Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye, and Phil Hanson have won the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the customer AF Corse team, running a ‘satellite’ Ferrari 499P.
The trio, with Kubica taking the #83 AF Corse Ferrari across the line, was 14 seconds ahead of Kevin Estre in the #6 Porsche at the line. Third was Antonio Giovinazzi in the #51 Ferrari 499P, who had to pit late for a splash of fuel from the lead.
The #12 Cadillac V-Series.R of Will Stevens started from pole but soon lost the lead in the first half of the lap to Julien Andlauer in the #5 Porsche 963.
The #83 Ferrari, meanwhile, started 13th in the hands of Phil Hanson.
Over the course of the opening hours, the three Ferraris gravitated towards the front. By the end of the fifth hour, the three Ferraris — the two red factory cars and the yellow #83 — were running 1-2-3. Yifei Ye was running third in this sequence, with his Ferrari teammates Miguel Molina, in the #50, leading and Alessandro Pier Guidi in the #51 second.
Ferrari were dominant in the hot, dry weather of the day time. But, by the time darkness fell and the temperatures dropped, the race took on a new dimension.
While Ferrari had pace in the day time, in the night the balance between them and the #6 Porsche, their main challenger all race, was a lot more equal.
Kevin Estre had started the #6 Porsche last but monstered through the field to be fifth after the first round of pitstops, less than an hour in.
Porsche takes control in the dark
Once darkness fell, Estre was able to fight more with the Ferraris, with the Porsche 963 working better in the cooler temperatures.
During the night, the #6 crew of Estre, Laurens Vanthoor and Matt Campbell extended a lead to over a minute over the #8 Toyota of Ryo Hirakawa, and Ye in the #83 Ferrari. The always-lurking factory Ferraris were always lurking, though.
But then, the moment that would define Porsche’s race: a safety car, the race’s only one, almost exactly half way into the race.
It eliminated Porsche’s lead and meant their Ferrari rivals would be right behind them as the sun rose. Thus, they had no time to extend a gap again.
As the sun rose, the Ferraris once again became the class of the field and another 1-2-3 was formed.
However, the #83 was, slowly but surely, coming into its own. While it only lead through the pitstop cycle for quite a few hours, Ye, Kubica, Hanson were always there or thereabouts.
Daylight assures Ferrari pace
As the sun rose, with “happy hour” beginning, the #51 Ferrari of Calado, Giovinazzi and Pier Guidi led., with Hanson lurking in second.
Then drivers changed but the positions didn’t over the next few hours: with six hours to go, Giovinazzi was now in the #51 and Kubica in the #83.
But, it was the #51’s moment for disaster. With just under 5 hours remaining, Pier Guidi, who had replaced Giovinazzi, had to pit for emergency fuel under a full course yellow. This meant he’d take five seconds-worth of fuel, then have to pit once the race went green and the pits were reopened.
When he pitted again the following lap, he spun the car going into the pits, trying to save himself time and instead costing himself more.
This spin, costing around 30 seconds, was on top of his second trip down the pitlane in as many laps. It handed Ye the lead, from Nielsen in the #50 and Calado, replacing Pier Guidi, third.
This tilted the race firmly in the #83’s favour. Even worse for the factory Ferraris was the #6 Porsche, hunting them and the #83 down as the final couple of hours remained.
While Estre, in the #6 Porsche was able to beat both factory Ferraris, he wasn’t able to chase down Kubica in the lead. And that was the way it finished, with Kubica taking the flag in the yellow #83 Ferrari ahead of Estre, 16 seconds back, and Giovinazzi in the #51 Ferrari third.
Fuoco finished fourth in the #50 Ferrari. Both the factory cars were struggling with issues towards the end of the race and were told to hold position. The winning #83 car was also struggling with gearshift issues when downshifting, but in the end it didn’t affect the win.
Best of the rest
The #12 Cadillac V-Series.R of Will Stevens, Norman Nato and Alex Lynn finished fifth, 2 minutes 18 seconds behind the winning #83 Ferrari. Stevens started the car from pole but fell back quickly, and after the first couple of rounds of pitstops was mid pack. Cadillac lacked pace in the race, specifically in a straight line, which hampered them in passing their competition. But, the #12 machine’s suster car, the #8, set fastest lap in the hands of Sebastien Bourdais, a 3:26.063. So the JOTA-run Cadillacs weren’t slow — just not generating lap time in a way that enabled them to win.
The #7 Toyota of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, and Nyck de Vries finished sixth. Toyota lacked the ultimate pace to take the race to Ferrari and Porsche, and were the first car to finish off the lead lap. Seventh was the #5 Porsche of Mathieu Jaminet, Julien Andlauer and Michael Christensen. The trio lacked the pace of the sister car, and were not able to conjure up the electrifying pace that enabled their Porsche teammates to think second, but seventh can still score decent points towards the championship in a double points-scoring round.
Eighth was the aforementioned #38 Cadillac of Bourdais, Jenson Button, and Earl Bamber. Bamber started alongside Lynn on the first row of the grid, but like the sister car sunk back quickly into the midpack, and eventually finished eighth.
Ninth was the ‘guest’ #4 Porsche of Nick Tandy, Felipe Nasr and Pascal Wehrlein. Much like the #5 car, they lacked the ultimate pace of the #6 car — Nick Tandy and Felipe Nasr couldn’t take the win and complete a historic treble. They’ve already won Daytona and Sebring this year — no one has won all three races in a single year. They, along with L. Vanthoor from the #6 car, were vying to be the first, but it wasn’t to be.
The #35 Alpine A424 of Paul-Loup Chatin, Ferdinand Habsburg, and Charles Milesi finished 10th. Both Alpines were not on the ultimate pack this weekend and struggled to fight with cars they are normally accustomed to fighting with in other WEC rounds.
