Ferrari wins 24 Hours of Le Mans after epic duel with Toyota

Ferrari has claimed victory at the centenary edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, 58 years after its machinery last triumphed in motorsport’s most prestigious endurance race.

The #51 499P of James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi prevailed in a typically chaotic and enthralling race, in which all of its main rivals - Toyota, Cadillac, Porsche and Peugeot - led the way in an opening 12 hours hit by long safety car periods and rain.

One by one several contenders in the top Hypercar class faltered: the #7 Toyota was forced to retire with Kamui Kobayashi behind the wheel, taken out by the #35 Alpine LMP2 and #66 Ferrari GTE Am while slowing for a slow zone early on in the night.

Peugeot’s unfancied and off-the-pace 9X8 (Jean-Eric Verge had told TG.com “top five would feel like a win”) was a surprise contender until the mid-way point, when Gustavo Menezes binned it in one of the Mulsanne straight’s chicanes.

And the #6 Porsche 963 fell away early in the morning, needing extensive garage repairs after an off at - would you believe it? - the Porsche Curves.

And with the #2 and #3 Cadillac V-Series.Rs lurking in third and fourth place, that left the #51 Ferrari to battle it out with the #8 Toyota of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa, and a painfully slow pit stop for the Ferrari with around six hours to go left the two cars separated by only a handful of seconds.

However, the decisive moment came with 90 minutes left to run when Hirakawa locked up the rears and hit the barrier at Arnage. A pit stop to fix the damage cost the team precious minutes, and gave Ferrari equally precious (and as it turned out, crucial) breathing room as it once again languished during its final pit stop, needing a system restart to fire up again just 20 minutes from the finish.

But finish it did, amassing 342 laps over the 24 hours. And although the pole-sitting #50 car had to settle for fifth place, both 499Ps completed a victory lap in formation, taking in applause from the fans and waved home by the marshals.

In the middle LMP2 tier, the #34 Inter Europol Competition of Albert Costa, Jakub Smichowski and Fabio Scherer beat the #41 Team WRT to the line by just 21 seconds, Scherer bringing the car home despite apparently breaking his foot when the #33 Corvette ran over it before the race began. And no, we haven’t made that up.

Clearly nothing was going to get in the way of the Corvette because it took the honours in the GTE Am class, with Nicky Catsburg, Ben Keating and Nicolas Varrone completing a pole-and-victory double ahead of the #25 Vantage and #86 911 RSR-19.

Special mention must also go to the fourth-placed #85 Iron Dames entry, with the all-female line-up of Sarah Bovy, Rahel Frey and Michelle Gatting just missing out on the podium having led the class entering the final quarter. Had they held on, they would’ve become the first female-only team to win its class since Christine Dacremont, Marianne Hoepfner and Michele Mouton did so in a 2.0-litre prototype in 1975.

Meanwhile the Garage 56-occupying, #24 Chevy Camaro ZL1 NASCAR of Jenson Button, Jimmie Johnson and Mike Rockenfeller acquitted itself well, qualifying quicker than the GTE Am field and running ahead of it for a good chunk of the race before mechanical troubles late on dropped it to 39th of the 40 finishers.

That means a grand total of 22 retirements, and among them was Michael Fassbender: for the second year running the actor suffered heartbreak (and a crash) at Le Mans, losing an argument with a tyre barrier at Porsche Curves that ended his #911 car’s involvement with less than five hours left on the clock.

The overall result brings to an end five years of Toyota domination at Le Mans, and while the team can be proud of its efforts it will no doubt be quietly furious about the Balance of Performance changes that pegged back its pace just a week and a half before the race.

That’s a debate for another day though. Time to reflect on Ferrari’s long-overdue win at Le Mans, and (as always) get some much-needed sleep. Forza Ferrari! Forza Ferrari! Forzzzzz…