Ferrari made history by winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans anniversary race, the most mythical endurance race on European soil, by beating Toyota, who had won five in a row.
The Ferrari 499P hybrid driven by James Calado, Alessandro Pier Guido and Antonio Giovinazzi took the 10th win for the Cavallino Rampante brand, the first since 1965 when it crossed the line with 342 laps and 1,21,793 minutes ahead of the second classifier. Sebastian Buemi, Ryo Hirakawa and Brandon Hartley (Toyota).
Eral Bamber, Alex Lynn and Richard Westbrook (Cadillac) rounded out the podium, already one lap behind.
Toyota began by dominating operations as they attempted a sixth consecutive win in the French race, but this time it was up against other manufacturers who proved to be more competitive.
Porsche, Cadillac and Peugeot also led the race, which was still suffering from the rain that had fallen on the Circuit de la Sarthe.
With five hours to go, Alessandro Pierre Guido overtook Sebastian Buemi to take the lead, which lasted over a minute. But a problem with the Ferrari during one of the pit stops shortened the lead and the two cars entered the final two hours 20 seconds apart.
Brandon Hartley was catching up to Antonio Giovinazzi’s Ferrari, closing the gap to 10 seconds.
At this point, Japan’s Ryo Hirakawa made the mistake of failing to brake on the Arnag, crashing the Toyota’s front end into a wall; he spun around and hit from behind before coming to a stop.
It was the latest step in the aspirations of the Japanese constructor, who had to settle for second place, missing out on the sixth straight win that Ferrari achieved in 1965, the year of the marque’s last win at Le Mans.
Spaniard Albert Costa, Swiss Fabio Scherer and Pole Jakub Smichovsky won the LMP2 in Oreca.
The race was a poor one for the Portuguese: António Felix da Costa, who teams up with Briton Will Stevens and Chinese Ye Yifei in an official Porsche 963, ran into problems and only completed 244 laps, finishing 13th in hypercars (main category), 40th place in the overall standings.
In the second category, LMP2, Filipe Albuquerque saw his British teammate Frederick Lubin make a mistake and go astray while they were leading the class, resulting in a big loss of time to repair United Autosports’ Oreca.
The Portuguese completed his 10th participation by finishing 11th in LMP2 and 21st overall.
“It is not easy to describe this feeling. We had a very competitive car, we were recovering and were very confident. And the mistake of Frederik, new to racing and less experienced, ruined our chances of winning in the fight for victory. disappointing. Since then, we have done everything possible to finish as far ahead as possible, ”the driver from Coimbra began with the words.
The Portuguese rider also regretted the brake problems that affected his car.
“Looking at the final result of the race, the winning team at the beginning of the race was much further behind us than we were. But the reality is that they survived the race without issue, which has been an expert in adventure for the vast majority of teams,” stressed Albuquerque, who is looking to take the second victory of his career in the French race next year.