The Ferrari 83, long leading the 24 Hours of Le Mans at the start of the race, driven here by former F1 driver Robert Kubica (AFP / GUILLAUME SOUVANT)
Ferrari against Porsche and Toyota: the battle of the titans announced for this weekend at the 24 Hours of Le Mans keeps all its promises, but the title holder Ferrari showed itself to be the smartest and strongest in the first hours.
At the 10:00 p.m. check-in (8:00 p.m. GMT), after six hours of racing, the Ferrari N.83 was in the lead ahead of the Porsche N.5 by around fifty seconds and the Toyota N.8 five seconds behind. A second Ferrari and two more Porsches followed.
But thirteen cars were still on the same lap, a sign that the Hypercar field – the premier category – is now incredibly dense. The possible release of a safety car, which allows all the cars to be grouped together on the same lap, could therefore completely restart the race almost from scratch during the night.
The other 39 cars are entered in the two lower categories, LMP2 and LMGT3.
Ferrari (N.51) took the lead in the Hypercar peloton from the start of the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans on Saturday. (AFP / FRED TANNEAU)
Of the 23 Hypercars at the start, representing nine different manufacturers, 21 were still on the track at 10 p.m. The two Alpines entered in the elite had to abandon less than an hour apart, both obviously victims of an engine problem.
During this first quarter of the race, two of the three Ferraris took turns at the front. Leaving the lead to the Porsches for only a few minutes from time to time, depending on refueling and tire or driver changes.
– Winning bet for Ferrari –
At the start of the race, the Cadillacs brilliantly responded to the leaders, but the American cars had fallen back in the standings by 10:00 p.m.
The Porsche of French driver Mathieu Jaminet, one of the three official Porsches, on June 15, 2024 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. (AFP / FRED TANNEAU)
Two hours after the start, given by football legend Zinedine Zidane, Ferrari pulled off a superb poker move: while scattered showers fell on certain portions of the circuit, two of the three Italian cars remained on the track, on smooth tires, while the majority of the peloton returned to the pits to put on rain tires.
Good luck to them! The rain stopped and the track dried, forcing most of the others to stop a second time to put the runners back on. The yellow Ferrari N.83, driven by former Formula 1 driver Robert Kubica, found itself with a lead of around thirty seconds which it then retained.
But the rain returned just after 10 p.m., threatening to reshuffle the cards before nightfall.
– Gasly and Ocon as tourists –
The French patrol passes over the starting line of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, June 15, 2024 (AFP / GUILLAUME SOUVANT)
Ferrari, outgoing winner, is one of the logical favorites. But Toyota, beaten last year, has revenge to take. And the Japanese team has the advantage of experience, with these five consecutive victories between 2018 and 2022.
Porsche, for its part, arrives launched after having dominated the start of the season, and has the advantage of numbers, with six Hypercars in the race: three factory and three in the hands of private teams.
Among the drivers, Mick Schumacher, the son of legend Michael Schumacher, made a brief debut at Le Mans at the wheel of an Alpine, before his car retired around 9:30 p.m. Another 24 Hours “rookie”, former MotoGP star Valentino Rossi took his first stint at the start of the evening, aboard a BMW in the LMGT3 category.
Other stars, without helmets or wetsuits, had walked the pit straight before the start. In addition to Zidane, the crowd was able to see Alpine Formula 1 drivers Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly, as well as the Le Mans victory record holders, Tom Christensen (9 victories) and Jacky Ickx (6).
The hope of witnessing a spectacular and indecisive race until the end attracted a huge crowd. The organizers are counting on 325,000 spectators during the weekend, a record according to them.