Le Mans 24 Hours: Ferrari beats Toyota in race of attrition

On the Italian manufacturer's return to top-flight competition at the Circuit de la Sarthe with the new 499P Le Mans Hypercar, the #51 crew delivered Ferrari its first outright Le Mans win since Masten Gregory and Jochen Rindt took top honours in 1965.

Pier Guidi took the chequered flag one minute and 21 seconds ahead of the #8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa.

Taking the final spot on the overall podium was the #2 Cadillac V-Series.R shared by Alex Lynn, Earl Bamber and Richard Westbrook, a lap behind the winning Ferrari.

In a race of heavy attrition, the fight for the lead boiled down to a straight battle between the #51 Ferrari and the #8 Toyota, although it was the 499P that appeared to have the advantage on sheer pace for much of the second half of the race.

After suffering an off in the hands of Pier Guidi at the first Mulsanne chicane in the evening hours, the #51 Ferrari was back into the lead and almost a minute clear of the Toyota, but the gap was virtually eradicated when Pier Guidi had to perform a power cycle at a pitstop in the 19th hour.

That brought the Toyota well back into contention, with the two leaders circulating just seconds apart at this point of the race, but the Ferrari had already started to assert its advantage when an off for Hirakawa in the penultimate hour defused the battle.

Hirakawa lost it under braking at Arnage, hitting the barriers, but was able to get the damaged #8 car to the pits and was sent on his way without losing a lap.

There was a minor scare for the #51 car in the closing stages as Pier Guidi had to perform another power cycle with 23 minutes to go, but his advantage over the Toyota was such that he was able to resume in a clear lead before going on to make history for Ferrari.

The third-placed #2 Cadillac enjoyed a largely clean run, save for a spin for Westbrook in the night-time hours, but the sister #3 Chip Ganassi Racing-run car endured a much more eventful time on its way to fourth.

Sebastien Bourdais was rear-ended by a GTE Am car at the Dunlop chicane during an early slow zone, sending the car into the garage for repairs, and there was a similar incident involving Bourdais with one of the WRT cars at Tertre Rouge just as the Frenchman had got back onto the lead lap in the night.

Ultimately, Bourdais and team-mates Renger van der Zande and Scott Dixon finished three laps down in fourth, followed home by the #50 Ferrari of Nicklas Nielsen, Antonio Fuoco and Miguel Molina in fifth.

The pole-winning car had already slipped out of lead contention following an off for Nielsen at the Porsche Curves during one of two heavy rain showers in the evening hours, and then lost multiple laps overnight due to an energy recovery system fluid leak.

The two remaining Hypercar manufacturers, Peugeot and Porsche, endured races to forget.

Peugeot had both of its unconventional 9X8s in the thick of the lead battle early on, but a spin in the wet for Jean-Eric Vergne in the #93 car at Mulsanne corner cost that car two laps, while Gustavo Menezes suffered a crash in the sister #94 machine at the first Mulsanne chicane in the early hours.

Both Peugeots were then taken into the garage for hydraulic issues, with the better of the two, the #93 car in which Vergne shared with Paul di Resta and Mikkel Jensen, finishing eighth.

Porsche endured an even more miserable showing with its trio of Penske-entered 963 LMDhs, which all suffered multiple delays.

The third-string #75 Porsche became the first Hypercar retirement with a fuel pressure problem, before a crash at the Porsche Curves for Kevin Estre put the marque's best-placed car, the #6, out of contention before it lost even more time replacing the hybrid battery.

Porsche's #5 machine was on course to come home fifth, having suffered delays due to a puncture and a cooling system leak, before finally suffering a driveshaft issue in the final hour that dropped it down to ninth.

The late drama cleared the way for boutique manufacturer Glickenhaus to score an unlikely sixth place in the manufacturer-dominated Hypercar class with the #708 entry shared by Oliver Pla, Romain Dumas and Ryan Briscoe, ahead of the sister #709 car.

That was despite multiple shunts involving both of the non-hybrid 007 LMHs, including near-identical offs Pla and Esteban Gutierrez at Indianapolis.

The #51 Ferrari completed only 342 laps en route to victory, the fewest number of laps racked up by the race winner since Audi in 2001.

LMP2: Inter Europol scores underdog win

#34 Inter Europol Competition Oreca 07 - Gibson of Jakub Smiechowski, Albert Costa, Fabio Scherer (Photo by: Eric Le Galliot)

The LMP2 class was won by the Polish Inter Europol Competition squad with the #34 ORECA shared by Jakub Smiechowski, Albert Costa and Fabio Scherer - who incredibly sustained a suspected broken foot during the race.

Swiss driver Scherer sustained the injury when the Corvette GTE Am car ran over his left foot during a round of pitstops, but that didn't stop Inter Europol from clinching a first World Endurance Championship win on the biggest stage of all.

Inter Europol had been in command for the final eight hours of the race, surviving multiple investigations for pitstop infringements in the closing stages to beat the #41 Team WRT car of Louis Deletraz, Robert Kubica and Rui Andrade by 21 seconds.

