LM24, Hour 24: Ferrari wins Le Mans, ending Toyota’s reign

Alexander Trienitz/Motorsport Images
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emailBy Stephen Kilbey | June 11, 2023 10:21 AM ET

The 2023 Le Mans 24 Hours, the centenary edition of the event that was first run in 1923, has been won by Ferrari AF Corse’s No. 51 499P Hypercar. In a race that had everything — incidents, sudden weather changes, surprise class leaders, mechanical dramas and countless on-track battles — Antonio Giovanazzi, James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi survived to take a famous win at the Circuit de la Sarthe.

It was a race that lived up to expectations and saw most of the Hypercar manufacturers in contention for the first half of the race before it came down to a battle between Ferrari and Toyota.

After a titanic scrap between Ferrari and Toyota’s No. 51 and No. 8 Hypercars, it was the Prancing Horse that claimed its 10th overall Le Mans win and its first since 1965.

The race went down to the wire, with the top two on the lead lap until the very end, as close as 16 seconds apart in the penultimate hour before a costly error from Ryo Hirakawa in the No. 8 at Arnage effectively ended Toyota’s chances.

The No. 8 GR010 HYBRID came home second, but that will come as a colossal disappointment for Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Hirakawa and the entire team, who headed into the race with the sole aim of scoring Toyota’s sixth consecutive overall win. Instead, they settled for a podium finish, crossing the line 1m21s behind the winning Ferrari — which had a minor drama at its final stop, the car struggling to fire up.

Completing the podium was the No. 2 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R, which had a metronomic run to the flag, a spin in the wet at Mulsanne Corner the car’s only notable hiccup. It was a really promising performance from Richard Westbrook, Alex Lynn and Earl Bamber, scoring Cadillac its first podium in WEC competition. Cadillac should take great pride in being the first team running an LMDh prototype across the line.

It was by no means a simple race for Cadillac, though, as the other two V-Series.Rs hit trouble in the race and spent much of it recovering. The Action Express example had its chances of a strong finish ended on lap 1 when Jack Aitken had an off in the wet on the exit of the first Mulsanne Chicane, going nose first into the guardrail, causing damage that cost the team multiple laps in the garage. The No. 3 Cadillac Racing machine had a better race, finishing fourth despite losing time when Sebastien Bourdais was rear-ended by the No. 21 AF Corse GTE Ferrari at the Dunlop Bridge and required a trip to the garage for repairs.

The No. 50 AF Corse 499P was delayed by mechanical issues and finished fifth.
Historic win in LMP2 for the Inter Europol Competition ORECA 07-Gibson of Jakub Smiechowski, Albert Costa and Fabio Scherer. Alexander Trienitz/Motorsport Images

In LMP2, there was drama all the way to the final hour. Winning the race was the No. 34 Inter Europol ORECA in what was a coming-of-age performance from the Polish team, which scored the first-ever Le Mans win for a Polish team. Albert Costa, Jakub Smiechowski and an injured Fabio Scherer (who drove with a broken foot after being run over by the Corvette) were superb in the second half of the race when things started to die down. They were pushed to the very end by WRT’s No. 41 ORECA of Louis Deletraz, Rui Andrade and Robert Kubica, who were just 21 seconds behind by the end of the race.

There were multiple late-race scares for the Inter Europol team, which was under investigation for a pit infringement that would have cost the team its lead if a drive-through was handed out. Fortunately for them, the stewards opted only to issue a reprimand. However, the team’s focus quickly shifted as it had to manually place signage on the pit wall to instruct Scherer to pit in the closing hour as the car’s radio failed. In the end though they finished up first and will celebrate long into the night.

The No. 41 WRT ORECA finished second, with the No. 30 Duqueine ORECA third after the No. 41 WRT sister 07 Gibson had a nose change at its final stop and dropped out of the top three.

GTE Am was a war of attrition, won by Corvette Racing and its pole-sitting No. 33 C8.R. Ben Keating, Nico Varrone and Nicky Catsburg were by far the best trio in the field throughout on pace, but it was not a simple victory. A damper failure in the second hour forced the car into the garage for attention, costing it two laps.

The rest of the race saw a spirited fightback through the field, with all three drivers fast and fault-free, climbing back onto the lead lap and into the class lead with a combination of pace and safety car neutralizations.

It was a historic ninth class win for Corvette in the final GTE race at La Sarthe.

Completing the podium was the No. 25 ORT by TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage, which was in the running throughout. The car consolidated second in the final hours when Charlie Eastwood was installed and tasked with catching and passing the Iron Dames Porsche, which dropped to fourth after a lengthy stop at the end.

GR Racing recovered from an early off in the rain showers while leading at the Porsche Curves to complete the podium, Riccardo Pera coming home just five seconds ahead of the all-female crewed Iron Dames Porsche.

Further down the order in GTE Am it was a story of accidents and misfortune, with only nine of the 21 cars in the category finishing. The heavy rain on Saturday caused so many incidents, the changing conditions catching out so many drivers.

Full report to follow.

 

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