Ferrari defeats Toyota after epic rain battle, disaster for BMW

The 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans goes to Ferrari. The Italians defended their victory from last year after a dramatic duel against Toyota. Unlike in 2023, when the #51 took the win, this year it was the car with the number 50, and drivers Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen, that entered the winners’ list at Le Mans.

The Ferrari 499P crossed the finish line in front of over 300,000 spectators after 311 laps (4237.7 kilometers) with a lead of 14.221 seconds over the #7 Toyota of Jose Maria Lopez, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries. For Ferrari, it is the eleventh victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the second success in a row after the comeback triumph last year. Ferrari remains the third most successful manufacturer in the history of the 24 Hours of Le Mans after Porsche (19 victories) and Audi (13 victories).

Door drama endangers Le Mans triumph: Ferrari trembles victory over the line

In rainy France, the race was practically only decided when the driver crossed the finish line. Nicklas Nielsen had to make an unplanned pit stop 90 minutes before the end due to an open door that could not be closed and was therefore forced to save fuel to avoid an additional stop.

The victory was preceded by a dramatic battle between the Toyota duo and the two factory Ferraris, which also escalated on the track at times. Two hours before the end, the #51 Ferrari and the #8 Toyota were dueling for second place behind the winning car. When Alessandro Pier Guidi attempted to overtake, the Toyota was hit and spun.

Only this incident gave the #7 Toyota a chance to win and ultimately brought it second place. The #8 Toyota (Buemi/Hartley/Hirakawa) only reached the finish line in fifth place, while the #51 Ferrari (Pier Guidi/Giovinazzi/Calado) took third place despite this incident.

Le Mans 24h: Lots of action despite four-hour safety car phase

Aside from the final duel for victory between Toyota and Ferrari, the race was characterized by the expected tough battles over almost the entire distance. In addition to the two hypercars, Porsche and Cadillac also had chances of winning at times.

There were also numerous short but mostly intense rain showers during the race. Heavy and persistent rain during the night meant that the safety car was on the track for over four hours at a time and even had to make a refueling stop during this time. In total, the neutralization vehicle was on the track for 6 hours and 54 minutes in three different SC phases. There were also 15 minutes of full-course yellow conditions.

Porsche narrowly misses Le Mans podium

Porsche was in the fight for the top positions for a long time. But on Sunday morning the 963s had to let up a bit and the sports car brand, which had often been considered the favorite beforehand, could no longer intervene in the battle between Ferrari and Toyota. However, the two full-time factory cars from the WEC in particular kept up with the pace of Toyota and Ferrari for most of the distance and without any major incidents.

The #6 Porsche (Estre/Lotterer/Vanthoor) finished in fourth position. The Penske sister car #5 (Campbell/Christensen/Makowiecki) crossed the line in sixth place. The Jota Porsche #12 (Stevens/Nato/Ilott), which had to be completely rebuilt for the race by the mechanics after an accident on Wednesday, finished the race in eighth place. The second Jota Porsche #38 (Rasmussen/Hanson/Button) finished the 24 Hours of Le Mans one position behind.

Just like Porsche, Cadillac also stayed in the fight for the top spots for a long time. The #2 car (Bamber/Lynn/Palou), which is a full-time starter in the WEC, only had to let up in the final hours and finished the race in seventh place. The Cadillac V-Series.R #3 (Bourdais/van der Zande/Dixon), which normally starts in the IMSA, retired after a defect on Sunday morning.

Lamborghini and Peugeot have no chance of winning

Lamborghini and Peugeot both reached the finish line with both cars. However, as was to be expected before the race, neither played a role in the battle for the front positions and were quickly lapped. The #63 Lamborghini (Bortolotti/Kvyat/Mortara) managed to secure a top 10 place two laps behind due to problems with the competition.

Behind them, the first Peugeot crossed the line with the #94 (Vandoorne/di Resta/Duval). The #19 Lamborghini (Grosjean/Caldarelli/Cairoli) finished in 12th place. The second Peugeot #93 (Vergne/Jensen/Müller) finished in 13th position after several incidents during the race.

The performance of Isotta-Fraschini was remarkable. For the barely competitive hypercar used by the Duqueine team, the finish can already be considered a success. The car with the number 11 (Benett/Vernay/Serravalle) finished the race in 14th place, nine laps behind.

Customer Ferrari with technical bad luck: Defect stops AF Corse

The drivers of the AF-Corse customer Ferrari #83 (Kubica/Shwartzman/Ye) were among the unluckiest in the 24-hour race. They were in the fight for victory for a long time and even led the race for a long time. However, four hours before the end of the race, smoke rose from the 499P during a pit stop due to a hybrid problem. The car was pushed back to the garage and could not return to the track.

Tricky conditions on Sunday meant that the Indianapolis corner caused numerous slip-ups. Two drivers in the Hypercar class were also affected: The #311 Whelen Cadillac and the #4 Penske Porsche with Felipe Nasr at the wheel were knocked out of the race in this section of the track in the morning and were either eliminated or far behind due to the damage sustained.

