In the Hypercar category, the Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 driven by Kévin Estre (France), André Lotterer (Germany) and Laurens Vanthoor (Belgium) was the best classified, with a fourth place overall. The sister car with the number 5 and the two hybrid prototypes of the customer team Hertz Team Jota also finished in the top 10.
The 92nd edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans has been characterized by extreme weather conditions. The classic endurance test was held before a new attendance record of 329,000 spectators. Due to the intense rain that fell at certain times, the race management neutralized the competition on several occasions with the safety car. New rains two hours before finishing and in the final minutes they brought the tension in the fight for victory to the limit. Without notable incidents, with a perfect strategy and thanks to a great performance, the Austrian Richard Lietz, the Dutchman Morris Schuring and the Australian Yasser Shahin won the LMGT3 category. After 24 hours, Manthey EMA’s 911 GT3 R had a lap lead over its closest pursuers. The other Manthey PureRxcing 911 finished in 14th place, after a technical problem. He had been the GT3 leader in the first half of the test.
“Being the first manufacturer to win the new GT3 category at Le Mans is something that no one can take away from us now,” said Sebastian Golz, Porsche 911 GT3 R Project Director. “The collaboration of the Weissach engineers and the Manthey EMA team It has worked very well. Also in the World Endurance Championship classification things are going great for us and we were able to score a lot of points. It was a shame that the number 92 911 GT3 R had technical problems. Of course, we will look into it carefully. “Now we have to fight for the world titles.”
“I am very happy with the victory of Manthey EMA in the LMGT3 category,” summarized Thomas Laudenbach. The Vice President of Porsche Motorsport added: “With this victory, Porsche leads the WEC classification in GT3 even more clearly. Congratulations to the Eifel team. This is a big win for Porsche! Looking at the overall classification, I would first like to congratulate Ferrari on their second consecutive victory at Le Mans. We experienced numerous wheel-to-wheel duels and there was also changing weather. Without a doubt, it was a pleasure for the fans, but not so much for us as an official team. We expected more than fourth place. First we have to let everything settle and then get into the analysis. Because one thing is clear: Porsche is coming to Le Mans to win.”
The number 6 Porsche 963 of Estre, Lotterer and Vanthoor fought until the last moment for a place on the podium. In the end, he was just 1.167 seconds behind third place. The sister car of Australian Matt Campbell, Dane Michael Christensen and Frenchman Frédéric Makowiecki fell away from the leading group during the night. The hybrid prototype with the number 5 crossed the finish line in sixth position. For the third official vehicle, the dream of a victory at Le Mans ended at 9:15 on Sunday morning. Brazilian Felipe Nasr crashed into the barriers in the Indianapolis turn zone and ended his race. Previously, Nasr and his teammates Mathieu Jaminet (France) and Nick Tandy (Great Britain) were delayed by several penalties and an extra stop for car repairs due to contact with others.
“Congratulations to Ferrari, but also to our team: great success has been within reach,” stressed Urs Kuratle, Competition Director of the LMDh Official Team. “However, we have to admit that today we were not completely fine. The podium has narrowly escaped us. Our Porsche 963 had potential and our drivers, like the entire team, have performed at an exceptionally high level. I want to thank you for that. We will fight again next year.”
“A very rainy edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans has come to an end,” commented Jonathan Diuguid, General Director of Porsche Penske Motorsport. “Our number 6 and 5 cars tried everything in the last four hours. The team has also worked hard to decide the tire choice strategy. We really wanted to fight for victory with Ferrari and Toyota. Number 6 finished in fourth position, but we expected more. At least things have been much better than last year. And another positive fact: our team added quite a few points for the championship and has consolidated its leadership position.”
Porsche has defended first place in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) constructors’ competition. Before the fifth race of the season, on July 14 in São Paulo (Brazil), the drivers of the number 6 vehicle are first in the standings and those of the number 5 are fifth. In the LMGT3 category, Lietz, Schuring and Shahin, winners at Le Mans, are also leaders. His brand and teammates, the Austrian Klaus Bachler, the German Joel Sturm and the British Alex Malykhin, are third, just three points behind.
Porsche’s two customer teams, Hertz Team Jota and Proton Competition, had little luck with the Porsche 963. The British team’s number 12 car finished eighth overall after an impressive effort. The prototype had been completely rebuilt after a serious accident in the last training session on Wednesday.
