Ferrari secured its first outright 24 Hours of Le Mans victory since 1965, denying Toyota its sixth consecutive Le Mans win. The No. 51 crew of Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi scored the historic win for Ferrari on what is the 100th anniversary of the endurance racing classic.
The No. 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa finished second, over a minute behind. The No. 2 Cadillac V-Series.R of Alex Lynn, Earl Bamber and Richard Westbrook completed the podium.
- No. 51 Ferrari wins, completing 342 laps
- No. 8 Toyota second, 1min 21.793 secs behind
- Garage 56 NASCAR entry makes it to the finish line
Ferrari defeats Toyota to win 2023 Le Mans 24 Hours
Ferrari made its return to the top flight of the World Endurance Championship (WEC), with the 499P Le Mans Hypercar prototype. The racer showed flashes of speed in the first three races, and at Le Mans it finally displayed reliability as well.
Balance of Performance tweaks handed Toyota a 37kg and Ferrari a 24kg weight increase heading into Le Mans – a decision that Toyota team principal Kamui Kobayashi reckons cost them around 1.2 seconds per lap.
The centenary running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans provided several twists and turns. The polesitting No. 50 Ferrari lost five laps as the team investigated an issue with the car, and the No. 7 Toyota retired after a four-car crash at night. So, it ended up being a two-way fight for victory between the No. 51 Ferrari and No. 8 Toyota.
Ferrari’s lead was threatened when Pier Guidi spun into the gravel and it lost further time when forced to perform a power cycle during a pit stop with five hours to go. However, a mistake from Toyota driver Hirakawa, while chasing for the lead, helped Ferrari further secure its lead.
It faced another scare when the car refused to start after a pit stop and Guidi had to perform another power cycle, this time with just 23 minutes to go. But Ferrari had enough of an advantage to stay in the lead and finally cross the line to take victory, having completed 342 laps. Cadillac finished third and fourth respectively, finishing ahead of the second Ferrari entry.
Ferrari remain second in the overall WEC standings, but have now narrowed the gap to Toyota to 19 points.
LMP2: Inter Europol Competition win
The LMP2 class saw an incredible final hour battle between the No. 34 Inter Europol Competition car driven by Fabio Scherer and the No. 41 Team WRT car of Louis Deletraz. Scherer was nursing a suspected broken left foot after a Corvette GTE Am car ran over it during a pitstop.
The gap came down to just nine seconds towards the end of the race, but Scherer fended off Deletraz to take victory, along with his teammates Jakub Smiechowski and Albert Costa. Inter Eurpol Competition, therefore, became the first Polish team to win in WEC.
The No. 30 Duqueine Team entry – with drivers Neel Jani, Rene Binder and Nicolas Pino – finished third.
LMGTE Am: Corvette win
Corvette Racing scored its first-ever LMGTE Am victory at Le Mans. The No. 33 car – driven by Ben Keating, Nicolas Varrone and Nicky Catsburg – struggled with a damper problem in the opening stages, but overcame those issues to also secure what is the last-ever Le Mans win for a GTE car. The class will be replaced by GT3 next year.
The No. 25 ORT by TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage of Al Harthy, Michael Dinan and Charlie Eastwood finished second. The all-female Iron Dames crew of Rahel Frey, Michelle Gatting and Sarah Bovy missed out on the podium, with the No. 86 GR Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Mike Wainwright, Riccardo Pera and Ben Barker securing third place.
Garage 56 NASCAR entry completes Le Mans 24 Hours
General Motors, Goodyear and Hendrick Motorsports teamed up to field a specially adapted Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in this year’s race. And they came all guns blazing with a star-studded line-up comprising 2010 Le Mans winner Mike Rockenfeller, seven-time NASCAR Cup champion Jimmie Johnson and 2009 F1 champion Jenson Button. The car, which clearly stood out from the rest of the grid, competed as the Garage 56 entry reserved for an innovative car.
Despite a drive line issue forcing the car to spend well over an hour in the garage for a gearbox change, the Camaro was able to complete the race in 39th place. In fact, before the issue creeped up, the car was running as high at 27th place, ahead of the entire LMGTE Am field.
2023 Le Mans 24 Hours results
Dipan Sur
