with Inter Europol Competition’s Tom Dillmann giving chase. Dillmann was able to take over the class lead 40 minutes in after the Polish team was able to pit him faster than TDS Racing could service Beche.
Inter Europol Competition and VDS Panis Racing swapped the class lead multiple times throughout the race. It seemed like Nick Yelloly was in position to win until he was busted for speeding in the pit lane and given a drive-through penalty in the final hour.
The penalty appeared to give the victory to VDS Panis Racing’s Esteban Masson. However, Masson ran into mechanical issues right around the time Yelloly served the penalty. While Masson ended up with the lead, his ORECA 07-Gibson was struggling.
Yelloly was able to make the pass for the class lead in the Porsche Curves with 25 minutes to go. From there, he pulled away to take the class victory for himself, Tom Dillmann and Jakub Smiechowski in 19th overall.
Inter Europol’s margin of victory was 115.753 seconds over Masson, Oliver Gray and Franck Perera. AO by TF’s Dane Cameron, Louis Deletraz and PJ Hyett were a lap down in third, while Iron Lynx-Proton’s Maceo Capietto, Reshad de Gerus and Jonas Ried were two laps down in fourth. Beche, Clement Novalak and Rodrigo Sales were fifth.
In LMP2 Pro-Am, AO by TF took the win by a lap over TDS Racing. Proton Competition’s Rene Binder, Giorgio Roda and Bent Viscaal were third, then AF Corse’s Antonio Felix da Costa, Francois Perrodo and Matthieu Vaxiviere. Inter Europol Competition’s Nick Boulle, Luca Ghiotto and Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer were fifth.
LMGT3 was dominated for much of the race by the BMW of Team WRT’s Ahmad Al Harthy, Valentino Rossi and Kelvin van der Linde. However, the team had an electrical failure that resulted in van der Linde ending up in the gravel in the Porsche Curves.
Once he was extricated from the gravel, van der Linde was able to get the car back to the pits and rejoined after five minutes of repairs. However, the problems persisted and the team was forced to retire the car.
Team WRT’s failures benefitted the Porsche of Manthey 1st Phorm’s Ryan Hardwick, Riccardo Pera and Richard Lietz. They assumed the class lead just before halfway. Outside of pit sequences, they were rarely challenged en route to victory.
The margin of victory was 33.259 seconds over Vista AF Corse’s Francois Heriau, Simon Mann and Alessio Rovera. The Chevrolet of TF Sport’s Rui Andrade, Charlie Eastwood and Tom van Rompuy rounded out the podium. The Heart of Racing’s Mattia Drudi, Ian James and Zacharie Robichon were fourth, while Akkodis ASP Team’s Jose Maria Lopez, Clemens Schmid and Petru Umbrarescu were a lap down in fifth.
The race in general was quite clean. There was only one safety car period in the entire race, that coming due to a crash for Nielsen Racing’s Cem Bolukbasi at Tertre Rouge. Earlier in the race, Proton Competition’s Giammarco Levorato crashed in the same place after losing a wheel.
Lost wheels were a big problem in the race. Toyota Gazoo Racing’s No. 8 fell out of contention after losing their left front wheel. Both of the IDEC Sport LMP2 entries dropped out after losing wheels as well.
FIA World Endurance Championship 24 Hours of Le Mans Unofficial Results
Teams in the race will compete in a variety of championships after Le Mans. The majority are full-time WEC teams. Their next race is the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo at Interlagos on July 13, which will be streamed live on Max.
The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s next race is the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen next Sunday, which will air live on NBC and Peacock starting at Noon ET. Finally, the European Le Mans Series’ next round is the 4 Hours of Imola on July 6 with live coverage on RACER Network.
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.