2023-06-11 16:30:35
Forza-Ferrari! At the end of a beautiful centenary, the Scuderia won its first title at Le Mans for 59 years. Its heroes are called Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, and former F1 driver Antonio Giovinazzi. Toyota finishes 2nd and fails in its bid for six consecutive victories at Le Mans. The American Cadillac completes the podium and even places his 2nd car at the foot of the latter.
It is 2:15 p.m. when Toyota n°8 leaves its pit with Ryo Hirakawa on board. Too fast, the Japanese blocked the rear of his car and hit the safety rail at the front. Returning to the pits, he leaves very quickly but the damage is done. In the Ferrari stand, we observe the events with a small smile. There are less than two hours left. Twenty minutes from delivery, the n°51 stopped while taking off from its stand… before leaving to applause.
Between the two contenders for the coronation, the gap had never exceeded fifteen seconds since the middle of the night. The Peugeot n°94 was then in the lead and surprised everyone, but Gustavo Menezes made a mistake and hit the safety tyres. Too bad for the lion brand which had negotiated the first part of the race well, thwarting the torrential rains which had fallen on part of the circuit.
The latter, which were expected, caused panic among the competitors who had started on slick tyres. Many went straight to the end of the track when it wasn’t a spinning top. The exit of the safety car caused huge traffic jams in the pitlane. At the end of the evening, the second Toyota n°7 driven by Kobayashi was caught in a pile-up and forced to retire. The fireworks are then in the sky of Le Mans, not at the Japanese manufacturer!
On the tricolor side, apart from Sébastien Bourdais’ 4th in the Cadillac, it’s grimace soup. The two Peugeots (n°93 and 94) finished 8th and 12th respectively, whereas they were 11th and 10th after qualifying. Jean-Eric Vergne’s racing car was well placed to enter the Top 5 when its hood flew away in a straight line at more than 300 km/hour!
“I immediately signaled, checked the brakes and asked what maximum speed I could go, explains the former F1 driver. It’s a shame, so far both cars have been doing a great race. Unfortunately, we also had steering problems at the end…” Doriane Pin and Lilou Wadoux, the two young prodigies of this world championship, gave up prematurely. Just like actor Michael Fassbender.
CLASSIFICATION
HYPERCAR : 1. Ferrari AF Corse n°51 (Pier Guidi, Calado, Giovinazzi); 2. Toyota n°8 (Buemi, Hartley, Hirakawa); 3. Cadillac n°2 (Bamber, Lynn, Westbrook) ; 4. Cadillac n°3 (Bourdais, van der Zande, Dixon); 5. Ferrari AF Corse n°50 (Fuoco/Molina/Nielsen); 6. Glickenhaus n°708 (Dumas, Pla, Briscoe); 7. Glickenhaus n°709 (Mailleux, Berthon, Gutiérrez); 8. Peugeot n°93 (Di Resta, Jensen, Vergne).
LMP2 : 1. Inter Europol n°34 (Smiechowski, Scherer, Costa)
GTE AM : 1. Corvette Racing (Keating, Catsburg, Varrone)
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