A Ferrari goes three straight at Le Mans 24

A Ferrari AF Corse Hypercar has claimed a third straight win at the 93rd Le Mans 24 Hour with a third different team in three years, as Porsche pressed hard to try and unravel a Maranello podium sweep in a relatively incident-free French classic. Auto Action, live from Le Mans…

It may not go down as the most thrilling edition of the twice-around-the-clock French classic, with yellow flags scarce in perfect race conditions throughout. But what matters for Ferrari, is that the prancing horse added a 12th Le Mans with a +14.084 second win after 387 laps.

And rather than the championship-dominating #51 and #50 499P machines, it was the #83 privateer (semi-factory) Hypercar that is still run by AF Corse that took the historic win, with Yifei Ye/Robert Kubica/Phil Hanson the winning pilots.

Yifei also became the first Chinese driver to claim an outright win at Le Mans, as Hanson and Kubica also claimed maiden wins.

And for the first time since the fabled 1960-1965 win streak, a Ferrari has won three 24 Hours of Le Mans on the trot. 

The race was livened up somewhat with the battle for the last two podium spots across the final hour and a half, as Kubica pulled away leaving the #50 and #51 Ferrari’s to attack the desperate Porsche that would eventually hold of Giovanazzi by +14.403sec to interrupt the perfect, yet somehow imperfect 24 hours for Ferrari.

Penalty’s cost the #50 machine throughout, whilst an untimely spin ruined what looked to be a probable victory for the #51.

Aussie Matt Campbell had earlier put in an inspired stint in the last three hours in the #6 Porsche before Estre took over for the final hour, putting the pressure on a Ferrari garage that looked a sure one-two-three, but Roger Penske’s wait for an elusive Le Mans win goes on.

Campbell’s last stint helped put Porscher into the podium window.

It’s also worth remembering that the #6 Porsche was disqualified from Hyperpole, which in hindsight would have made up the time somewhere near the ventual gap.

It was a chess game that was developing across the three Ferrari garages as the hours ticked down after dawn.

The three 499Ps were locked into an intriguing chess game where any one of them could have taken the ascendancy, and each had a share of the lead. In particular, it looked like the #51 was in control, but a spin into the gravel trying to enter the pits put it out of it in the long run.

Initially, Ferrari was the hunter with the #6 963 strong early with Kevin Estre behind the wheel.

But also, through practice and qualifying, it was the awesome-sounding Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh’s that took the early stuff by storm with a great pole and a constant presence at the top of the time sheets leading in.

Inter Europol Competition took the second LMP2 Le Mans 24 win in a bizare end to the class battle

But such is Le Mans, that the BoP is a standalone procedure compared to the other rounds from the ACO and FIA, and heading in, many thought Ferrari had it on a platter, whilst some within Cadillac accused Ferrari of sandbagging, saying that although they held the pole, they knew they couldn’t win it. 

All up, only two Hypercars went by the wayside in a shockingly rare display of reliabilty in a usual race of attrition, and both of them were the visting IMSA Cadillac’s.

In the LMGT3, it was a Manthey Porsche taking out Le Mans for the second straight year, with the #90 1ST Phorm 911 GT3 R storming home over the #21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari, with the #81 TF Sport Corvette in third with four cars on the lead lap.

In the LMP2 battle, a drive through penalty looked to deny Inter Europol Competition another Le Mans victory with Nick Yelloly at the wheel, with Estaban Masson somehow getting jumped despite after taking the lead after a mechanical problem made them pull an 11 second slower lap at the exact same time, confining VDS Panis Racing to second after losing a sure win. The AO by TF machine taking third, one lap in arrears.

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