2023 LM24, Hour 24: Ferrari Wins The Centenary 24 Hours of Le Mans!

For the first time since 1965, Ferrari has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans!

The #51 Ferrari AF Corse 499P of Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, and Antonio Giovinazzi won a grueling, action-packed Centenary Edition of the Le Mans 24 Hours. It’s also the first competition win for the 499P in the FIA World Endurance Championship.

The winning car completed 342 laps in 24 hours and won by 81.793 seconds.

It wasn’t without a final flash of drama after the car struggled to fire after the last pit stop, but the #51 got going in the end and Ferrari has won the Grand Prix d’Endurance for the first time in 58 years!

In second is the #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 HYBRID (Sebastien Buemi/Brendon Hartley/Ryo Hirakawa), which came just short of the manufacturer’s sixth straight Le Mans victory after a heartbreaking spin and crash for Hirakawa in the final two hours.

The #2 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R (Earl Bamber/Alex Lynn/Richard Westbrook) came home third, a lap behind, to take Cadillac’s first overall podium at Le Mans in a formation finish with the other two Cadillacs.

In LMP2, the pride of Poland, Inter Europol Competition, has claimed the greatest win it has ever achieved – a class win at Le Mans!

Punctuated by the gutsy driving of Fabio Scherer, on an injured foot for most of the race, the green and yellow #34 Oreca 07-Gibson of Scherer, Albert Costa, and driver/owner Jakub Smiechowski held on for a popular win in its class.

Scherer gritted though the pain to hold off the #41 Team WRT Oreca (Rui Andrade/Louis Deletraz/Robert Kubica) by =21.015 seconds.  Third in LMP2 went to the Team Duqueine #30 (Neel Jani/Rene Binder/Nicolas Pino).

Corvette Racing, for the ninth and final time as the singular factory racing team known for generations, has won at Le Mans – and they are the final winners in the history of the GTE class.

Nicky Catsburg, Ben Keating, and Nico Varrone took the honour of being the final class winners in GTE Am history in their #33 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R. The final margin of victory was just a bit over two minutes.

The #25 ORT by TF Aston Martin Vantage GTE (Ahmad Al-Harthy/Michael Dinan/Charlie Eastwood) finished second in the end despite carrying a damaged bonnet for most of the race.

And after a spin and crash earlier in the race, the #86 GR Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19 (Michael Wainwright/Benjamin Barker/Riccardo Pera) powered through to take third in class.

The innovative and fan-favourite #24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 stock car, driven by Jimmie Johnson, Mike Rockenfeller, and Jenson Button took the chequered flag 39th out of 62 starters, completed 285 laps – and most important of all captured the hearts of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of racing fans around the world.

More to come in our expanded class reports!