By John Sturbin, Raceday San Antonio

Victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans historically has been manufacturer-cyclical, and the current cycle is all about Ferrari’s “Prancing Horse.”

The Prancing Horse was shining at the Circuit de la Sarthe with an historic victory for Robert Kubica, Philip Hanson and Yifei Ye Sunday at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Photo crédit : DPPI

Ferrari freight-trained to its third consecutive victory in the French classic’s 93^rd edition Sunday at Circuit de la Sarthe, where the No. 83 AF Corse 499P Hypercar shared by Robert Kubica of Poland, Yifei Ye of China and Philip Hanson of Great Britain topped the 21-car field.

AF Corse emerged as the first “customer team” to win the world’s greatest endurance race since Champion Racing in 2005, upstaging the No. 50 and No. 51 factory Ferraris that had posted three victories between them during the opening rounds of the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) season.

The yellow No. 83 Ferrari finished 14 seconds in front of the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 shared by Frenchman Kevin Estre, Matt Campbell of Australia and Laurens Vanthoor of Belgium. Porsche was denied a record-extending 20^th overall victory at Le Mans.

Kubica and Ye became the first drivers from their respective nations to score overall victories at Du Mans for the famed Italian manufacturer. The No. 83 completed 387-laps/5,361-miles around the 8.467-mile/13.626-kilometer circuit in near-flawless Ferrari fashion. In addition, each FIA WEC-entered 499P now owns a Le Mans victory _ the No. 51 won in 2023 and the No. 50 in 2024.

“It’s a special day,” said Kubica, a former Formula One regular who was in the cockpit of the No. 83 at the checkered flag. “Winning Le Mans since I started here in 2021, I have really enjoyed it and felt like a small kid in karting. This will be emotional for a long time. It’s a special day, and I didn’t expect it.”

The No. 51 and No. 50 Ferraris staged an intramural battle for third, with the No. 51 shared by fellow-Italians Alessandro Pier Guidi and Antonio Giovinazzi and James Calado of Great Britain finishing less than a second ahead of the sister factory car driven by Antonio Fuoco of Italy, Nicklas Nielsen of Denmark and Miguel Molina of Spain.

Drivers of the Nos. 12 and 38 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.Rs score solid WEC points with fifth and eighth place finishes at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. (Courtesy of Cadillac Racing)

Meanwhile, the Hypercar pole-winning No. 12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R with Alex Lynn and Will Stevens of Great Britain and Norman Nato of France finished fifth after completing 387 laps. Lynn qualified on-pole Thursday _ a first for Cadillac and the first P1 start for an American automaker at Le Mans since Ford Motor Company in 1967.

The No. 12 Cadillac was joined in the front row by the No. 38 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R shared by Earl Bamber of New Zealand, Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais and Englishman Jenson Button, the 2009 Formula One World Driving Champion with Brawn. The No. 38 Cadillac finished eighth Sunday after completing 386 laps, with Bourdais setting the race’s fastest lap at 3-minutes, 26.063-seconds on Lap 310 of 387.

No. 12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. (Courtesy of Cadillac Racing)

Recall that Bamber, Lynn and Richard Westbrook of Great Britain took third place in 2023 in Cadillac Racing’s return to Le Mans after a 21-year absence. Bamber, Lynn and Alex Palou of Spain led the three-car Cadillac contingent in 2024 with a seventh-place finish.

“To have both cars cross the finish line in the top-eight, to have both cars start from the front row, we are beyond proud,” said Sam Hignett, found and director of JOTA Sport. “It’s easy to think about what could have been right now but we need to take a moment to focus on how far we’ve come in the few short months since we’ve formally been working together with Cadillac. This week was a real achievement and it’s important to acknowledge that. The whole team has worked phenomenally hard to get to this point and while we know we still have a way to go we have 365 days to prepare for this one next year.

No. 38 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. (Courtesy of Cadillac Racing)

“Obviously, we want to be on the podium, we want to win but this is a really solid start to a long-term project. Special thanks go to our partners _ GM, Hertz, Knighthead and all the entire JOTA family. We are so grateful for their continued faith in us.”

With their top-10 finishes, the sister Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.Rs earned corresponding double points after Round 4 of the eight-race WEC schedule.

“Overall, I’m feeling satisfied,” said Lynn, 31. “We came here and put on a really good show and a huge amount of effort. Our potential was definitely clear on Thursday and it’s a moment I won’t forget. We finished inside the top-five behind three very strong Ferraris and a Porsche. I think we maximized everything we could this weekend. We go home with our heads held high.”

No. 101 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. (Courtesy of Cadillac Racing)

Nato agreed the No. 12 Cadillac team overachieved in its Le Mans debut among a field of 62 cars in three classes. “At this level, against so many other manufacturers, the competition is fierce,” said Nato, 32. “We had a clean race, clean driving, clean pit stops, no penalties. Finishing in the top-five is a great result. We’re just at the beginning of our partnership and there’s so much potential to explore together. We’re just going to get better and better. We’ll be back next year to fight for the win.”

