Nickas Nielsen, Antonio Fuoco and Miguel Molina took the chequered flag within the #50 Ferrari 499P with a 14s margin over the #7 Toyota GR010 HYBRID of Nyck de Vries, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez, because the #51 Ferrari of defending champions Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi rounded out the rostrum.
There was drama within the penultimate hour because the right-side door of the #50 Ferrari started flapping quickly, prompting race management to point out a black-and-orange flag. Nielsen was pressured to convey the automobile again into the pits simply six laps into the stint, however was capable of maintain the web lead over the #7 Toyota.
#50 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Nicklas Nielsen celebrates victory
Picture by: Rainier Ehrhardt
Nielsen’s run to the end was made simpler by Lopez spinning on the Dunlop Curve and briefly stopping on observe, a mistake that ended any remaining likelihood of Toyota including to its 5 wins at Le Mans.
Ferrari had appeared speedy from the get go within the 92nd working of Le Mans, with all three 499Ps – together with the AF Corse-entered buyer entry – charging to the entrance within the opening hour.
The #50 manufacturing facility automobile and the #83 buyer entry elected to remain out when rain hit the observe briefly on Saturday night, a choice that put the 2 499Ps properly away from the remainder of the sphere as most automobiles – together with the #51 Ferrari – needed to return to the pits to change again to slicks.
The race was neutralised for the primary time after evening fell at La Sarthe, when the #15 BMW of Dries Vanthoor crashed on the finish of Mulsanne after contact with the #83 Ferrari then pushed by Robert Kubica.
It took the very best a part of two hours for the marshals to interchange the boundaries, with the motion resuming simply previous midnight. One other security automobile interval adopted within the early hours of the morning, as rain and fog made the observe unsafe for racing, with Toyota, Porsche and Ferrari all buying and selling the highest spot.
It wasn’t till the break of daybreak that the race went again to inexperienced, with the complexion of the race altering just about each hour as numerous producers loved stints on the entrance.
The #50 Ferrari made main headways within the 18th hour earlier than the ultimate rain bathe, as Fuoco overtook the #83 Ferrari and the #5 Porsche of Frederic Makowiecki to take second, when an out of sync #2 Cadillac stopped to change to moist tyres.
Pier Guidi managed to hold on to the ultimate spot of the rostrum within the #51 Ferrari he shared with James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi regardless of coming below critical stress from the #6 Porsche 963 pushed by Laurens Vanthoor.
Pier Guidi was hit with a five-second time penalty for colliding with the #8 Toyota of Brendon Hartley within the penultimate hour, an incident that left Hartley dealing with the incorrect facet of the observe on the Mulsanne nook.
Pre-race favorite Porsche needed to accept fourth place, with Vanthoor ending simply 1.1s behind Pier Guidi within the #6 963 LMDh he shared with Kevin Estre and Andre Lotterer.
The #6 Porsche had moved into the entrance within the 18th hour after pitting below a gradual zone, which was paradoxically attributable to Felipe Nasr crashing the sister #4 entry into Indianapolis. Nevertheless, the #6 needed to make its subsequent pitstop below a security automobile – introduced by the Coronary heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3’s shunt on the similar flip – which dropped the trio again down the order.
#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 – Hybrid: Sebastien Buemi
Picture by: Rainier Ehrhardt
The #8 Toyota delayed by the incident with Pier Guidi ended up fifth, Sebastien Buemi bringing the automobile he shares with Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa to the end line forward of the #5 Porsche of Matt Campbell, Michael Christensen and Frederic Makowiecki.
Cadillac emerged as a shock contender for victory on Sunday afternoon, as a well-timed pitstop earlier than the final security automobile put the #2 V-Collection.R of Alex Lynn, Earl Bamber and Alex Palou within the lead – albeit out of sync on pitstops with its quick rivals.
Nevertheless, any benefit the manufacturing facility Chip Ganassi crew may probably derive from their pit technique was negated when rain hit the observe within the ultimate three hours, which put your complete Hypercar subject on moist tyres at roughly the identical time.
Two-time IndyCar champion Palou ultimately introduced the #2 Caddy to seventh on the end, forward of the 2 buyer Jota Porsches.
The #12 Jota Porsche, which was rebuilt round a brand new chassis in document time after a crash in FP2 on Wednesday, completed eighth forward of the #38 automobile.
Peugeot endured one other troubled outing with the brand new 9X8 2024 that made its debut within the Imola spherical of the World Endurance Championship, with the automobile struggling for tempo in all situations.
Stoffel Vandoorne, Paul di Resta and Loic Duval completed eleventh in the very best of the 2 manufacturing facility automobiles from the French producer, three laps down on the successful Toyota, after choosing up a drive-through penalty for overtaking below the gradual zone.
