Ferrari out-run chasing Toyota to win again in demanding, rain-hit Le Mans · RaceFans

Ferrari repeated last year’s victory in the Le Mans 24 Hours in a race of ever-changing fortunes in mixed conditions.

The number 50 car, sister machine to last year’s race-winner, took the chequered flag 14 seconds ahead of the number seven Toyota. Nicklas Nielsen, who shared his car with Antonio Fuoco and Miguel Molina, drove a carefully-managed final stint in worsening conditions to eke out his energy as the number seven Toyota closed in.

Jose Maria Lopez, who was drafted in alongside Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries as a late substitute for the injured Mike Conway, was told to back off in the final half hour. But he pressed on in pursuit of Nielsen, more than halving the gap between them as Nielsen crossed the line with just 2% of his energy remaining.

Ferrari’s hopes suffered a double blow shortly after the 22-hour mark, at which point their factory cars held the top two places. First Alessandro Pier Guidi in the second-place number 51 car was passed by Lopez in the number seven Toyota.

Then the race director warned the race-leading 499P it had to take action over its loose right-hand door. The team urged Nielsen to try everything to close it, knowing he would be summoned into the pits if he couldn’t. Race director Eduardo Freitas took several laps to issue his warning, and though Ferrari eventually succumbed to the inevitable and brought Nielsen in, the timing of his early pit stop compromised them less than it might have done.

That left Nielsen out of sync with the remaining leaders as the laps ticked down. But a delay for Brendon Hartley in the sister number eight Toyota, knocked into a spin by Pier Guidi’s Ferrari at Mulsanne, cost it well over half a minute, and left Ferrari with only one of their Japanese rivals to worry about. Pier Guidi was penalised five seconds for the contact.

Car 50 made its final pit stop with 50 minutes remaining. With the track damp and drying at this stage, Nielsen’s chances of winning seemed slim. But more rain arrived, and with it energy consumption fell, playing into their hands.

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Meanwhile the number seven Toyota was losing time. A spin at the first chicane and a loss of power delayed Lopez’s pursuit. Although his last pit stop left him with all the power he needed, he struggled to bring the Ferrari’s lead down as the conditions worsened again. With 17 minutes remaining, Toyota told him to concentrate on bringing the car home.

The pole-winning number six Penske Porsche came fourth, with the delayed number eight Toyota separating it from the number five machine. The number of Penske Porsche ended its race in the Indianapolis barrier when Felipe Nasr spun out on a drying track in the 17th hour.

Cadillac hit trouble in the race’s 18th hour. First Scott Dixon came to a stop on the Mulsanne straight and had to crawl back to the pits using electrical power. Soon afterwards the number 311 Whelen Cadillac was delayed by a crash. The number two V-Series.R came in seventh, followed by the two Jota Porsches.

The first nine Hypercars home all completed 311 laps. The Lamborghinis and Peugeots occupied the next four places, two laps behind.

While the factory Ferraris finished on the podium, the AF Corse-run number 83 customer machine put up a strong challenge in the early stages. It was still in contention when it was forced to stop in the pits with less than four hours remaining. A smart decision to take soft tyres before an early, light rain shower helped Robert Kubica pull out a 20-second lead.

However their cause was derailed when Kubica tangled with Dries Vanthoor’s BMW on the Mulsanne straight, sending the number 15 car into a barrier and out of the race. Besides triggering a Safety Car period for barrier repairs which lasted over an hour and a half (during which time a dog was chased from the track), Kubica also incurred a stop-go penalty which dropped their car out of the lead.

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The car’s race came to an end shortly after Robert Shwartzman was passed by Buemi’s Toyota. Thick smoke poured from the front wheels as it came to a stop and the car was soon pushed back into the Ferrari garage, never to re-emerge.

BMW confirmed Vanthoor was uninjured in the crash. His retirement compounded a tough race for the marque, Robin Frijns having already suffered a crash in the number 20 machine when the race was just two hours old. Both Alpines retired before quarter-distance with engine trouble.

United Autosports won the LMP2 class with Oliver Jarvis, Bijoy Garg and Nolan Siegel, and Manthey’s Porsche 911 triumphed in the LMGT3 class with Yasser Shahin, Morris Schuring and Richard Lietz.

The Safety Car made several appearances during the race, including a prolonged, four-hour deployment during sustained rainfall overnight. The 311 laps completed by the winners is 31 less than last year.

Race result

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