The first was perhaps a surprise, but the second is a real confirmation. A year later the tenth overall crown at the 24 Hours of Le Mansconquered after 50 years of absence from the premier class, the Ferrari repeats itself. The 499P is once again first under the checkered flag of the most grueling race in motorsport. And it does so in a convincing manner, battling with all three cars against Toyota, Porsche and Cadillac and achieving a hard-fought victory, decided by the last drop of the “virtual tank” of energy that allowed Antonio Fuoco’s No. 50 car, Nicklas Nielsen and Miguel Molina to reach the finish line 14 seconds ahead of the Toyota N.7 of De Vries-Kobayashi-Lopez, author of a great comeback from last place on the grid. But the Cavallino’s celebration was sweetened even more by the third place achieved by car No.51, that of the reigning champions Giovinazzi-Calado-Pier Guidi, also always fighting for victory. The absolute successes in the French classic thus rise to 11, while adding the class ones also brings the total successes to 40.
balance reigns
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The start at 4pm on Saturday 15 June immediately showed how the race would be balanced among the many manufacturers present: the three Ferraris soon moved into the top positions, but Toyota, Porsche and Cadillac immediately made it clear that they had important ambitions. No one managed to make a difference over the others and gain an important margin, also due to the weather which repeatedly messed up the ranking giving rise to different strategic choices between those who chose not to return to putting on wet tires and those who instead did so. Done. And this theme recurred several times during the race, in which the three 499Ps were always the protagonists and among the very first positions. The yellow No.83 of Kubica-Shwartzman-Ye led for a long time on Saturday, before slipping back due to a penalty, while during the night Toyota took the lead during the very long four and a half hour safety car phase to the rain that fell and the poor visibility, which lasted until eight in the morning.
important strategies
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The restart after the long night safety car coincided with the return of the sun to Le Mans and the track dried out, allowing the return to slick tyres. Ferrari showed notable reactivity in its strategies, especially with the safety car that came out after the accident of the Aston Martin No. 27 around 9 in the morning: by returning to the pits immediately, it “beat” Toyota and Porsche in time, thus taking the lead of the race after the cars stopped out of sequence. From there it was simply a game of strategy and chase between Ferrari, Toyota and Porsche.
shame about kubica and rossi
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Among the great protagonists of the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2024 there was also the private Ferrari 499P fielded by AF Corse, which led the race for long stretches on Saturday before receiving a 30-second stop&go penalty for a contact with Robert Kubica with the BMW Hypercar N.15 which led to the withdrawal of the Bavarian car. The crew of N.83 did not lose heart and remained among the protagonists in the following hours, climbing positions in the morning, before being forced to retire due to a fault in the hybrid part just before midday. Retirement also for the GT3 class BMW N.46, with which Valentino Rossi debuted at the French classic: it retired while at the top of its category due to a collision with the wall by the Omani driver Ahmad Al-Harthy, in a difficult slick rubber phase on the wet track. Among the other teams that leave Le Mans with regrets we point out BMW, with both Hypercars withdrawn as well as Alpine, but also the No. 3 Cadillac which started from the front row and left the scene due to a technical problem.
tense ending
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The last two hours of the race, with the track completely wet from the rain, were delicate and complex. Ferrari found itself for a moment with the cars in first and second position when Alessandro Pier Guidi attacked Brendon Hartley’s Toyota No.8, but the contact between the two cars caused the New Zealander to spin and the race direction decided to penalize the red car with 5 seconds at the next pit stop. Shortly afterwards came another cold shower for the Cavallino, with the No.50 called to the pits with the black flag with an orange disc for a poorly closed door. This pushed her to the limit with the times to finish the race with just one stop, thus giving us this very tense and exciting finale.
the other classes
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In Lmp2, the No. 22 car of United Autosports, driven by Bijoy Garg, Oliver Jarvis and Nolan Siegel, crossed the finish line first. The US team’s car preceded the winning car of last edition, the No.34 of Inter Europol Competition (Smiechowski-Lomko-Novalak) and the No.28 of IDEC Sport (Lafargue-van Uitert-de Gerus). In the LMGT3 class, however, success went to the Porsche 911 N.91 of Manthey Ema of Yasser Shahin, Morris Schuring and Richard Lietz, already victorious in the last outing in Spa. Second place for the BMW M4 N.31 of Wrt of Leung- Gelael-Farfus, who makes an important leap forward in the championship standings thanks to the difficult race of the leaders of Manthey Purerxcing’s N.91. Third step of the podium for the Ford N.88 of Proton Competition, with the Italian Giorgio Roda together with Mikkel Pedersen and Dennis Olsen. The best Lamborghini is that of the Iron Dames (Bovy-Frey-Gatting), fifth, while the first Ferrari is the N.55 of Vista AF Corse (Heriau-Mann-Rovera).
order of arrival
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Finishing line of the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2024:
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