24 HOURS OF LE MANS 2023. For its return, 50 years after its last official participation, Ferrari won the 24 Hours of Le Mans this Sunday and pocketed the coveted centenary edition. The Giovinazzi-Pier Guidi-Calado trio broke favorite Toyota, 2nd.
[Mis à jour le 11 juin 2023 à 16h15] The centenary edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans honored the rich history of the event with an incredible scenario for victory in the general classification, as in the LMP2 and GTE AM categories. As Ferrari and Toyota fought an intense battle for the final victory, with only a few seconds difference, the Japanese manufacturer’s no. 8 GR010 crashed with less than two hours to go.
The Japanese Ryo Hirakawa, winner last year but a priori slower than his teammates Sebastien Buemi and Brendan Hartley, made a mistake at the Arnage corner, damaging the front of his Hypercar and losing almost a lap on the Ferrari. If the battle lasted until the end, it was Ferrari who took the best for their big comeback at Le Mans. History! Toyota is content with 2nd place ahead of Cadillac 3rd and 4th. Peugeot, which led the race on Saturday evening in the rain, broke down on Sunday to rank 8th with the first 9X8.
The start given at 4 p.m. on Saturday set the tone for an exceptional edition! On a still wet track, Toyota quickly took the lead by placing Sebastien Buemi’s n°8 in the lead ahead of the leading Ferraris. If the head of the race passed the first corners without incident, an outsider has already lost big, Cadillac with the crash of the n°311 which returned painfully to the pits after only five minutes of racing. The race was then neutralized under safety car to repair the damaged safety rails before the race resumed at 4:40 p.m.
Cadillac reacted with the n°2 in the hands of Earl Bamber who even took the lead at 6 p.m., taking advantage of slow zones following accidents and offbeat strategies. With the arrival of the rain, accidents, off-tracks and interruptions followed one another resulting in a waltz of the leaders. Among the losers at the start of the race were the No. 3 Cadillacs and No. 93 Peugeots after Jean-Eric Vergne went off the track. The No. 6 Porsche also lost time shortly after 8 p.m. following a puncture.
The second major race event occurred at midnight with a crash involving several competitors including Toyota n°7, forced to retire, the Hypercar then driven by Kamui Kobayashi being the victim of a chain collision at midnight with two LMP2 and a Ferrari GT. The crash, affecting the GR010 Hybrid at the rear, caused its retirement. Toyota already had only one car left in the race even before halfway through the race, but Ferrari and then Porsche were also going to suffer mechanical problems, in particular on the Porsche n°5 and on the Ferrari n°50 betrayed by its mechanics and which lost nearly 30 minutes in repairs. At Peugeot, it was the No. 94 of Gustavo Menezes, then third, which made a mistake in the Mulsanne chicane, losing more than 20 minutes in repairs and was about to see its dreams go up in smoke.
Toyota, with the n°8, then regained the lead after the exit in the Hunaudières of the n°51 Ferrari, but the night did not allow any significant gap to be created. At daybreak, the Toyota n°8 only had a thirty-second lead over the Ferrari n°51 and one lap over the Cadillac n°2 in ambush. The gaps then remained small all morning, the rare lead taken by the Ferrari going up in smoke after a difficult restart in the pits at 11 am.
So much so that at three hours from the finish, the gap between the two leading cars, Ferrari n°51 and Toyota n°8, did not reach 20 seconds. Peugeot n°93, 5th, cracked shortly after 1 p.m. following a hydraulic problem and lost 4 places to drop to 9th place. Everything changed shortly after 2 p.m. when Ryo Hirakawa left the track at Arnage in the Toyota n°8 then in the hunt for the race lead.
Ferrari only had to perform, and despite a final fright with a difficult restart during the final refueling, Alessandro Pier Guidi passed the checkered flag as the winner at 4 p.m.
The ranking (top 10) on arrival at 4 p.m.
- Ferrari n°51 with 342 laps covered
- Toyota n°8 at 1 minute and 30 seconds
- Cadillac No. 2 at a lap
- Two-Tower Cadillac No. 3
- Ferrari No. 50 at five laps
- Glickenhaus No. 709 with seven towers
- Glickenhaus No. 708 with nine towers
- Peugeot n°93 at 12 laps
- Porsche n°5 at 13 laps
- Inter Europol n°34 (1st LMP2) at 14 laps.
The classification of the 24 Hours of Le Mans is established from the number of laps covered between Saturday 4 p.m. and Sunday 4 p.m. There is a general classification but also a classification by categories. Three categories coexist: the Hypercars bring together the favorites (Toyota, Glickenhaus, Porsche…), the LMP2 prototypes which are a little less powerful and the LMGTE am, now the only GT category. Note that a Nascar Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 will be the only competitor in the Innovative Cars category.
- Oreca Inter Europol Competition n°34
- Oreca WRT No. 41
- Oreca Duqueine No. 30
- Alpine No. 36
- Oreca WRT n°31
It should be noted that the No. 31 Oreca WRT lost the podium at the very end of the race, leaving 3rd place to the French team Duqeine. Alpine finishes 4th and 10th in this category before its return to Hypercar in 2024.
The classification of the GTE AM category (top 5)
- #33 Corvette Racing
- Aston Martin ORT by TF n°25
- Porsche GR Racing #86
- Porsche Iron Dames n°85
- Ferrari AF Corse #54
Corvette won in GTE Am at the end of a race where the 100% female Iron Dames team held the leading roles and even held the lead until Sunday lunchtime.