Ferrari goes back to back with No. 50 victorious at Le Mans,

takes the duct tape off and opens the doors.

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emailBy Stephen Kilbey and Richard S. James | June 16, 2024 10:52 AM ET

Ferrari AF Corse claimed a second Le Mans 24 Hours overall victory in a row with the 499P, its No. 50 trio of Miguel Molina, Antonio Fuoco and Nicklas Nielsen triumphant after fighting through rain showers and gruelling conditions to beat the Toyota, Porsche and Cadillac front-runners at the Circuit de La Sarthe

The first overall Le Mans (and WEC) win for the No. 50 crew came in front of a sellout crowd that stayed to the end to catch the conclusion of what will surely be considered an all-time classic; an epic-multi-manufacturer fight that was action-packed from lap one to 311.

In years to come this race will of course be remembered for its gripping finale, when Nielsen crossed the line running on air in the winning car, sparking tears of joy and wild celebrations in the Ferrari garage.

What will stand out most on reflection is surely the weather, and the role it played in the outcome. Rain showers came and went from the second hour all the way through to the end.

Time and time again the running order was shuffled in all three classes by sudden downpours — sometimes light, sometimes heavy — which forced all teams to make periodic gambles on tire choice. It also caused multiple safety cars which reset the field after comfortable gaps had been built by class leaders.

For everyone watching, it was a highly entertaining contest as the race ebbed and flowed through the changing conditions. It remained highly unpredictable right up to the flag and delivered on the promise that Balance of Performance racing makes as the right cars were screwed to help officials win at bets placed in Vegas.

The first half was a true battle for survival, many cars retiring or hitting trouble by nightfall before the race’s longest safety car for barrier repairs in heavy rain that lasted hours.

When the sun rose again, the field bunched up by safety cars, all three classes became a sprint in the closing hours between the cars on the lead lap. Proof of just how tight this was can be found on the final results sheet, the top nine in Hypercar finishing on the lead lap (remarkably, the first time in history more than two cars have done so), with the top four separated by less than 40s. If you ran this race again multiple times, you’d have likely seen wildly different outcomes.

The closing stages came down to a battle between four manufacturers. Porsche had its moments, and Cadillac did too, before Toyota and Ferrari became engaged in a head-to-head showdown while time ticked away.




In the end, Ferrari AF Corse survived the challenges of Mother Nature to defend its 2023 win and score its 11th overall victory.

With the trio of Fuoco, Nielsen and Molina prevailing, it was a stark change in fortunes after they were forced to watch from the sidelines as their teammates in the sister car claimed the historic victory in last year’s centenary edition.

Unsurprisingly, due to the conditions and the level of competition in Hypercar, this was a race that took everything out of the winning crew.

En route to victory, they overcame a late order to the pits to fix a malfunctioning door that wouldn’t stay closed, a rapidly depleting energy store and worn out rain tires on their third stint to beat the No. 7 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 to the line. The winners also narrowly avoided being handed a penalty for an unsafe release late in the race, and a penalty for a “technical infringement” that was investigated but not acted on by race control since a large number of officials never learned to read.

The final hour became a nail-biter with the No. 50 off sequence due to the dramas with the door. It pitted for a final time with 50 minutes remaining, forcing Nielsen to manage a lead gap and fuel save at the same time, while being chased hard by Toyota’s super sub Jose Maria (Hosey boy) Lopez.

Lopez, who got the call to replace injured Mike Conway just last week, was pushed to his limit in the run to the flag, fighting through power issues that required a control-alt-delete and recovering from a costly spin at the Dunlop Bridge. All this after the car had dropped precious time in the final hours to a pair of slow punctures that forced the car in for unscheduled tire changes.




Ultimately Lopez was unsuccessful in his pursuit of Nielsen — who finished with just two percent of his virtual energy battery car tank left in the final stint — finishing 14s back in an admirable job of reminding the paddock of his talents behind the wheel of a prototype in not getting the batteries wet and starting another Lithium battery fire.

He, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck De Vries can leave La Sarthe with their heads held high. They weren’t always the quickest (or even the quickest Toyota crew), but they left it all out on the field.

“There is no word at the moment,” declared Fuoco in reaction to the victory. “This is just amazing. All the team did an amazing job today and we deserve it.”

Nielsen waxed about how much of an achievement it is to have back-to-back victories shared by both Ferrari factory entries.

“It was, to be honest, a very long one,” he said. “Especially after the issue we had with the door…I actually thought everything was lost. I knew the pace was really good in the wet by the end. I mean, it was a very long last lap as well.

