Ferrari has ended a 58-year-long wait for the 24 Hours of Le Mans victory on the centenary of the French endurance classic. #51 499P of Antonio Giovinazzi, James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi came out on top in an action-packed edition of the race that was round four of this year’s FIA World Endurance Championship season.
Ferrari secured its 10th overall Le Mans victory upon its first appearance in top class since 1973 and first win since 1965.
In the closing stages, the race was on between the chasing #8 Toyota Gazoo GR010 Hybrid driven by Ryo Hirakawa and Giovinazzi who was in the lead. Hirakawa, however, buried his chances following a spin under braking for the Arnage Corner.
Both front and rear ends were damaged resulting in an unscheduled pit stop for new bodywork sections and the Japanese driver re-joined just under a lap down on the leading 499P.
Pier Guidi, who took over the #51 car from Giovinazzi, was able to race to the chequered flag with a winning margin of 1m27.056s.
That came despite a heart-stopping moment at the final pit-stop when the car initially refused to start.
Calado and Pier Guidi add the overall and Hypercar win to their 2019 and 2021 LMGTE Pro wins, while Giovinazzi becomes the first driver since Fernando Alonso in 2018 to win Le Mans at first attempt.
Toyota Gazoo Racing had to settle for second place with the #8 car of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Hirakawa
Ferrari also ended Toyota’s victory streak of five wins which spans from 2018 to 2022.
Cadillac Racing claimed a third and a fourth-place finish as the #2 V Series.R of Alex Lynn, Earl Bamber and Richard Westbrook heads home the #3 car of Renger van der Zande, Sebastien Bourdais and Scott Dixon.
The second Ferrari AF Corse 499P, driven by Nicklas Nielsen, Antonio Fuoco and Miguel Molina rounded out the top five.
Glickenhaus Racing maintained its 100% finishing record at Le Mans as #708 and #709 claimed sixth and seventh positions….
INTER EUROPOL MAKES HISTORY
Final-hour battle between the long-time leading #34 Inter Europol Competition Oreca-Gibson driven by Fabio Scherer and the #41 Team WRT car of Louis Deletraz thrilled the massive Le Mans crowd.
The fight was settled when Scherer is able to hold off Deletraz’s attack despite the gap coming down to just nine seconds in the final moments of the race
Inter Europol Competition, therefore, become the first Polish team to win in WEC and at Le Mans, after achieving its first podium only last time out in Spa-Francorchamps.
Robin Frijns had hunted down the #30 Duqueine Racing entry in the final hour to look as though he would grab a double podium for the Team WRT squad.
However, Duqueine’s Neel Jani ensured that he and teammates Rene Binder and Nicolas Pino took the French team’s best-ever Le Mans result in LMP2.
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