The Ferrari 499P victorious at Le Mans on June 16, 2024 (AFP / GUILLAUME SOUVANT)
Ferrari won the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the second consecutive time on Sunday after an incredibly competitive 92nd edition on the Sarthe circuit.
The N.50 of the Italian Antonio Fuoco, the Spaniard Miguel Molina and the Dane Nicklas Nielsen won ahead of the Toyota N.7 and the other Ferrari, the N.51, victorious last year on the legendary Le Mans route.
The first Porsche in the ranking, the N.6 which had started in the lead 24 hours earlier, failed to reach the foot of the podium. She finished in front of the Toyota N.8.
The promoters of the new premier category, Hypercars, launched in 2021, can congratulate themselves since the density of the field offered a fierce race for 24 hours: Sunday at 4:00 p.m., nine cars finished in the same lap, representing four manufacturers out of nine committed at the start.
The intervention of safety cars during the night and in the morning – due to rain or accidents – often made the gaps between the cars obsolete, and de facto launched a new race at each restart. This explains such small margins between the fastest prototypes entered.
In the lower categories, the Oreca N.22 of the United Autosports team won in LMP2 and the Porsche N.91 of the Manthey Ema team won in LMGT3, a category in which Valentino Rossi competed for the first time at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The Italian motorcycle legend had to retire during the night, after his teammate went off the track at the wheel of their BMW, then in the Top 5.