Ferrari Beats Toyota to Historic 24H Le Mans Win

Photo: WEC

Ferrari has claimed its first overall victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in nearly 60 years, breaking Toyota’s five-year win streak in a thrilling centenary edition of the French endurance classic.

Alessandro Pier Guidi took the No. 51 AF Corse-run Ferrari 499P to a 1-minute 21-second win over the No. 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid of Ryo Hirakawa, following a near race-long duel between the two factory Hypercar juggernauts.

A brake lock-up into Arnage that led to damage to the nose and rear deck of Hirakawa’s Toyota with 1 hour and 45 minutes to go, while running less than 20 seconds behind the Ferrari, gave the Italian manufacturer clear sailing to the finish.

The incident forced Hirakawa into the pits to replace bodywork but the Japanese driver managed to hold onto second, ahead of Earl Bamber’s No. 2 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R, which completed the podium in third.

Pier Guidi shared top honors with his fellow Le Mans GTE-Pro class-winning co-driver James Calado as well as ex-Formula 1 driver Antonio Giovinazzi, and also was the 499P’s first win in only its fourth race in FIA World Endurance Championship competition.

It marked Ferrari’s tenth overall Le Mans crown and the first since 1965 when Masten Gregory, Ed Hugus and Jochen Rindt took the American NART squad’s Ferrari 250 LM to the win.

While the No. 50 Ferrari started on pole, Sebastien Buemi in the No. 8 Toyota jumped into an early lead and fought though a pair of early race safety cars, the second for a downpour that eliminated a number of LMP2 and GTE-Am cars.

The Ferrari vs. Toyota fight came into fore just prior to halfway, after the No. 7 Toyota retired when Kamui Kobayashi tangled with the No. 65 JMW Motorsport Ferrari 488 GTE and two LMP2 cars in the ninth hour.

The No. 50 Ferrari, meanwhile, dropped out of the lead battle in the tenth hour when a stone punctured its radiator, costing Antonio Fuoco five laps in the garage.

With the lead swapping back and forth, and the Nos. 51 and 8 cars often on split strategies, the hard-fought race came down to Ferrari’s apparent pace advantage in the morning hours, although was briefly thwarted by a long pit stop in the 17th hour for Calado due to a power cycle that briefly put Buemi back into the lead.

The No. 8 Toyota, meanwhile, fought back from a right-rear puncture and a nose change in the 16th hour after Hirakawa reportedly hit a squirrel, prior to the Japanese drivers’ brake lock up with less than two hours to go.

Cadillac’s Bamber, Richard Westbrook and Alex Lynn completed the podium in the Le Mans debut for the LMDh platform, ahead of the sister, IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship-based No. 3 CGR entry of Renger van der Zande, Sebastien Bourdais and Scott Dixon in fourth.

It came despite Bourdais getting collected heading into a slow zone in the second hour that was triggered by the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari of Ulysse de Pauw. The Frenchman also spun after contact with multiple cars overnight.

Pole-sitter Fuoco and co-drivers Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen finished fifth in the No. 50 Ferrari, ahead of the pair of Glickenhaus 007 Pipos, which aside from separate spins at Indianapolis, hard largely trouble-free runs, despite the No. 708 car having started from pit lane and a late-race spin for Franck Mailleux in the No. 709.

Porsche Penske Motorsport had a race to forget, with all three of its factory Porsche 963s encountering trouble and two finishing.

The No. 5 Porsche lost time in the fifth hour when Dane Cameron went off-course at the Porsche Curves before spending 30 minutes in the garage in the 10th hour with a leaking coolant pipe when Michael Christensen was at the wheel.

Trouble then struck again with 32 minutes to go when Christensen slowed on track and limped to the pits with undisclosed issues after running in fifth. It returned to the track on the final lap to take the checkered flag in ninth.

A right-rear puncture initially put the No. 6 Porsche one lap down, although an accident by Kevin Estre at the Porsche Curves resulted in damage to the car’s floor, requiring a 45-minute stop for repairs in the 17th hour.

It was compounded by an issue with the car’s high-voltage system two hours later. The car finished 22nd overall and 11th in class.

The No. 75 Porsche, featuring crew and drivers from Porsche Penske’s WeatherTech Championship squad, was the first Hypercar retirement in the eighth hour after Mathieu Jaminet stopped on track with fuel pressure issues.

The No. 93 Peugeot 9X8 came home eighth after late-race hydraulic issues that sent both of the French LMH cars to the garage.

Gustavo Menezes led the race for 34 laps in the sister No. 94 Peugeot, largely during changing conditions, but crashed into the tire barriers at the Daytona Chicane just prior to halfway, eliminating a possible podium in the car’s Le Mans debut.

Multiple accidents for Hertz Team JOTA’s customer Porsche, including Yifei Ye crashing out of the lead in the fifth hour, resulted in a much-delayed race for the British squad that also saw lengthy trips to to the garage.

The No. 311 Action Express Racing Cadillac also had two crashes, both by Jack Aitken, including an impact into the wall at the second chicane on the opening lap while in damp conditions that saw the British-Korean racer limp the car back to the pits for repairs.

It finished 17th overall and tenth in class, ahead of the delayed No. 94 Peugeot, No. 6 Porsche and No. 38 JOTA entries, which were the only other Hypercar finishers.

Floyd Vanwall Racing Team’s race, meanwhile, came to an end in Hour 16 with a suspected engine failure when Tristan Vautier was at the wheel.

RESULTS: 24 Hours of Le Mans

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John