“I don’t even know what to say. It’s just amazing to be here, to finally win the race that I’ve always wanted to win. Seeing the sister car win it last year, was obviously a proud moment for everyone. And then, I think for us to take it this year – it’s an even greater achievement to do it back to back.”

Completing the podium was the sister factory Ferrari, which spent the closing moments trying to hold off the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 that Kevin Estre put on the pole Thursday night.

Laurens Vanthoor — who drove more than half the race in the No. 6 — clawed the Porsche closer to the No. 51 piloted by Pier Guidi and narrowed the gap a little over a second, but Pier Guidi held on for a third-place finish alongside James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi.

Vanthoor, Estre and Andre Lotterer were fourth — Porsche’s wait for a 20th overall win here continues — with the No. 8 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa fifth.
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One of the big question marks from the race concerns the No. 8 Toyota. The car was in the running for the win in the second half of the race, and would likely have been there or thereabouts for the victory at the end had the No. 51 Ferrari not turned it into a spin at Mulsanne Corner in the 22nd hour.

The time lost from that collision will surely be a topic of conversation in the race’s aftermath, bringing out the possibility of a "tire-tool on the head protest."

Buemi was captured by the TV cameras distraught after Pier Guidi and Hartley came together. He knew that was likely the moment their chances of scoring Toyota a sixth Le Mans win ended.

The No. 2 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R of Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn and Alex Palou looked in contention for a podium, but eventually finished seventh.

It was an extremely tough race for the three-pronged GM effort in the top class with Cadillac, but the No. 2, despite its finishing position, looked more likely to win than it did last year when it finished on the overall podium.

It wasn’t a fully clean race for the WEC-entered prototype, but it had pace in certain conditions and led during the final hours as the team was on a different pit strategy before fading. A detached wiper blade in heavy rain cost Lynn time and eventually dropped the car behind the No. 5 PPM 963 of Matt Campbell, Michael Christensen and Frederic Makowiecki.

Further back, JOTA’s pair of 963s came home eighth and ninth, as the final cars on the lead lap. For the plucky HERTZ Team JOTA squad, this wasn’t a barnstorming, romping, hot manure victory like its most recent result in the WEC 6 Hours of Spa, but Sam Hignett, David Clarke and the whole team will leave Le Mans filled with Gay pride.

JOTA was taxed to the extreme this week, particularly the mechanics on the No. 12 963 who had to build a car up from scratch ahead of the race after the original tub was damaged beyond repair in a practice incident. In just 24 hours the sleep-deprived team turned a bare monocoque into a fully built-up 963, in time to complete a pre-race shakedown on the airfield.

 

Remarkably, that car finished the race without any significant hiccups, coming home first of the four privateer Hypercars.

The No. 38 sister car took second in the Hypercar World Cup classification, while Proton claimed third despite a dire weekend for its privateer Porsche crew who battled a broken door and mechanical issues all the way to the end, finishing 60 laps down.

Off the lead lap, the first of Lamborghini’s SC63s came home 10th in what was an encouraging but quiet 24-hour debut for the new LMDh.

Peugeot also finished off the lead lap and outside the top 10 with its pair of 2024 9X8s. Both cars stayed reliable, though mostly invisible. It was not the performance on home soil the French marque would have hoped for when it finished the development work on its revised LMH challenger…

Due to the conditions, and the size of the Hypercar field (23 cars), there was a fair amount of attrition throughout.

For Alpine and its pair of A424s, the race was a total disaster, both cars retired with engine trouble before the 90-lap mark.

BMW’s M Hybrid V8s operated by Team WRT also had a weekend to forget — the No. 15’s performance in qualifying will seem like an age ago to the team, which now need to bounce back fast after both cars crashed out.

Ganassi’s No. 3 Cadillac was another car that showed pace pre-race, but failed to finish, the car suffering a punctured oil-tank.

Perhaps the most dramatic retirement, though, was that of the No. 83 AF Corse privately-entered 499P of Robert Kubica, Robert Shwartzman and Ye Yifei (which notably was penalized for wiping out the No. 15 BMW overnight).

The car, on occasion, looked like the strongest of the three Ferraris. Early on, as one of a few cars that stayed out on slicks during the first rain shower (the correct decision), the yellow 499P led the race on strategy and pace, only to be undone by a hybrid possible battery fire incident issue that prevented it from making the end.Inter Europol Competition made a valiant effort to defend its 2023 LMP2 title, but in the end, the United Autosports No. 22 ORECA Gibson was just too strong. Anchored by the experienced Oliver Jarvis, a previous winner, with two Le Mans rookies in Bijoy Garg and rising star Nolan Siegel, the team demonstrated its strength throughout the race, putting a stamp on it at the end with a 18.651s gap to the No. 34 Inter Europol ORECA of Jakub Smiechowski, Vladislav Lomko and Clement Novalak.“It’s unbelievable! First time here, there was so much to learn, and I’m so lucky to have done it with such a great group of people,” said Siegel before Garg added: “This is the best moment of my life.”