Stevens, 33, classified his teammates as “an ambitious group of people. Ultimately, we come in to win. I think we should be proud of what we’ve done over these last 10 days. Qualifying on-pole, locking-out the front row and I think as a team we executed a great race and achieved the maximum that we could. For Cadillac, JOTA and GM, I think it’s a good result.”

No. 311 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. (Courtesy of Cadillac Racing)

The mood in the No. 38 Cadillac paddock was similarly upbeat after its eighth-place result. “We’ve proved that we have a really quick car,” said Bamber, 34, whose resume features stints as a factory driver for Corvette Racing and Porsche Motorsport. “The race never went our way. We slowly crept back. The positive is we have pace and we need to work a lot to get ready for next year to try to win it. I think we have all the right ingredients and the car to do it.”

Bourdais, a 46-year-old Le Mans native who made his 18th start in this event, acknowledged the No. 38 Cadillac team needs to clean-up its race-day performance. “We made some mistakes,” said Bourdais, the Champ Car World Series champion in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007. “We got a bit unlucky at times. But, overall, we need to be stronger to win a WEC race right now. We’re showing some good things and just need to build on the strengths and fill the gap for the weaknesses.”

Button said locking-out the front row in P2 during qualifying was a massive moment for the No. 38 team. “Unsurprisingly, this race has been incredibly tough,” said Button, 45. “There’s a reason why it has the reputation it does. No one gets out of the car feeling like they haven’t given it their all. We definitely had some serious speed in the high-speed corners. This got us our qualifying positions, but pushing this during the race compromised the tires. In the race we weren’t able to capitalize on our high speed.

“We’ve definitely learned a lot this week. We have some work to do for the races to come but I’ll be leaving Le Mans very proud of the entire team.”

The two U.S.-based Cadillac Hypercar entries that contest the top class of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship failed to complete the race distance. The No. 101 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R and No. 311 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R lost power on-course and retired _ the No. 101 just past the event’s mid-point (189 laps-completed) and the No. 311 in the 17th hour (247 laps-completed). “We will diagnose the root cause of the issue and prepare to race again,” Cadillac Racing said in a statement.

While the Wayne Taylor Racing entry was making its Le Mans debut, all three drivers and team-owner Taylor had competed multiple times in the event. Jordan Taylor, Wayne’s son, celebrated a GTE Pro class win at Le Mans for the factory Corvette Racing team 10 years ago. Wayne Taylor last competed at Le Mans in 2002 in the final year of Cadillac’s Northstar LMP project.

The No. 311 Whelen Cadillac driven by Jack Aitken of Great Britain, Felipe Drugovich of Brazil and Frederik Vesti of Denmark was running in the top-10 early in Action Express Racing’s third trip to Circuit de la Sarthe. Aitken set the Hypercar qualifying track lap time record of 3-minutes, 22.742-seconds Thursday evening in the first of two Hyperpole rounds.

Wayne Taylor, who made 13 starts as a driver at Le Mans including three with Cadillac Racing, returned to the venue for the first time as a team-owner with his sons. Native Floridians Ricky and Jordan Taylor were joined by endurance ace Filipe Albuquerque of Portugal. The No. 101 Cadillac started 14^th in the 21-car Hypercar field after its crew and Cadillac engineers changed the 5.5-liter DOHC V8 engine out of precaution during Thursday afternoon’s free practice.

“It’s been an eventful weekend,” Wayne Taylor said. “Obviously, everyone came here with a lot of excitement. Family, race team, first time here. If I had to sum it up now, the guys did a heck of a job the entire weekend. To change an engine out in 1-hour and 27-minutes _ which normally takes three-to-five hours and be ready to qualify _ was amazing.

“The race just didn’t start that well. We got hit by someone at the start and caused damage to the car, which affected our performance. Once we got through all the skirmishes in the beginning, we were lapping the same as the leaders, so we were feeling pretty good.

“Thanks to Cadillac for giving us this opportunity. The relationship with Cadillac is very, very strong. I’m sad for them more than anybody. They put so much effort into this. I’ve been doing this for a long time, so I’m not leaving here really upset because I know this is what happens. You just have to pick up the ball and run with it. Luckily, we have a race next weekend in Watkins Glen and this will be history.”

Indeed, the Action Express Racing and Wayne Taylor Racing teams do have a quick turnaround, the next IMSA race on Sunday, June 22, at Watkins Glen International in New York State’s Finger Lakes Region.

Gary Nelson, general manager of the No. 311 Whelen Cadillac, noted the team had moved into the top-five at the end of Aitken’s first stint after starting eighth. “Then, about nine hours in, we had something with the steering,” Nelson said. “We wanted to be cautious, so we came in to change parts and that took six laps. It was just a matter of getting back out there and performing the best we could, show our fans and people throughout the racing industry that we don’t quit.

