Ferrari took dwelling general victory on Sunday at an eventful 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans, making it back-to-back wins for the Italian marque which solely made its return to the highest stage on the French traditional final yr after half a century away.
Ferrari had three 499P LMH automobiles within the premier Hypercar class, with the quantity 50 automobile pushed by Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina, and Nicklas Nielsen the primary to cross the checkered flag after 311 laps. At that time, there have been one other eight automobiles on the lead lap after the complete 24 hours, which was an unmatched stage of competitiveness.
Nielsen was behind the wheel for the ultimate stint and was capable of survive moist circumstances, a difficulty together with his door, and an investigation for an unsafe pit cease launch to edge out the no. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid LMH pushed to second place by Nyck de Vries, Kamui Kobayashi, and Jose Maria Lopez, simply 14 seconds behind the winner.
Rounding out the highest three locations within the race, which served as spherical 4 of the 2024 World Endurance Championship, was the no. 51 Ferrari 499P LMH pushed by final yr’s winners, James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi, and Alessandro Pier Guidi, and ending simply 36 seconds behind its sister automobile.
2024 24 Hours of Le Mans – Photograph by way of Ferrari
First place within the LMP2 class and fifteenth general was the no. 22 Oreca 07 of United Autosports, pushed by Bijoy Garg, Oliver Jarvis, and Nolan Siegel. And first place within the LMGT3 class designed for race automobiles primarily based on manufacturing fashions was the no. 91 Porsche 911 GT3 R of Manthey EMA, pushed by Richard Lietz, Yasser Shahin, and Morris Schuring.
This yr’s Le Mans began with the no. 6 Porsche 963 LMDh on pole and the no. 3 Cadillac V.Sequence.R LMDh becoming a member of it on the entrance of the grid. Behind them had been the no. 50 and no. 51 Ferraris, with the no. 50 automobile already main the race by the top of the primary lap and the no. 51 automobile shifting into second shortly after.
Ferrari’s third 499P, the no. 83 automobile, additionally spent a protracted stint within the lead spot early on however wanted repairs after contact with the no. 15 BMW M Hybrid V8 LMDh, with Robert Kubica within the Ferrari and Dries Vanthoor within the BMW. The affect resulted within the BMW retiring. BMW’s no. 20 automobile was additionally unable to compete with the front-runners, resulting from a number of technical points and a crash with Robin Frijns behind the wheel.
2024 24 Hours of Le Mans – Photograph by way of Ferrari
One other huge crash concerned the no. 27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Coronary heart of Racing, the crew that subsequent yr will area Aston Martin’s new Valkyrie AMR-LMH within the Hypercar class. The automobile, pushed by Daniel Mancinelli, hit a moist patch earlier than sliding right into a barrier at excessive velocity and finally ending up on its roof.
An identical incident involving the no. 4 Porsche 963 LMDh solely an hour prior resulted in Felipe Nasr dropping management resulting from a humid patch in the identical curve and ending up within the boundaries. The crash additionally meant the automobile was retired.
With the 50 factors for the victory, Ferrari is now second within the Producers’ standings, 9 factors behind Porsche. The subsequent race on the calendar is the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo in Brazil in mid-July.
