BIS RED On the eve of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the favorite was Porsche. Everyone said they ‘could only lose it’ given the outcome of the previous matches. And yet the 963 Hypercars on the Sarthe circuit didn’t make a huge difference after Kevin Estre’s pole position. At the end, with the rain returning to wet the 13km of the French track, the battle narrowed between Ferrari and Toyota who were able to better interpret the changing track conditions.
VICTORY FOR THE 50 After a year from the success of the nr. 51 of Alessandro Pierguidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi, third today, it is the turn of Nicklas Nielsen, Antonio Fuoco and Miguel Molina. In the final laps the three managed a substantial gap from the Toyota of Nyck De Vries, José Maria Lopez and Kamui Kobayashi who finished 14 seconds behind at the checkered flag. The no. 51 had also had to deal with problems with a door as well as a penalty for having sent the Toyota nr. into a spin. 8, while the 50 saw its ‘out of sequence’ strategy pay off which saw it finish with minimum energy.
KO THE NO. 83 The race of the third 499P ended around midday, the one driven by Robert Kubica, Robert Shwartzman and Yifei Ye who had done so well especially in the second half of the race by dictating the pace ahead of everyone. Electrical problems stopped the yellow car, frustrating the efforts of what can be defined as a ”support crew”. Among the inconveniences was the contact with Dries Vanthoor’s BMW M8 which ended up hitting the wall during the lapping phase.
PORSCHE OFF THE PODIUM Nothing to be done for the Germans who were chasing the twentieth, historic, success in the great French classic. Despite always fighting behind the leaders, Laurens Vanthoor, Kevin Estre and André Lotterer didn’t even manage to get on the podium. An uphill race for Penske who had lost Felipe Nasr’s car in the morning and saw the second car at the finish line finish in sixth place behind the second Toyota.
CADILLAC SEVENTH The American car tried and demonstrated unprecedented competitiveness in the Hyperpole session. A few hours after the end the nr. 2 had taken the lead of the race but from there the problems began which saw it settle in seventh position. Followed by the two Porsches of the Jota team which however has something to rejoice about given that it had to completely rebuild a car after Callum Ilott’s crash on Thursday evening. The two Lamborghinis came tenth and thirteenth, thus concluding the first 24 hours of Le Mans. The two Peugeots were inserted between the two SC63s, unrecognizable in performance after the package of evolutions presented in Monza and more solid – absurdly – last season. Happy also for Isotta Fraschini who also finishes her first Le Mans.
UNITED IN LMP2 In the class for private prototypes, the Oreca of United Autosport, a team owned by Zak Brown, CEO of McLaren, managed to impose itself. Nice redemption for the young Nolan Siegel, excluded from the Indianapolis 500 just two weeks ago amidst everyone’s encouragement. The latter shared the car with Oliver Jarvis and BiJoy Garg. Not even twenty seconds separated the winners from the car that won last year. Inter-Europol returned to the Le Mans podium, this time finishing second, with Clement Novalak, Vladislav Lomko and Jakub Smiechowski. What a shame for Vector Sport who believed in it but ended up finishing the race off the podium to the advantage of the AF Corse crew.
PORSCHE IN GT3 In the end, among the LMGT3s, the winner was the 992 of Manthey Racing driven by Richard Lietz, Yasser Shahin and the young Morris Shuring. A full lap is the lead over the WRT BMW M4 shared between Augusto Farfus, Sean Gelael and Darren Leung. Proton’s Ford Mustangs, who arrived in the series this year, did well, finishing in third and fourth place. Fifth in the category were the Iron Dames, first for Lamborghini, while the Ferraris finished a difficult race behind them. McLaren disappointment after pole position. The English brand finished behind Lexus.
photo: WEC/DPPI
