Ferrari and its no. 51,499P LMH overcame last-minute gremlins to claim victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans on Sunday, which served as the fourth round of the 2023 world endurance championship.
In the closing minutes, the no. The 51 car driven by Alessandro Pier Guidi, Antonio Giovinazzi and James Calado were comfortably in the lead but were unable to restart after the final pit stop.
Decisive seconds passed as Pier Guidi tried to restart the car to finish second no. 8 Toyota GR010 hybrid LMH After almost a minute of trying from Brendon Hartley, Ryō Hirakawa and Sébastien Buemi, however, Pier Guidi was successful and went on to take victory, taking Ferrari’s 10th overall win at Le Mans and first since 1965. Ferrari raced at Le Mans for the first time since 1973.
The no. 8 Toyota finished second, 81 seconds behind. The third place is no. 2 Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn and Richard Westbrook were one lap back.
Ferrari was the dominant team early on. It is not. 50 499P took pole position and was joined at the front of the grid by the No. 2 51 Ferraris. The no. The No. 50 car driven by Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen was in contention for most of the race, but during overnight repairs to replace a damaged radiator, the car went down in several places. After an impressive fight, in the order no. 50 cars take the checkered flag as fifth, the no. 4 V-Series.R LMDh, Sébastien Bourdais, Renger van der Zande and Scott Dixon.
Porsche had a tough race. The no. 6,963 LMD He crashed early on with Kevin Estre behind the wheel and then lost another time due to a battery problem. The nurse no. 5 cars were in contention for the top five, until a broken drive shaft in the closing hour of the race dropped the car to ninth place.
The Porsche Jota customer team also had terrible luck. It is not. 38,963 suffered a serious accident while leading the race in the fifth hour. With Yifei Ye behind the wheel, the car hit the barriers in the Porsche corners, after which it had to spend about 20 minutes in the pits to get it going again. He ended up finishing 13th.
One of the most impressive performances of the day came from Glickenhaus Racing, who maintained their 100% target at Le Mans no. 708 and no. 709,007 LMH cars taking sixth and seventh place. It wasn’t a perfect run, though. Both cars went off the track on the Indianapolis Straight at various stages of the race before spending time in the pits for repairs.
In the LMP2 class, victory is the no. 31 Oreca 07, Inter Europol Competition, led by Jakub Śmiechowski, Fabio Scherer and Albert Costa. In the GTE Am class, the no. 3 Corvette Racing’s Chevrolet Corvette C8.R won the driving duties with Ben Keating, Nico Varrone and Nicky Catsburg.
Another Chevy entered the field this year. It was Hendrick Motorsports no. 24 Camaro ZL1 NASCAR Race Cars, which participated as a Garage 56 exhibition entry. Led by Jimmie Johnson, Jenson Button and Mike Rockenfeller, he finished 39th out of 62 starters. He drove all GTE race cars early on, but powertrain repairs stole an hour from the team.
Following this weekend’s action, Ferrari remains second in the manufacturers’ standings for the 2023 World Endurance Championship, closing the gap on Toyota to 19 points.
HIGH RESOLUTION GALLERY: Ferrari at the 2023 Le Mans 24 Hours
This article was originally published by Motor Authorityeditorial partner ClassicCars.com