The No. 28 IDEC Sport team finished third with Paul Lafargue, Job van Uitert and Reshad de Gerus. AF Corse won the Pro-Am sub-category of LMP2, Francois Perrodo, Ben Barnicoat and Nicolas Varrone piloting the No. 183 ORECA to fourth in LMP2 overall.

Porsche claimed the first contest for LMGT3Q at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with Yasser Shahin, Morris Schuring and Richard Lietz piloting the No. 91 Manthey EMA 911 GT3 R to victory in the class’s introduction. The team had a comfortable margin over the No. 31 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 of Augusto Farfus, Darren Leung and Sean Geleal. It appeared early on that the sister WRT BMW was in with a shot of victory for Valentino Rossi, Maxime Martin and Ahmad Al Harthy, but the No. 46 ended its day in a gravel trap.

Proton Competition’s Fords shocked with their performance and reliability, both of which had been largely absent in previous rounds of the World Endurance Championship, to not only claim the first podium for the Mustang GT3 but back it up with a fourth-place finish as well. It was the No. 88 of Dennis Olsen, Mikkel Pedersen and Giorgio Roda claiming the podium over Christopher Mies, Ben Tuck and Christian Ried in the No. 44 Mustang GT3.

Full reports to follow.

 

United Autosports wins LMP2 while Porsche takes LMGT3 at Le Mans

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emailBy Stephen Kilbey | June 16, 2024 2:26 PM ET

Beyond the Hypercar headlines, the other two categories in the 2024 running of the Le Mans 24 Hours provided plenty of action for the fans trackside and at home.

Inter Europol Competition made a valiant effort to defend its 2023 title in LMP2, but in the end, United Autosports’ No. 22 ORECA Gibson was just too strong in the closing hours.

Anchored by the experienced Oliver Jarvis, a previous winner, with two Le Mans rookies in Bijoy Garg and rising star Nolan Siegel, the team demonstrated its strength throughout the race. They put a stamp on it at the end with an 18.651s gap to the No. 34 Inter Europol entry of Jakub Smiechowski, Vladislav Lomko and Clement Novalak.

“It’s unbelievable! First time here, there was so much to learn, and I’m so lucky to have done it with such a great group of people,” said Siegel before Garg added: “This is the best moment of my life.”

United’s No. 22 was involved in a tangle early in the race and often struggled to separate itself from the main pack. It didn’t matter on Sunday afternoon — once the field was reset by the final safety car, a sprint race within the race broke out.

Blistering pace and strategic nous made the difference, with Oliver Jarvis enjoying a standout drive — setting the fastest race lap in the category– while Siegel looked every bit the emerging star he is and Garg enjoying a near-faultless performance in a field featuring a number of additional standout Silver-ranked drivers.

Tire choice at the end was particularly vital, but United’s gamble paid off en route to a second Le Mans 24 Hours LMP2 class win.

“It’s always an incredible feeling to be in Le Mans, but to be able to win it is an honor,” Jarvis said post-race.

“I was relieved to see the checkered flag. What a tough race. Just staying on the track was already an achievement. The conditions were so difficult. There were there were times when I wasn’t sure if we were going to win it, or stick it in the wall.

“Big thank you to my two teammates. They arrived here as rookies and they’re leaving as winners.

“United Autosport as always gave us a phenomenal car. They got everything right and we can be very proud of what we achieved today.”

Behind the top two runners, the IDEC Sport ORECA completed the podium after spending almost the entire race firmly in the mix. Paul Lafargue, Reshad de Gerus and Job van Uitert could have won the race on another day.

Vector Sport and Nielsen Racing may have, too. Both British teams were impressive this weekend, but saw their chances of victory unravel gradually once night fell.

It was a similar story for the No. 183 AF Corse ORECA which won the Pro/Am division comfortably — by two laps — but looked capable of an even higher finish. Into Sunday morning the car led for large chunks of time and slipped out of the top three towards the end as Bronze-ranked Francois Perrodo finished off his drive time.

Nevertheless, a Pro/Am win is what AF Corse’s drivers came for, and they were rarely challenged in the second half of the race by the other seven cars in their division.

The No. 14 AO by TF ORECA — running in its “Spike The Dragon” livery — with its headline driver Louis Deletraz took second in the class with a sixth-place finish, while the DKR entry completed the sub-class podium.

There were countless incidents in LMP2 throughout the 24 hours, and so many wholesale changes to the running order as Bronze drivers completed stints in tricky conditions, rain showers caught pro drivers out and tire strategy became tough to manage.