The #93 automobile additionally needed to drive by the pitlane after Mikel Jensen was deemed chargeable for a collision with the #95 United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3 automobile. That mixed with a crash for Nico Muller below the protection automobile left him, Jensen and Jean-Eric Vergne down in twelfth place within the ultimate reckoning, a lap adrift of the sister automobile.
Lamborghini was the very best of the newcomers within the Hypercar class after a strong if unremarkable run for the Iron Lynx-run manufacturing facility squad at Le Mans. The Italian marque by no means had the tempo to trouble its extra established manufacturing facility rivals, however its two SC63s ran with none main hiccups – save for a few spins within the fourth hour.
The #63 Lamborghini entered for the total WEC season completed forward of the Peugeot in tenth with Mirko Bortolotti, Daniil Kvyat and Edoardo Mortara, whereas the sister #19 automobile introduced over from IMSA and pushed by Romain Grosjean, Andrea Caldarelli and Matteo Cairoli ended up in thirteenth place.
Isotta Fraschini was the one different new producer to be categorized, after Jean-Karl Vernay, Carl Wattana Bennett and Antonio Serravalle managed to take the #11 Tipo6-C to 14th place.
Each BMW and Alpine have been out of the working earlier than midnight on Saturday, regardless of having proven promising tempo within the lead-up to the race.
Engine failures have been responsible for Alpine’s double retirement at Le Mans, with Ferdinand Habsburg parking the #35 A424 LMDh at Arnage within the fifth hour and Nicolas Lapierre pulling the sister automobile shortly after into the storage.
BMW’s troubles started within the opening hour itself as Marco Wittmann went off on the Esses and instantly put the #15 M Hybrid V8 on the again foot. Crew-mate Dries Vanthoor was attempting to recuperate from the early setback when he had a coming along with the #83 AF Corse Ferrari of Kubica on the finish of Mulsanne at evening, with the impression sending him head-on into the armco boundaries.
By this level, the #20 BMW was already within the storage after Robin Frijns ran over the kerbs on the Ford Chicane and sustained what gave the impression to be terminal harm towards the barrier. BMW was ultimately capable of get the automobile repaired to ship team-mate Sheldon van der Linde again on observe within the ultimate hour, however the automobile was not categorized because it failed to finish the required 70% distance.
The #83 buyer Ferrari that led a serious portion of the race on Saturday and was properly in rivalry within the early hours of the afternoon ultimately retired with technical points within the twentieth hour, with TV photos exhibiting plumes of smoke popping out of the entrance.
The #3 Cadillac and the #4 Porsche have been among the many six Hypercar entries to not be categorized.
#22 United Autosports Oreca 07 Gibson: Oliver Jarvis, Bijoy Garg, Nolan Siegel
Picture by: Shameem Fahath
United takes unlikely LMP2 win
The IDEC Sport staff and the #34 InterEuropol Oreca had beforehand loved a protracted battle on Sunday, with the #10 Vector additionally within the play in the afternoon earlier than the rain shook the order up once more in LMP2.
#91 Manthey Ema Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3: Yasser Shahin, Morris Schuring, Richard Lietz
Picture by: Shameem Fahath
Porsche triumphs in new-for-2024 LMGT3 class
Porsche scored one more WEC win within the LMGT3 class as Richard Lietz, Yasser Shahin and Morris Schuring took high honours within the #91 Manthey EMA 911 GT3 R.
The victory within the production-based class boiled all the way down to a straight struggle between the Manthey Porsche and the #31 WRT of Augusto Farfus, Sean Gelael and Darren Leung within the closing phases, as numerous main contenders dropped out because of quite a lot of causes.
Gelael managed to seize the lead of the race when rain returned on observe with simply over two hours to go, however manufacturing facility Porsche driver Lietz had little hassle getting previous his silver-rated rival on the run to Indianapolis to guide the #91 crew to the first-ever LMGT3 victory at Le Mans.
The sister #92 Manthey PureRxcing entry was additionally within the victory battle for a lot of the enduro and was truly main the category when Klaus Bachler was pressured to convey the automobile to the storage with electrical issues.
Proton Competitors took spots three and 4 with its pair of Ford Mustang GT3s, the #88 automobile of Dennis Olsen, Giorgio Roda and Mikkel Pedersen ending forward of Christopher Mies, Ben Tuck and John Hartshorne within the sister entry.
All three McLaren 720S GT3 entries, together with the pole-winning Inception Racing automobile, suffered a spate of points on Sunday that left them out of the reckoning.
