Ferrari Completes an Epic Le Mans Hat Trick
Three in a Row for Maranello, but Porsche Prevents a Dominant 1-2-3
‘Privateer’ yellow Ferrari trio, Robert Kubica, Phil Hanson and Yifei Ye overcame all the Hypercar factory entries to deliver Ferrari a Le Mans hat trick with a third 24 Hour win in a row on Sunday. It was however the works Penske Porsche number 6 trio, Matt Campbell, Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor who took maximum Hypercar points in second, when they beat the red 2024 winning 50 and 2023 winning 50 factory cars to stop a Ferrari 1-2-3. The winning 83 Ferrari does not score Hypercar points.
The Ferraris dominated, running 1-2-3 for much of the race. But a cunning strategy by the 6 Porsche, and a little bad luck for the red Ferraris, ultimately saw the German machine outpace its Italian factory rivals for second. Just 30 seconds split the top four despite it being the cleanest and most caution-free 24 Hour in several years.
Behind the dominant top four JOTA Cadillac trio Will Stevens, Norman Nato and Alex Lynn ended fifth, 2 minutes seconds adrift. The Conway Kobayashi de Vries Gazoo Racing Toyota, the second Andlauer Christensen Jaminet Penske Porsche, the second Bamber Bourdais Button JOTA Cadillac and the third wildcard Nasr Tandy Wehrlein Penske Porsche followed, all of them a lap down. The best of the French cars, the Chatin Habsburg Milesi Alpine finished a further lap adrift in tenth.
Hat Trick Ferrari Also Unbeaten in 2025 WEC
Ferrari’s win also means the red and yellow cars remain unbeaten, four rounds into the 2025 World Endurance Championship. Its three crews have each won a after Ferrari’s twelfth overall victory in 93 Le Mans 24 Hours. Maranello is the third most successful marque behind Porsche on 19 and Audi with 13 wins. Kubica is the first Polish driver to win at Le Mans and Ye the first Chinese. Kubica is the also the only driver aside from Fernando Alonso to have won both Le Mans and a Grand Prix in the 21st century.
All of which leaves Ferrari in a significant World Endurance Championship lead, 103 points clear of Toyota with Porsche a further eleven points adrift in third despite equalling Ferrari’s Le Mans Hypercar points tally. The yellow Ferrari has a handsome privateer Teams championship lead, the 5 leads the driver’s standings from the 83 and the 51, with the 6 Porsche fourth on around than half the points of the worst Ferrari.
Manthey Porsche meantime scored a back-to-back Le Mans LMGT3 victory when Ryan Hardwick, Richard Lietz and Riccardo Pera’ 911 R benefited main rivals, Valentino Rossi, Ahmad Al Harthy and Kelvin van der Linde’s BMW M4 GT3, crashed out. That left the Heriau Mann Rovera Ferrari 296 to take second from the Andrade Eastwood van Rompuy Corvette, the James Drudi Robichon Aston Martin and Umbrarescu Lopez Schmid Lexus with five different makes in the LMGT3 top five.
Porsche takes 24 Hour LMGT3, Inter Europol LMP2
In between the Hypercar and LMGT3 packs, the presently unique to Le Mans LMP2 class saw Tom Dillmann, Jakub Smiechowski and Nick Yelloly’s Inter Europol ORECA beat off home favorites VDS Panis Racing’s Oliver Gray, Esteban Masson and Franck Perera with Dane Cameron, Louis Deletraz and PJ Hyett’s TF version a lap down in third.
The weekend’s action commenced when the JOTA Cadillacs stole the front row of the grid in a surprise Hyperpole 1-2. Most pundits reckoned that the real pacemakers had not shown their cards in Hyperpole. That much proved accurate when Julien Andlauer’s 5 Porsche swept into to lead by less than a minute into the 24 Hour. Two and a half hours later, the Ferraris had worked their way up from their so-so qualifying efforts to see Antonio Fuoco leading in the 50 car.
The number 6 Porsche similarly scythed through the pack after losing its Hyperpole time for being underweight, but not even it could prevent the Ferraris from running 1-2-3 up front by 8 pm. The Porsche however took advantage of several Ferrari issues to lead by midnight. The 51 suffered a puncture before a five-second penalty, and then a 20-second stop-go penalty for breaking the pitlane speed limit. The 50 Ferrari took a yellow flag drive-through penalty, while the 6 Porsche enjoyed a clean run.
Porsche Kept Ferrari on its Toes for 24 Hours
A 3 am LMP2 crash then caused the only safety car of the race. To allow the Ferraris to eliminate their two-minute deficit to the leading 6 Porsche. But it was the 8 Toyota that emerged in the lead at 4 am. Only to be caught and passed by Ye in the yellow Ferrari before that hour was out. There was more drama when Kubica argued with the team when he felt his yellow car was quicker than the leading red 51, but Giovinazzi duly opened the gap again to put paid to the discussion.
Then Pier Guidi spun the leading 51 as he entered the pits to drop to third behind his 83 and 50 teammates. The 8 Toyota’s podium challenge ended with a loose wheel following a pitstop. All while the yellow Ferrari maintained a 33-second advantage up front. The 6 Porsche had however enjoyed a problem free run as it showed great pace to allow Matt Campbell to catch and pass Calado’s 51 and then also the 50 Ferrari, both of which were reported to be struggling with various issues.
Kevin Estre then took the 6 Porsche over and while he whittled down the gap, he could not get withing much less than ten second of the leader as Kubica stormed home to an historic privateer victory over the Hypercar winning Porsche and Giovinazzi and Fuoco, who fought all the way to the flag for third.
A Solid 24 Hour for Pole sitters, Fastest Lap Cadillac
The 12 Cadillac enjoyed a solid race to finish fifth position, just two minutes off the winning pace after a mostly trouble-free race. The 7 Toyota followed a lap down and, some way from challenging for victory. Which the Gazoo machines last achieved three years ago. Since when they chased the Ferraris home to second in the past two Le Mans 24 Hours. The 7 made it two points paying Porsches in the Hypercar top six. Sebastien Bourdais also set the fastest lap of the race in the pole sitting 38 Cadillac. Which was also slowed by a puncture and two Bourdais incidents on its way to eighth.
Porsche’s wildcard number 4 came home ninth. Ahead of the Alpines. They endured an invisible race. Except for a series of clashes, incidents and penalties along the way to tenth and eleventh. They did win the race of the best French manufacturer. Over the 12th placed 94 Peugeot 9X8 that even led at a point while fuel stop strategies played out but slipped back on an alternative tactic.
Aston Martin was delighted to have both its sonorous Valkyries finish. They were an impressive 13th and 15th. Sandwiching the Proton Porsche and ahead of the 8 Toyota and the 93 Peugeot. BMW suffered a Le Mans to forget on with a litany of technical issues, penalties and driver blunders. The 20 car came home 18th with the second car well down the overall order. The customer Whelen and Wayne Taylor Cadillacs both stopped after losing power.
24 Hour Rookie Aston Martin Valkyries Impressed
The World Endurance Championship finds itself on the crest of the wave. Hyundai premium brand Genesis joins the fray in 2026. Ford and McLaren arrivie the following year. To that end, the current Hypercar rules set, and homologations have now also been extended to 2032. And a new WEC LMP2 class was confirmed at Le Mans with a new turbo car for 2027.
Ferrari meantime heads to the next round of the World Endurance Championship looking for its fifth win on the trot. At the Interlagos 6 Hours of Sao Paulo in Brazil on 13 July.
Images: FIA WEC, Le Mans
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