Duqueine took the final spot on the podium with Neel Jani, Rene Binder and Nico Pino, assisted by a late issue for the second of the WRT ORECAs, the #31 car, which was brought into the pits with a suspected suspension issue with 11 minutes to go.

Alpine's lead contender, the #36 machine of Charles Milesi, Matthieu Vaxiviere and Julien Canal, was promoted to fourth, with the #31 car of Robin Frijns, Sean Gelael and Ferdinand Habsburg coming away with fifth after its late dramas.

United Autosports suffered a nightmare race, with both of its ORECAs involved in incidents. Its top finisher was the #23 car in eighth place following a night-time crash for Tom Blomqvist that necessitated a trip to the medical centre as the car's medical alarm had been triggered.

GTE: Corvette gives C8.R farewell victory

#33 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R of Nicky Catsburg, Ben Keating, Nicolas Varrone (Photo by: Marc Fleury)

Corvette Racing secured a fitting final victory for GTE machinery at Le Mans, before the class bows out in favour of GT3 cars for 2024.

That was an outcome that looked unlikely early in the race as the solo C8.R went into the garage for 10 minutes to replace a front damper, losing two laps, and then failed to get a lap back during an early safety car procedure after some cars were released from the pits early.

However, a smooth run thereafter combined with rapid pace from Nicky Catsburg, Nico Varrone and Ben Keating allowed them to claw back the lost ground, the #33 machine finally getting back on the lead lap by the 16th hour.

By the 21st hour, the Corvette was established in the lead at the expense of the all-female crewed Iron Dames Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Rahel Frey, Michelle Gatting and Sarah Bovy.

Frey was demoted another position by the ORT by TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage, which had lost ground in the night with a puncture and a drive-through penalty awarded for Ahmad Al Harthy passing behind the safety car.

In the final reckoning, the #33 TF Sport car of Al Harthy, Michael Dinan and Charlie Eastwood finished two minutes behind the Corvette, with the GR Racing Porsche of Michael Wainwright, Ben Barker and Riccardo Pera denying the Iron Dames car the final spot on the podium in the closing stages.

There was late drama for the 'Rexy'-liveried AO Racing - Project 1 Porsche, which had been in podium contention but was forced into the garage due to an issue with the right-rear corner.

The Garage 56 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 NASCAR Cup car, shared by Jimmie Johnson, Jenson Button and Mike Rockenfeller, was classified 39th after a series of delays in the final stages owing to apparent gearbox issues.

A total of 40 cars out of the 62 starters were classified, the lowest figure since the 2015 race.

Le Mans 24 Hours - race results:

Cla		#	Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Gap
1		51	James Calado  Antonio Giovinazzi  Alessandro Pier Guidi	Ferrari 499P	HYPERCAR	342
2		8	Sébastien Buemi  Brendon Hartley  Ryo Hirakawa	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	342	1'21.793
3		2	Earl Bamber  Alex Lynn  Richard Westbrook	Cadillac V-Series.R	HYPERCAR	341	1 Lap
4		3	Sébastien Bourdais  Scott Dixon  Renger van der Zande	Cadillac V-Series.R	HYPERCAR	340	2 Laps
5		50	Antonio Fuoco  Miguel Molina  Nicklas Nielsen	Ferrari 499P	HYPERCAR	337	5 Laps
6		708	Ryan Briscoe  Romain Dumas  Olivier Pla	Glickenhaus 007 LMH	HYPERCAR	335	7 Laps
7		709	Nathanael Berthon  Esteban Gutierrez  Franck Mailleux	Glickenhaus 007 LMH	HYPERCAR	333	9 Laps
8		93	Paul di Resta  Mikkel Jensen  Jean-Eric Vergne	Peugeot 9X8	HYPERCAR	330	12 Laps
9		5	Dane Cameron  Michael Christensen  Frédéric Makowiecki	Porsche 963	HYPERCAR	329	13 Laps
10		34	Albert Costa  Fabio Scherer  Jakub Smiechowski	Oreca 07	LMP2	328	14 Laps
11		41	Rui Andrade  Louis Deletraz  Robert Kubica	Oreca 07	LMP2	328	14 Laps
12		30	Rene Binder  Neel Jani  Nicolas Pino	Oreca 07	LMP2	327	15 Laps
13		36	Julien Canal  Charles Milesi  Matthieu Vaxiviere	Oreca 07	LMP2	327	15 Laps
14		31	Robin Frijns  Sean Gelael  Ferdinand Habsburg	Oreca 07	LMP2	327	15 Laps
15		48	Paul-Loup Chatin  Laurents Hörr  Paul Lafargue	Oreca 07	LMP2	327	15 Laps
16		10	Gabriel Aubry  Ryan Cullen  Matthias Kaiser	Oreca 07	LMP2	325	17 Laps
17		311	Jack Aitken  Pipo Derani  Alexander Sims	Cadillac V-Series.R	HYPERCAR	324	18 Laps
18		23	Tom Blomqvist  Oliver Jarvis  Josh Pierson	Oreca 07	LMP2	323	19 Laps
19		35	Olli Caldwell  Andre Negrao  Memo Rojas	Oreca 07	LMP2	322	20 Laps
20		45	James Allen  Colin Braun  George Kurtz	Oreca 07	LMP2	322	20 Laps
21		22	Filipe Albuquerque  Philip Hanson  Frederick Lubin	Oreca 07	LMP2	321	21 Laps
22		6	Kevin Estre  Andre Lotterer  Laurens Vanthoor	Porsche 963	HYPERCAR	320	22 Laps
23		37	Alexandre Coigny  Malthe Jakobsen  Nicolas Lapierre	Oreca 07	LMP2	317	25 Laps
24		28	Pietro Fittipaldi  David Heinemeier Hansson  Oliver Rasmussen	Oreca 07	LMP2	316	26 Laps
25		65	Tijmen van der Helm  Manuel Maldonado  Job Van Uitert	Oreca 07	LMP2	316	26 Laps
26		33	Nick Catsburg  Ben Keating Nicolas Varrone	Chevrolet Corvette C8.R	LMGTE AM	313	29 Laps
27		94	Loic Duval  Gustavo Menezes  Nico Müller	Peugeot 9X8	HYPERCAR	312	30 Laps
28		25	Ahmad Al Harthy  Michael Dinan  Charles Eastwood	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	312	30 Laps
29		86	Benjamin Barker  Riccardo Pera  Michael Wainwright	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	312	30 Laps
30		85	Sarah Bovy  Rahel Frey  Michelle Gatting	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	312	30 Laps
31		54	Francesco Castellacci  Thomas Flohr  Davide Rigon	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	312	30 Laps
32		43	Maxime Martin  Tom Van Rompuy  Ugo de Wilde	Oreca 07	LMP2	311	31 Laps
33		98	Ian James  Daniel Mancinelli  Alex Riberas	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	310	32 Laps
34		9	Juan Manuel Correa  Filip Ugran  Bent Viscaal	Oreca 07	LMP2	310	32 Laps
35		56	Matteo Cairoli  PJ Hyett  Gunnar Jeannette	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	309	33 Laps
36		100	Andrew Haryanto  Chandler Hull  Jeff Segal	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	307	35 Laps
37		39	Giedo van der Garde  Roberto Lacorte  Patrick Pilet	Oreca 07	LMP2	303	39 Laps
38		74	Kei Cozzolino  Yorikatsu Tsujiko  Naoki Yokomizo	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	303	39 Laps
39		24	Jenson Button  Jimmie Johnson  Mike Rockenfeller	Chevrolet Camaro ZL1	INNOVATIVE CAR	285	57 Laps
40		38	Antonio Felix da Costa  Will Stevens  Ye Yifei	Porsche 963	HYPERCAR	244	98 Laps
		57	Scott Huffaker  Takeshi Kimura  Daniel Serra	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	254	88 Laps
		911	Michael Fassbender  Richard Lietz  Martin Rump	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	246	96 Laps
		80	Ben Barnicoat  Norman Nato  François Perrodo	Oreca 07	LMP2	183	159 Laps
		88	Jonas Ried  Harry Tincknell  Don Yount	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	170	172 Laps
		4	Tom Dillmann  Esteban Guerrieri  Tristan Vautier	Vanwall Vandervell 680	HYPERCAR	165	177 Laps
		777	Tomonobu Fujii  Satoshi Hoshino  Casper Stevenson	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	163	179 Laps
		47	Reshad de Gerus  Vlad Lomko  Simon Pagenaud	Oreca 07	LMP2	158	184 Laps
		77	Julien Andlauer  Christian Ried Mikkel Pedersen	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	118	224 Laps
		32	Anders Fjordbach  Mark Kvamme  Jan Magnussen	Oreca 07	LMP2	117	225 Laps
		63	Mirko Bortolotti  Daniil Kvyat  Doriane Pin	Oreca 07	LMP2	113	229 Laps
		7	Mike Conway  Kamui Kobayashi  Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	103	239 Laps
		66	Thomas Neubauer  Giacomo Petrobelli Louis Prette	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	89	253 Laps
		923	Tom Gamble  Dries Vanthoor  Salih Yoluc	Oreca 07	LMP2	87	255 Laps
		75	Mathieu Jaminet  Felipe Nasr  Nick Tandy	Porsche 963	HYPERCAR	84	258 Laps
		72	Valentin Hasse-Clot Arnold Robin Maxime Robin	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	58	284 Laps
		83	Luis Perez Companc  Alessio Rovera  Lilou Wadoux	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	33	309 Laps
		60	Matteo Cressoni  Alessio Picariello  Claudio Schiavoni	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	28	314 Laps
		16	Ryan Hardwick  Jan Heylen  Zacharie Robichon	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	28	314 Laps
		55	Gustav Birch  Jens Reno Moller  Marco Sorensen	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	21	321 Laps
		21	Simon Mann  Ulysse De Pauw  Julien Piguet	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	21	321 Laps
		13	René Rast  Ricky Taylor  Steven Thomas	Oreca 07	LMP2	19	323 Laps
		14	Mathias Beche  Ben Hanley  Rodrigo Sales	Oreca 07	LMP2	18	324 Laps