Le Mans Hour 24: #50 Ferrari hangs on to win Le Mans again

Saving every ounce of fuel, the #50 Ferrari AF Corse 499P of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen drove a 50-minute economy run to win the 92nd annual 24 Hours of Le Mans and claim back-to-back wins for Ferrari.

Forced off sequence due to a door latching problem in the penultimate hour, Nielsen pitted the #50 Ferrari with 50 minutes to go but saved enough battery and fuel to take the win, completing 311 laps and winning by 14.2 seconds over the second-placed #7 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 Hybrid of José Maria López, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries.

In treacherous conditions in the final hours of the race, Nielsen was able to forge to the front and gained a gap over the chasing pack which was bunched up after morning safety cars due to poor weather and various incidents.

Toyota Gazoo Racing with the No.7 GR010 Hybrid Hypercar super-sub Jose-Maria Lopez  at the wheel tried to chase down Nielsen in the final exchanges but was unable to do so, meaning he and teammates Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries finished runner-up.

Lopez had a brief spin in his attempts but was still able to split the factory Ferrari 499Ps as the No.51 car of Antonio Giovinazzi, Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado placed third to make it a double podium for the Prancing Horse.

Toyota finishes runner-up to Ferrari for the second time in as many years of the proper Hypercar era, with the #51 Ferrari of 2023 winners Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, and Antonio Giovinazzi holding onto third.

The #6 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963 (Kevin Estre/Andre Lotterer/Laurens Vanthoor) finished fourth, as a record nine cars finished on the overall lead lap behind the #50 Ferrari.

During the penultimate hour, Pier Guidi was in contact with the other Toyota GR010 at Mulsanne Corner, driven by Brendon Hartley, and received a five second penalty for the contact. However, the Italian was also susceptible to a chasing Laurens Vanthoor from Porsche Penske Motorsport in the closing 20 minutes but was able to hold off the flying Belgian who eventually finished fourth.

Those points, however, are enough for Vanthoor and teammates Kevin Estre and Andre Lotterer to keep their WEC Hypercar championship points lead and maintain their 100% podium record in 2024.  Porsche now lead Ferrari by nine points in the overall standings, with Toyota now just three points adrift of Ferrari.

Rounding out the top five in Hypercar at Le Mans was the No.8 Toyota ahead of the No.5 Porsche Penske 963 that finished sixth. The No.2 Cadillac Racing V.Series.R placed seventh as the No.12 Hertz Team JOTA crew clinched eight position after a strong comeback after a full car rebuild following a heavy crash in free practice earlier in the week.

Ninth place went to the sister No.38 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche while securing the final manufacturer point was the No.63 Lamborghini Iron Lynx entry. Hertz Team JOTA also claimed 1-2 in the FIA World Cup for Hypercar Teams’ ahead of the other Porsche customer team Proton Competition.

Peugeot TotalEnergies finished 11^th and 12^th overall with the No. 94 9X8 heading the sister No.93 car.  Isotta Fraschini ended the race 14^th overall, and while unable to rival the class leaders, put in a solid run for the Italian manufacturer on what was the team’s Le Mans debut.

Elsewhere, it was a difficult race for both BMW M Team WRT and Alpine Endurance Team. BMW was not able to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the V12 LMR’s win as the No. 15 M Hybrid V8 was retired following a collision with early race leader, the No. 83 Ferrari 499P Hypercar. Meanwhile, the sister No. 20 car was unable to compete with the front-runners, due to several technical issues.

Home hopes were dashed further on Saturday evening when both Alpine A424s suffered engine failure and retired from the race.

LMP2

#22 United Autosports won the LMP2 class for the first time since 2020 – the Anglo-American team’s second class win in the last five years – led by Oliver Jarvis and American rookies Nolan Siegel and Bijoy Garg.

No.22 United Autosports trio of Oliver Jarvis, Nolan Siegel and Bijoy Garg enjoyed strong run to LMP2 victory. It registers United Autosports second LMP2 category win after its first triumph in 2020

Inter Europol Competition Oreca-Gibson in hands of Clement Novalak, Vlad Lomko and Kuba Smiechowski take the runners-up position a year on from the Polish team winning LMP2.

Novalak applies late race pressure on Jarvis but the experienced British driver is able to resist to bring home the victory.

Third in LMP2 was the IDEC Sport Oreca-Gibson entry of Job van Uitert, Paul Lafargue and Reshad de Gerus.

The top six is completed by: 4th AF Corse; 5^th Vector Sport; 6th AO by TF Sport.

Ben Barnicoat, Francois Perrodo and Nicolas Varrone sealed the LMP2 Pro/Am victory.

LMGT3

#91 Porsche 911 LMGT3 R Manthey Racing and EMA Motorsport were LMGT3 class winners driven by Yasser Shahin, Morris Schuring, and multi-Le Mans winner Richard Lietz after the #92 Manthey Pure Racing Porsche fell to the wayside with a gear selection issue.

Lietz, the most experienced driver among the 186 drivers present at Le Mans with 18 previous starts, crossed the finish line ahead of the No.31 Team WRT BMW of Darren Leung, Augusto Farfus and Sean Gelael.

Completing the podium at Le Mans is the No.88 Proton Competition Ford Mustang LMGT3 entry driven by Dennis Olsen, Giorgio Roda and Mikkel Pedersen. They take the first ever podium position for a Mustang at La Sarthe.

Rounding out the top six in LMGT3 is the fourth-placed No.44 Proton Ford Mustang; fifth was the No.85 Iron Dames Lamborghini and sixth was the No.55 Vista AF Corse Ferrari.

2024 24 Hours of Le Mans Final Results