Disaster for BMW and Alpine: All hypercars out early

The 24-hour race in Le Mans was a disaster for BMW and Alpine: Both Alpines retired on Saturday evening due to engine failure. First the #35 Alpine (Chatin/Habsburg/Milesi) was hit, and an hour later Mick Schumacher’s car also had to retire (teammates: Lapierre/Vaxiviere).

BMW was taken out of the race on its comeback in the Le Mans top class due to a series of accidents. The #15 car first spun and slightly impacted the wall. The car with Dries Vanthoor at the wheel was then hit by the #83 AF Corse Ferrari during a failed lapping attempt and subsequently collided heavily with the track barrier.

The BMW M Hybrid V8, driven by Robin Frijns, also flew off the track in the penultimate chicane early in the race and hit the wall. Due to subsequent damage, this car also spent most of the race in the garage and did not return to the track.

With various technical problems, the #99 Proton Porsche was also out of the fight for positions early on. In total, 47 of the 62 cars that started crossed the finish line. In the Hypercar class, 17 of the 23 starters reached the finish line, including the #20 BMW in the Art Car design, which only completed 92 laps and therefore did not count towards the ranking.

24h Le Mans 2024: The result

Hypercars (Top 10)

LMGT3 class: Manthey-Porsche celebrates fourth Le Mans victory

At the first Le Mans appearance of the new LMGT3 class, the #91 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R (Shahin, Schuring, Lietz) prevailed after 280 laps. Final driver Richard Lietz made the racing team from Meuspath cheer and celebrated the fifth class victory after 2007, 2010, 2013 and 2022 in his 18th Le Mans start.

The Manthey 911 led the class from the morning onwards and stayed at the top throughout. The trio of Yasser Shahin, Morris Schuring and Lietz could not have afforded a single mistake: the second-placed #31 BMW M4 GT3 from WRT (Leung, Gelael, Farfus) was only 50 seconds behind at the finish!

For Manthey, it was the fourth class victory in its tenth start at Le Mans (formerly in the GTE class) after 2013, 2018 and most recently 2022. The team, founded by Olaf Manthey and now led by the Raeder brothers, collected its tenth podium finish in total at the endurance classic.

The #91 Porsche and the #31 BMW with final driver Augusto Farfus were in a league of their own on Sunday. The third-placed #88 Ford Mustang (Roda, Pedersen, Olsen) of the German team Proton Competition was one lap behind. Nevertheless, a strong team performance from the Proton team: fourth place went to the #44 Mustang (Ried, Tuck, Mies), in which Christopher Mies, among others, made his Le Mans debut. Fifth place went to the only female trio in the starting field, the #85 Iron Dames Lamborghini with Sarah Bovy, Rahel Frey and Michelle Gatting.

Valentino Rossi’s BMW retired early in Le Mans

For the sister BMW with the #46 (Martin, Rossi, Al-Harthy), in which motorsport world star Valentino Rossi made his Le Mans debut, the race ended prematurely. Bronze driver Ahmad Al-Harthy crashed at 00:46 on Sunday night while in sixth place.

The Omani lost control of the BMW M4 GT3 under the Dunlop arch and hit the guard rails. WRT subsequently withdrew the car. Rossi can at least look back on a strong debut at the 24-hour race, and the Italian even led the class at one point.

24h Le Mans – Result, LMGT3

Second Manthey Porsche unlucky

The second Manthey Porsche with starting number #92 (Malykhin, Sturm, Bachler) drove in the leading group for a long time on Saturday, until the trio received bad news on Saturday morning shortly after the end of the safety car phase: The 911 apparently had to be pushed into the garage with gearbox problems.

The work cost the #92 Porsche more than five laps of time, and the team later received a drive-through penalty for flagging. At the finish, the 911 driven by Austrian Porsche works driver Klaus Bachler was in 14th place, seven laps behind the winning sister 911.

In the class with 23 GT3 cars, which competed for the first time in Le Mans as successors to the GTE cars, six cars did not see the chequered flag. These included the two McLaren 720 S GT3s from United Autosports and the #54 Ferrari from AF Corse.

LMP2 class: United Autosports wins by 18 seconds

The LMP2 category is no longer part of the WEC this year, but was allowed to return for a one-off appearance in Le Mans. The winner from the field of 16 smaller prototypes was the #22 from United Autosports (Jarvis, Garg, Siegel).

The LMP2 class with its identical engines was traditionally hotly contested at Le Mans and provided the real show during Toyota’s years of dominance – and this time was no different: Behind the winners from United Autosports, the #34 Inter Europol (Smiechowski, Lomko, Novalak) crossed the finish line in second place, just 18 seconds behind. The #28 from IDEC Sport (Lafargue, Van Uitert, De Gerus) completed the podium in third place.

24h Le Mans, result LMP2 (top 3)