Ferrari repeats as overall champion at 24 Hours of Le Mans
By John Sturbin, Raceday San Antonio
Ferrari and its faithful, red-clad “tifosi” celebrated a second consecutive victory Sunday in the world’s greatest automobile endurance race _ the 92nd edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans _ following a closing laps battle with Toyota Gazoo Racing.
50 FUOCO Antonio (ita), MOLINA Miguel (spa), NIELSEN Nicklas (dnk), Ferrari AF Corse, Ferrari 499P #50, Hypercar, FIA WEC, portrait, celebrating victory during the podium of the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans, 4th round of the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship, on the Circuit des 24 Heures du Mans, from June 15 to 16, 2024 in Le Mans, France – Photo Charly Lopez / DPPI
Running low on fuel on a wet racetrack, Nicklas Nielsen of Denmark crossed the finish line first in the No. 50 Ferrari AF Corse Hypercar shared with Antonio Fuoco of Italy and Miguel Molina of Spain in the twice-around-the clock French classic. The winning Ferrari covered 311 laps around the 8.47-mile/13.629-kilometers Circuit De La Sarthe.
Nielsen, Fuoco and Molina stood atop the Hypercar podium as first-time overall winners for the “Prancing Horse” marque founded by the legendary Enzo Ferrari.
The No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid driven by Jose Maria Lopez of Argentina, Japanese ace Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries of The Netherlands finished 14.221-seconds behind the Ferrari after starting 23rd and last in the premier Hypercar field. Toyota’s challenge was hampered when Lopez spun at the signature Dunlop Curve, losing time to the leader. Trailing by approximately 30-seconds with 30 minutes remaining, Toyota Gazoo management instructed Lopez to bring the black car home in second place.
However, the outcome had remained in doubt into the final hour during a race dampened by overnight and afternoon rain and multiple on-track incidents that dispatched the Porsche Safety Car for more than five hours.
The winning Ferrari’s fuel gauge reportedly was registering around 2 percent at the finish. “The worst for me was when they asked me to go slower because that’s usually where the mistakes happen,” Nielsen said. “The last lap was so long. They kept me updated on the gap…so it was just about managing the gap to the car in P2. But we did it.”
Adding to the winning Ferrari’s drama was a right-side door that suddenly flapped open, forcing an unscheduled pit stop. Ironically, that stop placed the Ferrari on an alternate fuel strategy that actually aided in the victory.
Ferrari’s winning threesome from 2023 _ factory driver Alessandro Pier Guidi of Italy, countryman Antonio Giovinazzi and James Calado of Great Britain _ finished third in the No. 51 Ferrari AF Corse entry on a gloomy Sunday marred by drizzle and overcast conditions.
Ferrari’s two factory cars were joined by the No. 83 AF Corse customer team entry driven by Robert Kubica of Poland, Robert Shwartzman of Israel and Yifei Ye of China. That car was parked four hours from the end, and placed 48th overall, with technical issues after leading the field on Saturday.
The No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 entered by American entrepreneur Roger Penske and qualified on-pole by Frenchman Kevin Estre finished fourth. Estre shared the cockpit with André Lotterer of Germany and Laurens Vanthoor of Belgium.
The No. 2 Cadillac V-Series.R that started second finished seventh with Alex Palou of Spain at the wheel. Palou, the two-time/reigning NTT IndyCar Series champion, shared driving duties with FIA World Endurance Championship teammates Earl Bamber of New Zealand and Alex Lynn of Great Britain.
A field of 62 cars in three classes took the green flag for Saturday afternoon’s flying start. The United Autosports Oreca entry of Britain’s Oliver Jarvis with Americans Bijoy Garg and Nolan Siegel won the second-tier LMP2 category.
In LMGT3, Richard Lietz of Austria, Morris Schuring of The Netherlands and Australian-Palestinian Yasser Shahin emerged victorious in the No. 91 Porsche 911 R LMGT3. Manthey EMA Porsche delivered the 111th class win for the German manufacturer.
Cadillac Racing entered to WEC competition last year, posting third, fourth and 17th-place finishes in the GM brand’s return to Du Mans after a 21-year absence. The No. 2 Cadillac led 61 of 311 laps, continuing to make a statement in the Hypercar field.