There were, though, only a few retirements. The No. 45 Crowdstrike by APR No. 07 lost a wheel and stopped, the No. 30 Duqueine Team ORECA suffered an engine failure and the No. 9 Proton entry was abandoned with mechanical woes of its own.

Many contending cars ended up off the lead lap towards the end. The No. 37 COOL Racing ORECA, a pre-race favorite, was in the mix until an unexplained visit to the garage in the closing stages.

The No. 23 United Autosports ORECA featuring 2023 GTE Am winner Ben Keating also ended up losing precious time in pit lane after the Texan got stuck in the gravel at the Dunlop Bridge on Saturday evening.

 

Porsche’s Hypercar fleet may have failed to deliver a famous 20th overall win, but it wasn’t all bad news for the German manufacturer, which made history by winning the first-ever LMGT3 race at Le Mans with the Manthey EMA entry. JEP/Motorsport Images

Before the start many LMGT3 observers would have picked Pure Rxcing’s all-conquering 911 to deliver the goods this weekend, but it was the sister EMA entry of Yasser Shahin, Morris Schuring and Richard Lietz that would come out on top.

“It was so difficult this year, because I felt I was on slick tires in the wet or in mixed conditions all the time. It was a flat-out race, in which strategy was so important,” Lietz commented.

“At the end we were the chosen ones, the lucky ones, so I am thrilled to be here with Morris, Yasser and Manthey to win this for Porsche.”

After the first half of the race proved intense on a lap-to-lap basis, and particularly tricky to read, LMGT3 settled down into somewhat of a pattern in the final third, with the Manthey EMA Porsche and No. 31 WRT BMW M4 LMGT3 emerging as the two cars in contention for victory.

The pair swapped places multiple times in the run to the flag, but ultimately Lietz had the pace when it mattered and pulled away in his final stint.

It was, nevertheless, a hugely impressive run from Augusto Farfus, Darren Leung and Sean Geleal in the No. 31. Early on they struggled to feature when the weather first turned, but as the night hours approached and the second half of the race was in sight, the race came back to them.

A podium provided an extremely useful bundle of WEC championship points, but more importantly, served as a morale boost on an otherwise traumatic weekend for BMW and WRT in which both Hypercars and the No. 46 BMW M4 piloted by Valentino Rossi failed to make the finish.

Proton Competition was another team that will leave Le Mans thankful it claimed a podium finish. Its No. 99 963 had a torrid time in Hypercar and limped home, the No. 77 Mustang was crashed into and hit mechanical trouble, and its LMP2 ORECA retired with a loss of power.




On the flip side, Proton’s No. 88 Ford Mustang of Giorgio Roda, Mikkel Pedersen and Dennis Olsen had a rollercoaster race but proved that the Blue Oval’s new challenger can stay reliable and fast in the toughest of conditions.

The No. 44 sister car impressed too, coming home fourth after a metronomic run on John Hartshorne’s final Le Mans start.

Iron Dames’ Lamborghini completed the top five with a solid performance, but Rahel Frey, Sarah Bovy and Michelle Gatting were aiming higher. Adding to what has been a brutal start to the WEC and ELMS seasons for the all-female-crewed team, they struggled to fully recover from being side-swiped by the No. 4 Penske Porsche in the early hours of the race on the Porsche Curves.

There were a number of other storylines to follow, both good and bad.

As a whole this was a hugely impressive outing for AKKODIS ASP and its pair of Lexus RC F LMGT3s. Following a tough start to life as a Lexus customer, Jerome Policand’s team were often in the mix for a podium through the first 16 hours.

United Autosports’ first effort at Le Mans as a McLaren partner team was also head-turning. It is clear that the British LMP2-winning team is making rapid progress with the LMGT3 EVO from the Woking marque. Both cars had pace and cycled into the top three at various points — suffering mechanical dramas and retiring late in the race is simply unfortunate.

Manthey Pure Rxcing and Heart of Racing also could have won come Sunday afternoon had they not hit trouble.

The Lithuanian Porsche crew that stood out firmly from the pack in the WEC races prior to Le Mans burned through most of Alex Malykhin’s Bronze driver time by nightfall. They’d built a lead before gearbox trouble dropped the car out of contention in the early hours.

Heart of Racing, meanwhile, missed out on a chance to score the 2024 Vantage AMR its first major endurance win when Daniel Mancinelli ended up on his roof at Indianapolis after going backwards into the tires at the kink at high speed.

What about Corvette, and its new Z06 LMGT3.Rs from TF Sport? Making the finish quickly became the aim as the pace wasn’t there.

