So many things happened in the 92nd edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans that they will be remembered even for the stretches of time in which nothing happened. Like those 4 and a quarter hours in the early morning with a safety car on the track that did not allow competing due to the low visibility caused by the darkness of the night and the spray of rain. Even so, the spectacle was majestic from the moment Zidane gave the starting signal. And it was fabulous to see the car of a Spanish driver enter the finish line first, the Ferrari 499P #50 of Miguel Molina, Antonio Fuoco and Nicklas Nielsen. Last season a stone crossed his path and Molina did not forget it. It was his china in his shoe and he said that he was returning to Le Mans to have the opportunity again. And boy did he have it. The crying of the crew when crossing the finish line with the energy reaching zero, this is demonstrated by him.
From the first round, which was a gift, The Girona team showed credentials. And also Porsche with its 963 defended the pole, Cadillac showed that it was not here as a troupe, Ferrari with the 499P launched an attack in the first minute to take the lead and Toyota began working to make up ground.
These factories would be the main protagonists of a 24 Hours to remember. They were at the beginning, in the middle and at the end. Because when normality was restored on the Sarthe circuit, There were fights in every corner of the 13.6 kilometers of the route. That was, as Hartley, driver of the #8 Toyota, described it in the preview, the “jungle.” Álex Palou survived in his debut, taking the virtual lead on a couple of occasions and setting the fastest lap of the race with the #2 Cadillac. Found answer by Kamui Kobayashi with #7. Miguel Molina battled with the #50 Ferrari neck and neck for the lead with Sebastien Buemi at the controls of the #8. At the same time Kevin Estre and Alessandro Pier Guidi put the #6 Porsche and the #51 Ferrari in parallel, coming close to touching each other. Everyone was fighting for their options, greater or lesser, and no one gave an inch or a tenth.
After dawn it was already that moment in which staying in the fight for the race and preventing the race from eliminating you became one of the inevitable steps. And since no one wanted to miss the show, rain threatened for the finale, which came. It was time for more survival exercise. Any incident could be decisive. Even a stuck nut on the front wheel of the #8 Toyota in its change to wet tires nullified the comeback work that Hartley had carried out on Molina. And a subsequent touch from Pier Guidi to the New Zealander, penalized with five seconds, sent the Japanese car to the gravel and the Ferrari to 1-2.
Maranello was facing the race with two hours left. Nicklas Nielsen managed a 20-second cushion over Pier Guidi, who in turn was the best defense against the Toyotas and the Porsche. The joy in the Italian garage did not last long because a poorly closed door on the 499P forced him to go to the pits by race direction order to fix the damage. And then adjust the strategy.
A perfect script almost dreamed of, Le Mans had suddenly returned everything that the night’s rain had spared and the joy to Ferrari after a spin by Pechito López with the #7 in the Dunlop chicane. Molina’s car recovered a certain margin in the lead, almost 50 seconds. Decisive? At Le Mans nothing is ever taken for granted. Not even the chronicles. You have to do them quickly.
How fast that Ferrari #50 was despite having stopped before the Toyota #7 to face the last 45 minutes. It was an Italy-Japan head-to-head in the rain of France. The battle of battles that fell from the red car onto the black one. It is Ferrari’s 11th victory at Le Mans, the second in a row and Molina’s first. who joins the select group of Marc Gené and Fernando Alonso as Spanish champions in the most iconic endurance race in the world.
Results of the 24 Hours of Le Mans
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