The sister car (number 38) of former Formula 1 world champion Jenson Button finished ninth after numerous penalties. The Proton Competition number 99 finished the race in 16th position after suffering several breakdowns.
Comments from the drivers after the race
Nicolas Raeder (Manthey CEO): “This is the fifth victory in the category for Manthey at Le Mans, after 1999, 2013, 2018 and 2022. It has been exhausting, but as always also something very special and a great honor. When Wolfgang Porsche came to congratulate me, I burst into tears. The decisive factor was the combination of drivers, engineers and mechanics, in short, the team. Many people believe that success depends on a specific point, but it is the whole that makes the difference.”
Morris Schuring (Porsche 911 GT3 R #91): “A dream come true for me! At 19 years old, I didn’t even dare to think about winning a class on my first outing at Le Mans! I think we had an almost perfect race with my teammates and the entire Manthey team. No errors, no penalties and practically always with the correct tire choice. We can be proud.”
Kévin Estre (Porsche 963 no. 6): “Fourth place and missing the podium by a second is not the desired result. We wanted to win and we had a good race, with only one error in the choice of tires in the early stages. Then we came back, but in general we did not have the necessary pace to fight for victory. We have to keep learning and come back here stronger next year.”
Michael Christensen (Porsche 963 no. 5): “It has been a tough race. We made many good strategic decisions, but we made a mistake once in the middle of the test. We spent too much time on dry tires when there was a lot of water on the track. On the other hand, it is fair to recognize that our rivals were very strong today. Our performance has been better than last year, but there are still some areas where we need to improve.”
Nick Tandy (Porsche 963 #4): “The morning accident was the abrupt end of a complicated race. We accumulated penalties, errors and contacts from the beginning, something totally atypical for us. I can’t blame my teammate Felipe Nasr, anyone driving with cold, slick tires on a still wet track can easily go off. It’s something normal. Le Mans 2024 has come to a premature end for us and we are very disappointed about it. But now it’s time to look forward. “We look forward to driving the Porsche 963 again next weekend at the Watkins Glen race in the IMSA championship.”
Will Stevens (Porsche 963 no. 12): “This result has two readings: the first, positive, is that we finished the race on the leading lap and without technical problems. If someone had offered us this on Saturday, we would have signed it without hesitation; The second is that we crossed the finish line in eighth position, something that, of course, can be improved. We were not able to find a good race rhythm and the accident on Wednesday was a big setback. In any case, congratulations to the team.”
Jenson Button (Porsche 963 no. 38): “One of the hardest races I have ever experienced! It was really brutal, I was constantly pushing the car to the limit and I couldn’t relax for a single moment. Maintaining concentration for so long is exhausting. The result is not what we expected, but we finished with both cars on the leading lap, and this is something to be proud of.”
Classification of the 24 Hours of Le Mans
Hypercar Category:
1. Fuoco/Molina/Nielsen (ITA/ESP/DIN), Ferrari #50, 311 laps
2. De Vries/Kobayashi/López (PB/JAP/ARG), Toyota #7, +14.221 seconds
3. Calado/Giovinazzi/Pier Guidi (GB/ITA/ITA), Ferrari #51, +36.730 seconds
4. Estre/Lotterer/Vanthoor (FRA/ALE/BEL), Porsche 963 #6, +37.897 seconds
6. Campbell/Christensen/Makowiecki (Australia/DIN/FRA), Porsche 963 #5, +1:45.654 minutes
8. Ilott/Nato/Stevens (GB/FRA/GB), Porsche 963 #12, +3:02.691 minutes
9. Button/Hanson/Rasmussen (GB/GB/DIN), Porsche 963 #38, +3:36.756 minutes
16. Andlauer/Jani/Tincknell (FRA/SUI/GB), Porsche 963 #99, 60 laps
Not classified: Jaminet/Nasr/Tandy (FRA/BRA/GB), Porsche 963 #4, 100 laps
LMGT3 Category:
1. Lietz/Schuring/Shahin (Austria/PB/Australia), Porsche 911 GT3 R #91, 281 laps
2. Farfus/Galael/Leung (BRA/IND/GB), BMW #31, 1 lap away
3. Olsen/Pedersen/Roda (NOR/DIN/ITA), Ford #88, 1 lap away
14. Bachler/Malykhin/Sturm (Austria/GB/ALE), Porsche 911 GT3 R #92, 8 laps
Complete race results and championship standings at: fiawec.alkamelsystems.com