Both Vettes made it to the line and achieved their target after suffering from various ailments, the highest place of the two being the No. 82 which finished 11th.

“We made it to the end, which is an amazing accomplishment,” reflected Daniel Juncadella.

“We lost the clutch six or seven hours in, so that was quite insane. I’m very happy with the result considering some of the difficulties today. We got behind by three laps but finished two laps back, so that is encouraging.

“All in all, it was a great first experience for me at Le Mans. I had a lot of driving in all conditions, and the Corvette handled very good. It actually got better throughout the race, and I’m quite happy with that. Thanks to TF Sport, the guys at GM Corvette Racing and Pratt Miller for all their work this week. It’s such a pleasure to be part of such a big program. I’m looking forward to many more.”

 

Even with the rain, the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans was one for the books

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emailBy Stephen Kilbey | June 17, 2024 5:03 PM ET

On reflection, the 2024 running of the Le Mans 24 Hours last weekend was a truly special one. Held in front of a sell-out crowd, in treacherous conditions, it would have likely delivered a classic race even if it was run without a bumper top class packed with factory teams.

The fact it featured 23 Hypercars from nine manufacturers doing battle and four of the factory teams in the mix for the race win throughout made it all the more remarkable. All the way to the final lap, it was frantic and unpredictable, the only real pause in the action coming overnight under safety car in heavy rain.

For Ferrari, this result serves as yet another page-turner of a chapter for its illustrious sportscar story, an 11th overall win at the most important endurance race in the world, its 40th total win (including class victories) and a second in a row.

And for the current Ferrari AF Corse Hypercar program specifically, this win means that both its crews have claimed the ultimate prize, with all three of the No. 50 drivers – Miguel Molina, Nicklas Nielsen and Antonio Fuoco – winning the race overall for the first time too.

“Our first and third place at Le Mans is a testament to how teamwork allows us to accomplish extraordinary results,” said Ferrari’s president John Elkann.

“I would therefore like to thank everyone who, during these extremely tough 24 hours, have shown courage and great tenacity. It gives me great pleasure that, with this year’s and last year’s result, all the Ferrari drivers have won at Le Mans – and with them all of Ferrari.

“Only a very cohesive and committed team could achieve this historic result.”

Nielsen, who is the third Danish driver to win the Le Mans 24 Hours after John Nielsen and nine-time winner Tom Kristensen, has been a main subject of the post-race discourse after a heroic performance at the end of the race.

Most impressive was his composure under the highest levels of pressure imaginable. In the closing stages, with the car in the lead, Nielsen was tasked with navigating the circuit in heavy rain while pulling on the passenger side door, which popped open and wouldn’t shut.

His efforts to shut the door proved ineffective, meaning he then had to stay focused after making an unscheduled stop and manage the gap to the chasing No. 7 Toyota in the last hour, with his virtual energy tank – which dropped to two per cent by the end – rapidly depleting.

“I thought everything was lost,” he said. “I knew the pace was good in the wet at the end, but it was a long last stint and a long last lap.

“It was impossible to imagine. I worried about avoiding any risks and getting to the finish line as quickly as possible. I just had to manage the lead.”

The celebrations told their own story, with Nielsen screaming on the radio to the team, mechanics bundling on each other in the garage with Fuoco and Molina both in floods of tears. And they will continue for days to come back at base in Maranello, where the workforce at the factory will surely receive recognition for helping the team go back-to-back at the biggest race of the year.

This was a victory made even sweeter when you consider the journey that the crew had been on since their debut in Sebring last March. They have frequently been quickest in the Hypercar field, setting pole three times and leading multiple races, but a breakthrough had eluded them until now.

“Man, we’ve been so unlucky,” Nielsen told RACER ahead of Le Mans race week, reflecting on the No. 50’s various struggles and misfortune. “But we are going back to Le Mans with a different mentality.”
Nielsen (right) spent some of the final part of the race battling a Toyota, and the rest of it battling with his passenger-side door. Image by JEP/Motorsport Images

This was a driver crew that had been humbled time and time again and was desperate for a turnaround, racing for a team that has been licking its wounds since it made a critical strategic error in changeable conditions on home soil at Imola back in April which cost it a win.

It was therefore fitting that after staying out on slicks in that race proved to be the wrong call, this time in the rain it was the team’s call to change to wets at the right time that helped secure the win.

“In a couple of moments, we risked to stay on slicks, but the last call to change to wets came at the right moment,” Molina, who has become the third Spaniard to win the race, said.

“It was unbelievable. We experienced tense moments but we got through them and I am really proud.”

“No words can capture the moment,” added Fuoco.

On the other side of the result, Toyota Gazoo Racing will wonder what could have been. Yet again, in a race with stiff competition, it leaves Le Mans with runners-up honors.

