Ferrari made history by winning the centenary edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the most mythical of endurance races on European soil, defeating Toyota, which had achieved five consecutive victories.
The Ferrari 499P hybrid driven by James Calado, Alessandro Pier Guido and Antonio Giovinazzi achieved the 10th victory for the Prancing Horse brand, the first since 1965, when it crossed the finish line with 342 laps and 1,21,793 minutes ahead of second placed Sébastien Buemi , Ryo Hirakawa and Brendon Hartley (Toyota).
Eral Bamber, Alex Lynn and Richard Westbrook (Cadillac) rounded out the podium, already one lap behind.
Toyota began dominating the operations, looking for the sixth consecutive victory in the French race, but this time it was opposed by the other manufacturers, who were more competitive.
Porsche, Cadillac and Peugeot also took the lead in a race that was still affected by the rain that fell on the Circuit de la Sarthe.
With five hours to go, Alessandro Pier Guido edged past Sebastien Buemi to take the lead, which lasted for over a minute. But a problem with the Ferrari during one of the pit stops cut the lead short and the two cars entered the final two hours separated by 20 seconds.
Brendon Hartley was making up ground in the Ferrari then driven by Antonio Giovinazzi, cutting the gap to 10 seconds.
At that moment, the Japanese Ryo Hirakawa made a mistake, he was unable to brake at Arnage, hitting the front of the Toyota against the wall; he spun and hit the rear as well before coming to a stop.
It was the definitive step in the aspirations of the Japanese manufacturer, who had to settle for second place, missing out on the sixth consecutive victory, something Ferrari achieved in 1965, the year of the last victory of the transalpine brand at Le Mans.
In LMP2, the victory went to the Spanish Albert Costa, the Swiss Fabio Scherer and the Pole Jakub Smiechowski, in an Oreca.
The race was unlucky for the Portuguese, with António Félix da Costa, who teams up with Britain’s Will Stevens and China’s Ye Yifei in a works Porsche 963, having problems and completing just 244 laps, finishing 13th in the hypercars. (main category), 40th overall.
In the second category, LMP2, Filipe Albuquerque saw fellow Briton Frederik Lubin make a mistake and go wide when leading the class, forcing a huge loss of time to repair United Autosports’ Oreca.
The Portuguese closed his 10th participation in 11th place in LMP2, 21st overall.
“It is not easy to describe the feeling. We had a very competitive car, recovering positions and with a lot of confidence. And a mistake by Frederik, new to the race and less experienced, ruined the chance that we were in contention for victory. frustrating From there, we did everything possible to finish as far forward as possible”, the Coimbra driver began by referring to.
The Portuguese driver also lamented the brake problems that affected his car.
“Looking at the final result of the race, the winning team was much further behind than us at the start of the race. But the reality is that they survived an adventurous race without problems for the vast majority of teams,” stressed Albuquerque, who is hoping to get his second career win at the French race next year.
Source: TSF
