Ferrari’s 499P continued its dominance on the 24 Hours of Le Mans this weekend, claiming a 3rd consecutive victory on the Circuit de la Sarthe, every with a special driver lineup. This 12 months, Robert Kubica, Philip Hanson, and Yifei Ye took the historic win, with all three celebrating their first total triumph within the race
Twenty years on from the final privateer triumph within the legendary twice-round-the-clock contest, the #83 AF Corse entry obtained the higher of the 2 Ferrari AF Corse ‘works’ vehicles to win the most important race of the season – with Le Mans doubling up because the fourth spherical of the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship marketing campaign.
In 2023, the #51 499P Hypercar turned the primary Ferrari to win Le Mans outright since 1965, whereas final 12 months, it was the #50 that conquered its phenomenal problem. Each of the manufacturing unit vehicles had been firmly within the combine as soon as once more within the occasion’s 93rd version, however a collection of penalties and an in a single day puncture opened the door for the #83 to steal the highlight – and in entrance of a record-breaking crowd of 332,000 enthusiastic followers, its crew wanted no second invitation.
Each Hanson and Ye drove beautifully, but it surely was Kubica who produced the heroics, as the previous grand prix-winner accomplished 43 per cent of the profitable automobile’s laps – together with an astonishing 5 consecutive stints on the finish of the race to in the end wind up 14 seconds away from his closest pursuer following a consummate show.
The primary Pole ever to prevail at Le Mans, the end result represented redemption for Kubica, who was denied LMP2 victory by a throttle sensor difficulty on the final lap in 2021 after which scooped the runner-up spoils in-class in each 2022 and 2023. Hanson added total honours to his 2020 LMP2 class win, whereas Ye is the primary Chinese language driver to triumph at La Sarthe – and the trio achieved the feat from down in thirteenth on the grid, with solely two crews having beforehand gained from additional again.
“What a terrific job from everybody,” Kubica enthused. “It hasn’t been utterly clean, however we deserve the win – we’ve been quick and powerful, and we solely made a number of errors. I wasn’t presupposed to do 5 stints on the finish, however I managed to regulate every little thing and convey the automobile safely house.
“I’m pleased for Ferrari; to win three years in a row with three totally different crews and vehicles is wonderful. Proper now, it’s a mix of tiredness and adrenaline and I’m simply wanting ahead to resting a bit and having fun with it. It’s a really special occasion and it’s emotional, as a result of we didn’t anticipate this.”
Arguably simply as spectacular because the AF Corse trio’s efficiency was that of the #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963, which scythed from twenty first and final on the Hypercar grid after being disqualified from qualifying to take the chequered flag second.
Certainly, throughout the house of solely 23 laps, Kévin Estre had climbed right through to second behind team-mate Julien Andlauer within the sister #5 automobile. The reigning Drivers’ world champion was one of many stars of the present all through as he, Laurens Vanthoor and Matt Campbell doggedly saved the stress on the pace-setting Ferraris en path to comfortably their finest results of the season to-date.
Regardless of a late engine-related concern, the championship-leading #51 Ferrari of Antonio Giovinazzi, James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi rounded out the podium in third – the latter ruing a late-morning error that noticed him spin on the entry to the pit-lane and briefly seaside the scarlet machine within the gravel. The #50 499P piloted by Antonio Fuoco, Nicklas Nielsen and Miguel Molina was in shut firm behind, with the pole-setting #12 Cadillac Hertz Workforce JOTA finishing the highest 5 finishers.
The American producer’s pair of V-Collection.Rs had been unable to breed their stellar qualifying type and had been by no means really within the hunt for a trophy, however native hero Sébastien Buemi was in a position to remove the comfort of a brand new lap document within the Hypercar class. It was a race to overlook, in the meantime, for defending Producers’ world champions Toyota, with sixth place for the #7 GR010 Hybrid the very best it might get for the Japanese marque, which has been 5 occasions an outright winner of the occasion.
MANTHEY MASTERS LMGT3 AGAIN
Manthey maintained its undefeated LMGT3 class document at Le Mans because the German squad secured back-to-back triumphs on the Circuit de la Sarthe, with the #92 crew of Richard Lietz, Riccardo Pera and Ryan Hardwick largely steering away from hassle to pip the #21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari and #81 TF Sport Corvette to glory. For Lietz, the end result marked his sixth profession success within the race.
A number of motorcycling world champion Valentino Rossi led for a very long time in Workforce WRT’s #46 BMW, just for the automobile to be pressured out by {an electrical} difficulty with Kelvin van der Linde on the wheel.
LATE DRAMA AND HEARTBREAK IN LMP2
Inter Europol Competitors seemed to be on-course for victory within the LMP2 class with its #43 ORECA-Gibson prototype, however a late drive-through penalty for pit-lane dashing subsequently handed the benefit to the carefully following VDS Panis Racing automobile.
That seemed to be that, till Esteban Masson all of the sudden slowed within the last 20 minutes, enabling Nick Yelloly to brush again previous and cement Polish outfit Inter Europol Competitors’s second Le Mans win in three years.
Spherical 5 of the 2025 FIA WEC marketing campaign – the Rolex 6 Hours of São Paulo in Brazil – will happen on 11-13 July on the iconic Autódromo José Carlos Tempo (Interlagos).