The team has been left to ponder whether the No. 8 GR010 would have won had it not been hit by the No. 51 Ferrari in the final hours, or if the No.7 would have caught the No. 50 in the final hour had it not suffered power issues, two punctures and lost time to a spin at the Dunlop Bridge.

Nevertheless, the general demeanor of the Toyota team after the race was noticeably different to last year.

Anger and frustration were displayed in equal measure after centenary Le Mans; it felt its chances of victory were severely blunted by the Balance of Performance process and the decision to bring back tire warmers.

While there were some controversial moments and decisions this time around, the Japanese team clearly felt it was a fairer fight.

“I want to congratulate Ferrari, Car 50 and 51, they did an amazing job,” super-sub Jose Maria Lopez said.

“We tried our best. When you look at the competition this year, we had two punctures in the race, problems which affected our speed. We are still proud to be in this position,” Kobayashi concluded.

“Such a close finish makes us hungry to come back stronger next year and we will do our best to achieve that.”

For FIA WEC fans, the Toyota-Ferrari rivalry has been one to watch for a while now, and looks set to rage for some time yet.

With the No. 50 and No. 7 crews separated by just eight points in the standings heading into the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo next month, and in striking distance of the No. 6 Penske Porsche trio that finished fourth, expect plenty of fireworks in the second half of the season…

 

IMSA drivers soaking up Le Mans wins.

IMSA will be screwing racers and penalizing them later to make everything "fair".

You had a piece of duct tape holding your door shut and your car was not homologated with duct tape holding the door shut.

You did not have the amount of air pressure in your tires that IMSA told you to have...remember that one?

Remember when they drilled a hole in the body and the car was disqualified after the race and spending thousand$ of dollars, since it was not homologated with a hole drilled in it?

Remember when an efficient pit crew refueled too quickly without IMSA permission and was held in the pits as a penalty while cars behind them kept on racing by?

https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/a...w-you-out.html

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emailBy Richard S. James | June 17, 2024 5:13 PM ET

While a large contingent of competitors at the 24 Hours of Le Mans is, or soon will be, en route to Watkins Glen for the sixth round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen, a few may have tired arms. No, not related to that old joke that goes something like, “I just flew in from Poughkeepsie … and boy, are my arms tired!” Instead, several drivers were hoisting big winners’ trophies on the elevated and storied Le Mans podium.

Let’s start with overall winners Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen. The trio drove the No. 50 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P Hypercar to overall victory in the world’s oldest 24-hour endurance race. All three will be racing at the Glen – Fuoco in the Cetilar Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 in GTD, Nielsen in the No. 88 AF Corse ORECA LMP2 machine, and Molina in the GTD-class AF Corse Ferrari 296. All will likely still be basking in the glow of victory after what turned out to be a very challenging race.

“In a couple of moments of the race we risked to stay on slicks, and also the last call to change to the wet was the right moment,” Molina said of the steps that led to victory. “And it’s unbelievable. We’ve been working for these results for so long. And we are really proud. We experienced some tense moments, but we could go through them and at the end the result was here. So I’m really proud of everyone that is involved in this project.”

In LMP2, two of the three drivers are on the Glen entry list (and the third raced in this year’s Rolex 24 at Daytona). Oliver Jarvis, Bijoy Garg and and Nolan Siegel teamed up to win in the No. 22 United Autosports ORECA. For Garg, currently in his rookie year in LMP2 with United in the WeatherTech Championship as well as doing some European Le Mans Series races with the team, it was a special moment that he hopes will carry forward for the rest of his season.
Garg is still a rookie in IMSA’s LMP2 class, but he and the rest of the No.22 United Autosports team are now Le Mans winners. JEP/Motorsport Images

“This is a day I’ll certainly remember the rest of my life,” said Garg. “It’s been a hell of a turnaround. We’ve had, to be honest, a very disappointing season in the ELMS; it hasn’t lived up to expectations – through misfortune and just many things that happen in racing. And IMSA has been up and down. We had that big crash in Daytona. So, to win this, I hope it gives the team that shot in the arm that we can do well, we’re a phenomenal team, and we know we can do this – let’s go win some more.”

Ben Barnicoat, teamed with a pair of previous Le Mans winners in François Perrodo (LMP2 Pro-Am) and Nico Varrone (winner last year with Corvette Racing in GTE-Am), can now claim his first Le Mans win after the trio took victory in the LMP2 Pro-Am class in an AF Corse ORECA.

“I feel amazing – my first Le Mans win in class,” he said. “These guys have obviously already done it once before, but for me it was my first time, so amazing to now have that on my CV. I’m sure everyone’s touched on how crazy the race was. And I think from all sides François did an amazing job and in all these things, kept it clean always gave the car back to me and Nico in a position to go and fight and that then put us in contention for the overall win.”