“Then in the 17th hour we lost drive out on the track and Fred (Vesti) couldn’t get the car back to the pits. When that happens, you’re forced to retire. If we could have made it back, we would have figured out something and gone back out there. But that ended our day.”

The No. 43 ORECA 07-Gibson shared by Jakub Smiechowski of Poland, Tom Dillmann of France and Nick Yelloly of Great Britain won in LMP2 _ a repeat of Inter Europol Competition’s victory in 2023. The No. 43 took the class lead with less than 15 minutes remaining en route to completing 367 laps.

All three Corvette Z06 GT3.R entries finished inside the top-10 in an incredibly deep and competitive field at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. (Courtesy photo)

TF Sport’s No. 81 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R finished on the LMGT3 podium Sunday in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the first top-three result in the world’s greatest sports car race for the Corvette GT3 program. Charlie Eastwood, Rui Andrade and Tom Van Rompuy combined to complete a lead-lap 341 laps.

“Amazing result,” said Eastwood, a 29-year-old GM factory driver from Belfast, Northern Ireland. “A podium at Le Mans and my first podium this season with Corvette. Not a bad place for it. As it has been for so many races last year and this year, not one thing went wrong. Every pit stop was perfect, not a single scratch on the car for 24 hours. We didn’t have the pace but we ended up on the podium because of that.

“Once we do have the pace of some of the other cars we’re going to win some races pretty comfortably. Amazing result for the team and delighted to finish my first 24-hour event with Corvette on the podium.”

The No. 92 Manthey 1ST Phorm Porsche 911 GT3 secured the class win with Ryan Hardwick of Nashville, Tenn.; Riccardo Pera of Italy and Richard Lietz of Austria, who combined to complete 341 laps for the famed German manufacturer.

All three Corvette Z06 GT3.R entries finished inside the top-10 in a deep field of 24 cars representing nine manufacturers. TF Sport’s No. 33 Corvette of Daniel Juncadella of Spain, Jonny Edgar of Great Britain and native Texan Ben Keating drove from 23rd in class at the start to seventh at the checkered flag after completing a combined 339 laps.

AWA and its No. 13 Corvette came from 24th in class early to 10th at the finish in the hands of native Californian Matt Bell, Orey Fidani of Canada and Lars Kern of Germany.

“Having all three of our Corvettes finish in the top-10 of the 24 Hours of Le Mans is an incredible accomplishment of which everyone involved can be proud,” said Jessica Dane, Corvette Racing Program Manager. “A massive thank you to our partner teams TF Sport and AWA for believing in this program and their collaborative efforts surrounding this race.

“Everyone at Corvette Racing is proud of the way both teams performed and carried themselves through testing, practice, qualifying and the race. Thanks to everyone at GM Motorsports, Pratt Miller and Bosch for their collaboration. Most of all, congratulations to the drivers, team management, the crews, the engineers and everyone who contributed to this fantastic result.”

The only misstep for the No. 81 was a drive-through penalty incurred during the seventh hour. Otherwise the TF Corvette moved into the lead just past the halfway point and remained a player in a back-and-forth fight for an LMGT3 podium finish via the combined efforts of Eastwood; Andrade, who is of Angolan-Portuguese descent, and Van Rompuy of Belgium.

The No. 33 Corvette trio rallied from a mechanical issue prior to the halfway point that cost Keating, Edgar and Juncadella two laps. The group not only finished in the points but earned enough to place third in the driver’s championship _now two spots ahead of their No. 81 teammates.

“If you had told me we would have gotten sixth-place points after starting 22nd out of 24 cars in the class, I think I would have said, ‘Thank you very much,’^” Keating said. “There is a possibility that we might or coulda/woulda/shoulda had more, but I don’t know that we did. Even if we didn’t have the wheel issue and the pit stop problem, with the safety car maybe we could have gotten a little more but maybe not.”

A 53-year-old native of Tomball, Texas, Keating is the owner of 30 auto dealerships across Texas under the banner of The Keating Auto Group based in Victoria. “I’m pretty happy with how we finished the day,” Keating said. “We got valuable points that we needed. Winning Le Mans is always on the Bucket List, no matter how many times you’ve done it. But my main goal is to win the championship. We’re still in that hunt for sure.”

AWA’s Canadian-themed No. 13 Corvette impressed in its Le Mans debut via its 10^th-place finish and 338 combined laps-completed. The team ran as high as sixth in the early part of the race’s second half and continued to push up the order in the closing hours.

“We knew from the start that we weren’t quite as competitive as we would have liked to be,” said Bell, a 39-year-old native of Mountain View, Calif. “But it was everyone’s first time here _ except mine _ so there was a lot to learn during the event. AWA and the team delivered a top-notch performance as usual. I’m proud of the whole crew and to see all three Corvettes in the top-10. We like winning on this team and even if we didn’t do that today, we can be very proud of the effort. We learned a lot and we’ll be back.”

Corvette Racing’s next event in the FIA World Endurance Championship is the Six Hours of Sao Paulo in Brazil on Sunday, July 13.