“We definitely came here much more prepared than last year,” Bamber said. “We ticked all the boxes that we wanted to improve on. We led the race for long periods of time. Ultimately, didn’t swing in our favor with the weather at the end. But that’s sort of Le Mans and racing. We can be proud as a program about what we’ve achieved, how much we’ve gone forward. Now we just need a result to show for it. Other than that, I think we’ve made big leaps and bounds forward.”
American entrepreneur Briggs Cunningham first brought Cadillac to Le Mans in 1950 _ fielding a pair of Series 61 Caddy coupes, including the low-slung car dubbed “Le Monstre.” Those distinctly American, V8-powered cars proved immensely popular with European racing fans.
“We absolutely gave it our everything all week,” Lynn said. “It’s been a close fight, led a lot of laps and Ferrari and Toyota coming out just a little better than us _ similar to last year. We’ll regroup and go again. I’m proud of the efforts of everybody at Cadillac, Chip Ganassi Racing and those who support us.”
In particular, CGR’s Palou impressed the WEC regulars with his race craft as a Le Mans rookie. “It was a lot of fun till the end,” Palou said, “just because of that hope of trying to get the win but failing at the end. It was a great experience the first time doing Le Mans with Cadillac. I learned a lot and looking forward to the next one.”
Palou, in fact, added a new experience to his resume. “It was actually the first time I drove in the rain at night,” Palou said. “It was a first time for many things this year.”
Cadillac Racing’s second WEC season began with a fourth-place finish at Qatar _ a result that subsequently was nullified because of an unintentional technical infringement. After a sub-par race result at Imola in Italy, the No. 2 Cadillac was competing for a podium spot at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium in May when contact with two other cars that caused a lengthy red flag not only produced a DNF but also a five-spot grid penalty that FIA stewards enforced at Le Mans.
The No. 311 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R _ reigning IMSA Grand Touring Prototype team champion _ was running in and out of the top-10 until Pipo Derani of Brazil lost control of the car in the Indianapolis Curve and made contact with the tire barrier with 5-hours, 24-minutes left. Derani was able to limp the battered car back to pit lane, where the Action Express Racing team began assessing what would be needed to return.
The Action Express mechanics systematically completed repairs and the No. 311 Cadillac returned to the track with 3-hours, 14-minutes left. The No. 311 Whelen entry with Derani, Jack Aitken of Great Britian and 2022 Formula 2 champion Felipe Drugovich of Brazil in his Le Mans debut finished 29th overall and 15th in-class.
“Unfortunately, we don’t know if it was water running across the track from the cars that went by before me or debris, but I did lose the car suddenly and had no time to react,” Derani said. “I had a big impact but fortunately everything is OK with me. It’s a shame because we were trying to fight our way back onto the lead lap. Racing at Le Mans sometimes can be cruel; you live and learn and try to be better next time.”
Five of 23 Hypercars did not finish, including the No. 3 Cadillac V-Series.R with IMSA teammates Sebastien Bourdais of France and Renger van der Zande of The Netherlands complemented by six-time NTT IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon of New Zealand. They were running in the top-10 most of the race before discovery of an oil tank puncture with 5-hours, 45-minutes left caused the car to retire.
Dixon was at the wheel when the car began to slow, eventually stopping on-track. Dixon was able to start and re-start the car and keep it running long enough to return to the pits, where it was wheeled into its garage.
“It was definitely an eventful race,” Dixon deadpanned. “I think conditions alone created a lot of strange things. The sad part is we were back in it on the lead lap. We had the Safety Car pack-up and were going to restart seventh or eighth. All would have been on for a decent finish. That’s how racing goes. It was a lot of fun to be here again with Cadillac.”
Bourdais, van der Zande, Derani and Aitken will be back in action June 21-23 at Watkins Glen International in Upstate New York for the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen, the third of five races in the Michelin IMSA Endurance Cup and sixth race in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.
“It’s a shame we’ve had DNFs in the two biggest races of the year, but it’s part of racing,” said Bourdais, a native of Le Mans. “We tried to fight as much as we could and did the best we could. Now we’re going to go back to the States and tackle the Six Hours _ another tough event. We have work to do because we weren’t very good there last year and we didn’t have the luxury to go testing with the tight schedule.
“We hopefully made some good progress on the hard tire and the set-up for Watkins and we’ll keep pushing. We’re second in the championship, so we’ll try to maximize the results.”
The next FIA World Endurance Championship race for Bamber and Lynn is July 12-13 at Interlagos in Brazil. And Cadillac Racing will begin pointing toward the 93rd edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, scheduled for June 14-15, 2025.