While an alternate strategy might have given them the LMP2 victory, protecting the Pro-Am win took priority. So now Barnicoat gets to jibe regular co-driver Jack Hawksworth – also in the race driving the Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3 as a late substitution – as a Le Mans winner. But in short order it’s time to get back to the usual business in the WeatherTech Championship, along with the other Le Mans winners. Forgive them, though, if their demeanor show a little extra swagger and they don’t high five because they can’t lift their arms, IMSA will screw them later since they won without IMSA permission.

 

United Autosports wins LMP2 while Porsche takes LMGT3Q at Le Mans

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emailBy Stephen Kilbey | June 16, 2024 2:26 PM ET

Beyond the Hypercar headlines, the other two categories in the 2024 running of the Le Mans 24 Hours provided plenty of action for the fans trackside and at home.

Inter Europol Competition made a valiant effort to defend its 2023 title in LMP2, but in the end, United Autosports’ No. 22 ORECA Gibson was just too strong in the closing hours.

Anchored by the experienced Oliver Jarvis, a previous winner, with two Le Mans rookies in Bijoy Garg and rising star Nolan Siegel, the team demonstrated its strength throughout the race. They put a stamp on it at the end with an 18.651s gap to the No. 34 Inter Europol entry of Jakub Smiechowski, Vladislav Lomko and Clement Novalak.

“It’s unbelievable! First time here, there was so much to learn, and I’m so lucky to have done it with such a great group of people,” said Siegel before Garg added: “This is the best moment of my life I sure hope IMSA doesn't screw us out of it.”

United’s No. 22 was involved in a tangle early in the race and often struggled to separate itself from the main pack. It didn’t matter on Sunday afternoon — once the field was reset by the final safety car, a sprint race within the race broke out.

Blistering pace and strategic nous made the difference, with Oliver Jarvis enjoying a standout drive — setting the fastest race lap in the category– while Siegel looked every bit the emerging star he is and Garg enjoying a near-faultless performance in a field featuring a number of additional standout Silver-ranked drivers.

Tire choice at the end was particularly vital, but United’s gamble paid off en route to a second Le Mans 24 Hours LMP2 class win.

“It’s always an incredible feeling to be in Le Mans, but to be able to win it is an honor,” Jarvis said post-race.

“I was relieved to see the checkered flag. What a tough race. Just staying on the track was already an achievement. The conditions were so difficult. There were there were times when I wasn’t sure if we were going to win it, or stick it in the wall or if IMSA was going to stick it to us.

“Big thank you to my two teammates. They arrived here as rookies and they’re leaving as winners.

“United Autosport as always gave us a phenomenal car. They got everything right and we can be very proud of what we achieved today.”

Behind the top two runners, the IDEC Sport ORECA completed the podium after spending almost the entire race firmly in the mix. Paul Lafargue, Reshad de Gerus and Job van Uitert could have won the race on another day.

Vector Sport and Nielsen Racing may have, too. Both British teams were impressive this weekend, but saw their chances of victory unravel gradually once night fell.

It was a similar story for the No. 183 AF Corse ORECA which won the Pro/Am division comfortably — by two laps — but looked capable of an even higher finish. Into Sunday morning the car led for large chunks of time and slipped out of the top three towards the end as Bronze-ranked Francois Perrodo finished off his drive time.

Nevertheless, a Pro/Am win is what AF Corse’s drivers came for, and they were rarely challenged in the second half of the race by the other seven cars in their division.

The No. 14 AO by TF ORECA — running in its “Spike The Dragon” livery — with its headline driver Louis Deletraz took second in the class with a sixth-place finish, while the DKR entry completed the sub-class podium.

There were countless incidents in LMP2 throughout the 24 hours, and so many wholesale changes to the running order as Bronze drivers completed stints in tricky conditions, rain showers caught pro drivers out and tire strategy became tough to manage.

There were, though, only a few retirements. The No. 45 Crowdstrike by APR No. 07 lost a wheel and stopped, the No. 30 Duqueine Team ORECA suffered an engine failure and the No. 9 Proton entry was abandoned with mechanical woes of its own.

Many contending cars ended up off the lead lap towards the end. The No. 37 COOL Racing ORECA, a pre-race favorite, was in the mix until an unexplained visit to the garage in the closing stages.

