2023-06-11 17:50:49
He Ferrari 499P number 51 of the ‘AF Corse’ team, piloted in turns by the Italians Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi and the British James Calado, achieved victory this Sunday in the centenary edition of the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans of endurance motorsport, a race that he had not won for 57 years.
In its first appearance at Le Mans in the top category for 50 years, the Ferrari, which completed 342 laps, prevailed ahead of the Toyota GR010 Hybrid number 8 of the Swiss Sébastien Buemi, the New Zealander Brendon Hartley and the Japanese Ryō Hirakawa, second to one minute, 21 seconds and 793 thousandths.
Two Cadillac V-Series R finished behind them: the number 2, shared by the New Zealander Earl Bamber and the British Alex Lynn and Richard Westbrook, who completed the podium at 2:18.917 and one lap less; and the number 3 of the Frenchman Sébastien Bourdais, the New Zealander Scott Dixon and the Dutchman Renger van der Zande, fourth after 2 laps.
Ferrari had not achieved absolute victory at Le Mans for 57 years, when in 1965 it won the 250 LM of the ‘North American Racing’ team. In addition, the Italian brand breaks Toyota’s streak of five consecutive wins.
Mechanical problems
Ferrari’s success could have been greater if it weren’t for the mechanical problems of the #50 of Spanish Miguel Molina, Italian Antonio Fuoco and Danish Nicklas Nielsen. A stone in the car’s radiator dropped him in a classification in which he finished fifth, five laps behind the winner. He was detained for 25 minutes to repair the cooling system of the hybrid system.
The centenary race responded to expectations, with sixteen cars in the premier category, the Hypercar, and 300,000 spectators at the La Sarthe track. The favourites, Toyota, Ferrari, Porsche, Cadillac and Peugeot, took turns leading the race. And the rain was also the protagonist to cause numerous accidents and run off the track.
Among the incidents of the race, the most notorious was the one carried out by the Toyota nº7, that of the British Mike Conway, the Japanese Kamui Kobayashi and the Argentine José María ‘Pechito’ López. With the Japanese at the wheel, the car was knocked out when it was involved in a multiple accident after midnight. He was hit by a GTE when he slowed down excessively and had to withdraw.
Mishap with the Toyota
The first two in the final table were the ones with the fewest problems and fought for victory in the final part. The #51 Ferrari had much better pace. He could only lose the race in the pits and it could have happened just over five hours from the end when Pier Guidi stopped for two minutes to reset the car. Buemi took advantage of it to take the lead, but he did not hold the pace of the Ferrari for long.
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And with an hour and three quarters to go, with Hirakawa at the wheel, the Toyota had a start in which it damaged the front and rear of the GR010. The Japanese had to return to the garage and lost three minutes and any chance of victory.
The final turns for Ferrari went to Giovinazzi and Pier Guidi, who finished victorious and gave the Italian marque its tenth victory at La Sarthe and its first since 1965. Ferrari had not competed in the premier class at Le Mans since 1973.
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