Le Mans.- The 24 Hours of Le Mans They were incredible again, and Ferrari repeated the blow of the 2023 edition against Toyota, again with some controversy. He did it not without plot twists and tension at the La Sarthe Circuit, and probably everything began to definitely turn against him with the accident between his car #51 and the Toyota #8, which then left the fight between the Ferrari #50 and Toyota #7. That duel was finally won by the Italians with Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen, almost out of fuel in his car (3% in the category’s calculation).
With the Dane at the wheel, the #50 Ferrari resisted the attack of José María López with the #7 Toyota to cross the finish line with a lead of 14 seconds, in a victory that tastes like glory after the disappointment of last year. In addition, Ferrari scored a double podium, with the #51 far away but ahead of the Porsches (the #6 was fourth, close to the podium, and the #5 sixth) and the #8 Toyota. The Cadillac #2 of Alex Palou and his teammates finished seventh in the debut in this legendary Catalan race.
This Sunday’s victory is the eleventh for Ferrari at Le Mans, and Miguel Molina becomes the third Spanish driver to win the top category of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, after Marc Gené in 2009 with Peugeot and the two of Fernando Alonso in 2018-2019 with Toyota.
Results of the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2024
Final summary of the 24 Hours of Le Mans
Toyota and Ferrari got into a fight for the first four places with just over two hours left, with the #2 Cadillac and the #6 Porsche as alternatives. The #50 Ferrari was leading over the #8 Toyota and the #51 Ferrari had a podium position over the #7 Toyota. However, after a pitstop for #8 with problems changing wheels, #51 overtook him, ruining all of his chances.
Under the rain, everything was in Ferrari’s face to even do a double, but to say that in Le Mans is to speak too soon, and the #7 quickly overtook the #51 to hunt for the #50. The distance was very great, almost half a minute, but the unexpected happened to Ferrari #50, a door broke, forcing him to take an extra step through the pitlane that made him lose the lead and left it in the hands of #7.
However, #50 was on an alternative strategy and the race was not decided until the last hour. López caused the first big scare for Toyota when he spun just after the penultimate hour, and then everything was decided by who could last without making a last stop. Thus, while López with the #7 pushed as hard as possible chasing, the #50 resisted in the distance trying not to consume too much. With less than 15 minutes left, Toyota gave up and asked the Argentine to reach the finish line without damage, ending the fight, although until the end it was not clear that Ferrari could reach the finish line.
The #12 Jota Porsche, which was rebuilt around a new chassis in record time after a crash in Wednesday’s FP2, finished eighth ahead of the number 38 car.
Peugeot had more problems with the new 2024 9X8 that debuted at Imola, a car that struggled to keep pace in all conditions. Stoffel Vandoorne, Paul di Resta and Loic Duval finished 11th with the better of the French manufacturer’s two official cars, three laps less than the winning Toyota, after receiving a penalty for overtaking in the Slow Zone.
The #93 also had to go through pitlane after Mikel Jensen was deemed responsible for a collision with the #95 United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3. That, combined with Nico Muller’s exit under the safety car, left him, Jensen and Jean-Eric Vergne in 12th place, one lap behind the sister car.
Lamborghini was the best of the newcomers to the Hypercar category after a solid, if uneventful, run for the Iron Lynx-led works team at Le Mans. The Italian brand never had the pace to bother its official rivals, but its two SC63s ran without major setbacks, except for a couple of spins in the fourth hour.
The #63 Lamborghini entered for the entire WEC season finished ahead of the Peugeot in tenth place with Mirko Bortolotti, Daniil Kvyat and Edoardo Mortara, while the #19 brought from IMSA and driven by Romain Grosjean, Andrea Caldarelli and Matteo Cairoli finished 13th.
Isotta Fraschini was the only other new manufacturer to qualify, after Jean-Karl Carl Wattana Bennett and Antonio Serravalle managed to take the #11 Tipo6-C to 14th place.
Both BMW and Alpine were out of the race before midnight on Saturday, despite showing promising pace in the run-up to the race.
Engine failures were to blame for Alpine’s double retirement at Le Mans: Ferdinand Habsburg parked the #35 A424 LMDh in Arnage in the fifth hour and Nicolas Lapierre put the sister car in the garage shortly after, with problems.
BMW’s problems began in the first hour when Marco Wittmann went off in the Esses and immediately put the #15 M Hybrid V8 on the defensive. His teammate Dries Vanthoor was trying to recover from the initial setback when he collided with Kubica’s #83 AF Corse Ferrari at the end of Mulsanne in the evening, and the impact sent him face-first into the Armco barriers.
By this time, the #20 BMW was already in the garage after Robin Frijns ran wildly over the curbs of the Ford Chicane and suffered what appeared to be terminal damage. BMW was finally able to repair the car to get teammate Sheldon van der Linde back on track in the final hour, but the car failed to qualify after failing to complete 70% of the required distance.
The #83 Ferrari that led much of Saturday’s race and was in contention in the early afternoon finally retired with technical problems at the 20th hour, and television footage showed plumes of smoke billowing from the front. .
The #3 Cadillac and #4 Porsche were among the six Hypercar entries that did not qualify.
United achieves a surprising victory in LMP2 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans
The triune in LMP2 went to the #22 United Autosports ORECA of Oliver Jarvis, Bijoy Garg and Nolan Siegel, after Siegel stole the lead from #28 IDEC Sport driver Reshad of Gurus in the 22nd hour.
The IDEC Sport team and the #34 InterEuropol Oreca had already enjoyed a long battle on Sunday, with the #10 Vector also coming into play in the afternoon before rain once again shook up the LMP2 grid order.
Finally, it was the InterEuropol team, winners of last year’s race, who came second with Clemen Novalak, Jakub Smieschowski and Vladislav Lomko, while the trio of IDEC Sport Gurus, Job Van Uitert, fell to third place in their class .
An off-track performance by the Vector ORECA #10 contributed to Patrick Pilet, Ryan Cullen and Stéphane Richelmi dropping to fifth place behind the AF Corse #183 Francois Perrodo, Ben Barnicoat and Nicolas Varrone who were leading at dawn on Sunday.
Porsche triumphs in the new LMGT3 class of the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2024
Porsche took another WEC victory in the LMGT3 class when Richard Lietz, Yasser Shahin and Morris Schuring managed to win the #91 Manthey EMA 911 GT3 R.
Victory in that category came down to a straight fight between the Manthey Porsche and the number 31 WRT of Augusto Farfus, Sean Gelael and Darren Leung in the closing stages, as several of the top contenders dropped out due to various different reasons.
Gelael managed to take the race lead when rain returned to the track with just over two hours remaining, but factory Porsche driver Lietz had little trouble overtaking his silver class rival on the road to Indianapolis. to take the #91 to the finish line for the first LMGT3 victory at Le Mans.
Brother Manthey PureRxcing #92 was also in the battle for the win for much of the event and was actually leading the class when Klaus Bachler was forced to take the car to the garage due to electrical issues.
Proton Competition took third and fourth place with their Ford Mustang GT3s, the number 88 of Dennis Olsen, Giorgio Roda and Mikkel Pedersen finishing ahead of Christopher Mies, Ben Tuck and John Hartshorne in the other.
All three McLaren 720S GT3s, including pole-sitter Inception Racing, suffered a series of problems on Sunday that took them out of the race.