The No. 23 United Autosports ORECA featuring 2023 GTE Am winner Ben Keating also ended up losing precious time in pit lane after the Texan got stuck in the gravel at the Dunlop Bridge on Saturday evening.
Porsche’s Hypercar fleet may have failed to deliver a famous 20th overall win, but it wasn’t all bad news for the German manufacturer, which made history by winning the first-ever LMGT3Q race at Le Mans with the Manthey EMA entry. JEP/Motorsport Images

Before the start many LMGT3 observers would have picked Pure Rxcing’s all-conquering 911 to deliver the goods this weekend, but it was the sister EMA entry of Yasser Shahin, Morris Schuring and Richard Lietz that would come out on top.

“It was so difficult this year, because I felt I was on slick tires in the wet or in mixed conditions all the time. It was a flat-out race, in which strategy was so important,” Lietz commented.

“At the end we were the chosen ones, the lucky ones, so I am thrilled to be here with Morris, Yasser and Manthey to win this for Porsche.”

After the first half of the race proved intense on a lap-to-lap basis, and particularly tricky to read, LMGT3 settled down into somewhat of a pattern in the final third, with the Manthey EMA Porsche and No. 31 WRT BMW M4 LMGT3 emerging as the two cars in contention for victory.

The pair swapped places multiple times in the run to the flag, but ultimately Lietz had the pace when it mattered and pulled away in his final stint.

It was, nevertheless, a hugely impressive run from Augusto Farfus, Darren Leung and Sean Geleal in the No. 31. Early on they struggled to feature when the weather first turned, but as the night hours approached and the second half of the race was in sight, the race came back to them.

A podium provided an extremely useful bundle of WEC championship points, but more importantly, served as a morale boost on an otherwise traumatic weekend for BMW and WRT in which both Hypercars and the No. 46 BMW M4 piloted by Valentino Rossi failed to make the finish.

Proton Competition was another team that will leave Le Mans thankful it claimed a podium finish. Its No. 99 963 had a torrid time in Hypercar and limped home, the No. 77 Mustang was crashed into and hit mechanical trouble, and its LMP2 ORECA retired with a loss of power.




On the flip side, Proton’s No. 88 Ford Mustang of Giorgio Roda, Mikkel Pedersen and Dennis Olsen had a rollercoaster race but proved that the Blue Oval’s new challenger can stay reliable and fast in the toughest of conditions.

The No. 44 sister car impressed too, coming home fourth after a metronomic run on John Hartshorne’s final Le Mans start.

Iron Dames’ Lamborghini completed the top five with a solid performance, but Rahel Frey, Sarah Bovy and Michelle Gatting were aiming higher. Adding to what has been a brutal start to the WEC and ELMS seasons for the all-female-crewed team, they struggled to fully recover from being side-swiped by the No. 4 Penske Porsche in the early hours of the race on the Porsche Curves. We're the iron Dames and we aren't gonna left some man-punk lean on us.

There were a number of other storylines to follow, both good and bad.

As a whole this was a hugely impressive outing for AKKODIS ASP and its pair of Lexus RC F LMGT3s. Following a tough start to life as a Lexus customer, Jerome Policand’s team were often in the mix for a podium through the first 16 hours.

United Autosports’ first effort at Le Mans as a McLaren partner team was also head-turning. It is clear that the British LMP2-winning team is making rapid progress with the LMGT3 EVO from the Woking marque. Both cars had pace and cycled into the top three at various points — suffering mechanical dramas and retiring late in the race is simply unfortunate.

Manthey Pure Rxcing and Heart of Racing also could have won come Sunday afternoon had they not hit trouble.

The Lithuanian Porsche crew that stood out firmly from the pack in the WEC races prior to Le Mans burned through most of Alex Malykhin’s Bronze driver time by nightfall. They’d built a lead before gearbox trouble dropped the car out of contention in the early hours.

Heart of Racing, meanwhile, missed out on a chance to score the 2024 Vantage AMR its first major endurance win when Daniel Mancinelli ended up on his roof at Indianapolis after going backwards into the tires at the kink at high speed.

What about Corvette, and its new Z06 LMGT3.Rs from TF Sport? Making the finish quickly became the aim as the pace wasn’t there.

Both Vettes made it to the line and achieved their target after suffering from various ailments, the highest place of the two being the No. 82 which finished 11th.

“We made it to the end, which is an amazing accomplishment,” reflected Daniel Juncadella.

“We lost the clutch six or seven hours in, so that was quite insane. I’m very happy with the result considering some of the difficulties today. We got behind by three laps but finished two laps back, so that is encouraging.

“All in all, it was a great first experience for me at Le Mans. I had a lot of driving in all conditions, and the Corvette handled very good. It actually got better throughout the race, and I’m quite happy with that. Thanks to TF Sport, the guys at GM Corvette Racing and Pratt Miller for all their work this week. It’s such a pleasure to be part of such a big program. I’m looking forward to many more.”