Le Mans Finish: Ferrari triumphs over Toyota

–by Mark Cipolloni–

In a race impacted by rain multiple times, Alessandro Pier Guidi brought the #51 Ferrari 499P Hypercar home first to win the 100th running of the 24 Hours of LeMans over the #8 Toyota Hypercar. Pier Guidi shared the #51 Ferrari with James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi.

The Italians were ecstatic – winning Le Mans on their first try in the Hypercar class after a late scare when the Ferrari’s electronics had to again be rebooted during a long final stop.

Ferrari scored its first outright Le Mans 24 Hours victory in 58 years. The winning car completed 342 laps in 24 hours and won by 81.793 seconds.

It was not all plain-sailing for Ferrari, however, as a close battle played out between the No. 8 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 Hybrid Hypercar until Ryo Hirakawa spun when braking at Arnage, causing front and rear car damage. A pitstop to fit new bodywork saw the Japanese driver rejoin the race but a lap behind the Ferrari.

There was even more drama when Pier Guidi was unable to restart the No. 51 Hypercar after a routine pit stop and lost crucial seconds in the pits. The team breathed a sigh of relief as Pier Guidi restarted the engine after about 30 seconds and eventually crossed the checkered flag 1m27s ahead of Hirakawa, Brendon Hartley and Sebastien Buemi who claimed the runners-up spot

Calado and Pier Guidi add the overall and Hypercar triumph to their 2019 and 2021 LMGTE Pro wins, while Giovinazzi becomes the first driver since Fernando Alonso in 2018 to win Le Mans on his first attempt.

The #2 and #3 Ganassi Cadillacs finished 3rd and 4th while the #50 Ferrari moved up to 5th overall, 5 laps behind after being hit from behind earlier in the race.

The third-placed #2 Cadillac enjoyed a largely clean run, except for a spin by Westbrook in the nighttime hours

Meanwhile, Glickenhaus Racing maintained their 100% finishing record at Le Mans with the No.708 and No.709 Glickenhaus 007 Hypercars claiming sixth and seventh position. Both cars went off at Indianapolis at different stages of the race and subsequently spent time in the pits for repairs.

The highest Peugeot TotalEnergies 9X8 finisher was the No.93 car of Paul di Resta, Jean-Eric Vergne and Mikkel Jensen in eighth place.  The French manufacturer was leading Le Mans earlier in the race with the sister No. 94 car but dropped out of podium contention when Gustavo Menezes crashed in the middle of the night at first Mulsanne chicane. Both cars  spent time in the garage with reported hydraulic issues and the No. 94 car classified 12^th.

Porsche Penske Motorsport had a difficult race, the squad leading the race at one point but going on to suffer from a series of misfortunes including a retirement for the No. 75 Porsche 963 with a fuel pressure problem.  The WEC entered No. 6 Porsche 963 crashed at Porsche Curves with Kevin Estre at the wheel and then suffered further time loss due to a battery problem. The sister No. 5 car was in contention for a top five place until a broken driveshaft in the race’s closing hour dropped the car to ninth.

The final classified finisher in Hypercar was the Hertz Team JOTA Porsche 963 which took a distant 13th after spending most of final hours in the pits.

The No. 7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Hypercar retired early on as Kamui Kobayashi was involved in an accident with two LMP2 cars and a LMGTE Am car on the approach to Tertre Rouge. Elsewhere, the No. 4 Floyd Vanwall Racing Team retired after completing 165 laps. Tristan Vautier was at the wheel when the Vanwall Vandervell stopped on track with smoke visible from the rear.

LMP2: 10th and 11th overall, the #34 Polish Interpol Europol Competition team beat the #41 Team WRT Oreca of  Rui Andrade/Louis Deletraz/Robert Kubica. The winning car was shared by Jakub Smiechowski, Albert Costa and Fabio Scherer. Both Costa and Scherer came under intense pressure in the final few hours from the No.41 Team WRT Oreca-Gibson as first Robert Kubica and then Louis Deletraz chipped away at the gap to the yellow and green car.

Deletraz indeed came to within eight seconds in the final hour before Scherer dug deep and was able to repel the attack.

Swiss ace Scherer even fought off the pain of a bizarre injury he sustained when the No.33 Corvette Racing car inadvertently ran over his left foot during a round of pitstops in the first hour.

GTE-Am: Corvette Racing’s Nicky Catsburg, Nico Varrone and Ben Keating recovered from a two-lap deficit to win the final 24 Hours of Le Mans race for the outgoing GTE-Am class. Catsburg Corvette home first by 1/2 lap over the #25 Aston Martin  (Ahmad Al-Harthy/Michael Dinan/Charlie Eastwood) after losing 2 laps earlier due to a failed right front damper. More than half of the 21 cars that took part in GTE-Am retired from the race. It was the 9th Le Mans win for the Factory Corvette Team

Garage 56: Jimmie Johnson brought the NASCAR Camaro home 39th, a disappointment after running so strong earlier. The Hendrick Motorsports machine driven by Jenson Button, Mike Rockenfeller and Jimmie Johnson got close to 25th position on Sunday morning but it lost substantial ground due to a brake change at around 11 a.m. and a transmission issue.

Race Results