Joy once again at Le Mans for the Maranello team and there’s another Ferrari celebrating at the 24-hour race. The masterpiece is complete, repeating last year’s success seemed very difficult, if not impossible under extremely tough conditions. Yet Antonello Coletta’s team beat Toyota again thanks to the marvelous ride of Antonio Fuoco, Nicklas Nielsen, and Miguel Molina. They didn’t make a single mistake, on dry and wet conditions. With hearts in their throats and the fuel tank almost empty, the number 50 499P defended the crown won in 2023 when Ferrari returned to the premier class of the World Endurance Championship after half a century. On the podium was also the other red number 51 with Giovinazzi-Pier Guidi and Calado, the protagonists of the victory twelve months ago. A very significant double podium, the number 7 Toyota of Lopez-Kobayashi-De Vries is second, trailing by 14 seconds.
Le Mans is like a novel you never want to stop reading, a whole day of plot twists and upsets at the top. A hundred races in one: intermittent rain, day and night. Continuous safety cars due to many accidents, breakdowns, and problems resolved during the race. Repeated penalties adding or subtracting glory. Three-way, four-way battles among Ferrari-Toyota-Porsche-Cadillac. Fights everywhere on the asphalt of the Sarthe in one of the most uncertain and spectacular editions of recent years. Concluded under a downpour at the moment of maximum fatigue for everyone. Ferrari was not favored on the eve, the balance of performance – the algorithm that should level the performance of cars from different manufacturers – did not help them.
Robert Kubica’s regret
An absolute protagonist in the first part of the race, Robert Kubica was phenomenal driving in the wet and led for a long time in the number 83 499P Ferrari managed by the AF Corse team (not one of the two official Reds) shared with Robert Shwartzman and Yifei Ye. During an overtaking maneuver, the Hypercar of the Prancing Horse touched the number 15 BMW of Vanthoor, which suffered the worst of it and was forced to retire. Robert Kubica and his companions were penalized with a 30-second Stop&Go. Despite the handicap, the trio was still in contention for victory four hours before the checkered flag. Then came the malfunction while the Chinese Ye was in the cockpit, smoke from the front. Probably a hybrid malfunction. What a pity.
Valentino Rossi’s bitterness, forced to retire
It was Valentino Rossi’s first Le Mans, The Doctor had prepared for it with great care and usual enthusiasm. Aiming high in the class he was racing (LMGT3), and the start was excellent starting from the 12th position. Vale drove well under extremely difficult conditions with the BMW M4 of the WRT team. Maxime Martin, his teammate, also performed well. Past midnight, when Al Harthy took the wheel, the incident occurred near the Dunlop bridge: the driver from Oman managed to return to the pits but the damage was too severe to continue.
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