Corvette Ends Porsche’s LMGT3 Stranglehold at Le Mans

TF Sport’s Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R squad broke Manthey Racing’s stranglehold on the LMGT3 class in the 24 Hours of Le Mans after Nicky Catsburg, Jonny Edgar and Ben Keating triumphed.

The No. 33 Corvette had only qualified 17th but it gradually rose up the order to beat the No. 78 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3 of Jack Hawksworth, Hadrien David and Tom Van Rompuy and give the American brand its first Le Mans class victory since 2023.

The winning margin was officially one lap, but that was because the Lexus had just been lapped by the victorious Toyota and the real margin between the two was around 20 seconds.

The win also represented Keating’s third class triumph at Le Mans on his return to competition after missing the opening two FIA World Endurance Championship events with an elbow injury.

The No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Jonny Adam, Eduardo Barrichello and Gray Newell rounded out the class podium albeit over one minute adrift of the leaders.

A whole host of different cars led the class during the opening hours as the teams adopted differing approaches to when they used their FIA Bronze-graded drivers.

Class pole-sitter Mattia Drudi initially kept the lead in the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston until Ian James took over at the first round of stops and that enabled Hawksworth in the No. 78 Lexus to assume top spot.

Next to move to the front was the No. 91 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo of Ayhancan Guven, who shot up the order as most of the rival squads installed Bronzes at the wheel.

The second No. 87 Lexus also enjoyed a spell in front before the Corvette assumed top spot for the first time approaching the halfway mark.

Keating completed his required six hours during the opening half of the race and this car began to rise up the order with Corvette factory ace Catsburg and Silver-rated Edgar at the wheel.

Shortly before a safety car with just less than six hours to go, it had stretched its lead to around 90 seconds and was able to pit without losing top spot.

But when Guven crashed heavily when his steering failed at the first Le Mans Chicane, it brought out a second safety car period of the race and wiped out the Corvette’s advantage.

However, Catsburg was gradually able to edge clear of the opposition over the final quarter of the race aided by the No. 27 Aston Martin retiring with a gearbox failure with three hours to go.

The Corvette enjoyed a 30-second lead with 90 minutes to go and, although Hawksworth closed the gap after the final round of stops to 13 seconds, the Lexus was unable to mount a challenge.

The sister No. 87 car of Jose Maria Lopez, Clemens Schmid and Petru Umbrarescu was fourth, despite picking up a drive-through penalty during the night when Schmid collided with the No. 57 Kessel Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo.

The top-five was completed by the best of the Ferraris, the No. 21 AF Corse entry of Alessio Rovera, Simon Mann and Francois Heriau.

Sixth went to the Racing Team Turkey by TF Corvette of Charlie Eastwood, Salih Yoluc and Peter Dempsey that was disqualified from qualifying and had to start at the back of the grid.

A strong stint from Eastwood during the early hours of the morning vaulted the car up the order and it was last of the LMGT3s to finish on the lead lap.

Seventh was the No. 32 WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO, which was in turn a lap ahead of the No. 150 AF Corse Ferrari.

The top-ten in class was rounded out by two more Ferraris, the Nos. 74 and 57 Kessel-run entries.

Other notable cars in strife included the WEC LMGT3 points-leading No. 92 Manthey Porsche, in which Richard Lietz was seeking a third consecutive Le Mans class win, as it lost four laps at the start of the second hour while a broken tie rod was repaired following an aggressive curb strike.

The No. 69 WRT BMW that triumphed in the opening round of the WEC seson at Imola was another retirement with gearbox woes.

It was also a race to forget for the Garage 59 and its McLaren 720s GT3 Evos, which both made it to the flag but suffered a tough outing after being unable to replicate the performance that guided the No. 10 car to class victory at Spa.

The Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo squad was another squad to have a challenging time with the No. 61 car retiring with a suspension issue and the sister No. 62 car also went off at the Ford Chicane during the night with suspension woes but was classified, albeit 11 laps down.

RESULTS: 24 Hours of Le Mans