Former Formula 1 and WRC driver Robert Kubica is set to return to the FIA WEC’s Hypercar class in 2025 with AF Corse. The 39-year-old Polish racer will share the team’s No. 83 Ferrari 499P Hypercar with Yifei Ye and new signee Phil Hanson. The …
Former Formula 1 and WRC driver Robert Kubica is set to return to the FIA WEC’s Hypercar class in 2025 with AF Corse. The 39-year-old Polish racer will share the team’s No. 83 Ferrari 499P Hypercar with Yifei Ye and new signee Phil Hanson.
The renewal of Kubica’s contract at AF Corse follows a strong 2024 campaign with Ye and Robert Shwartzman, who has departed the team for a seat in IndyCar with PREMA. Their season was headlined by an overall race win in the Lone Star Le Mans race at Circuit of The Americas (pictured above, with Kubica atop the car) and a pair of class wins in the FIA World Cup for Hypercar teams.
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“I am very happy to be able to continue this experience with AF Corse at the wheel of the Ferrari 499P,” he said. “When we started the project everything was new. Today we find ourselves with 12 months of hard work behind us, a lot of experiences both positive and negative that we will use to improve and to face the FIA WEC in 2025.
“It will definitely be a very challenging season, but with the experience we have gained this year we are confident that we can do a better job.”
Toyota’s No. 8 GR010 HYBRID snatched the victory and the Hypercar manufacturers’ world championship from Porsche under the floodlights Saturday in the FIA WEC 8 Hours of Bahrain after a pair of safety cars and a full course yellow in the closing …
Toyota’s No. 8 GR010 HYBRID snatched the victory and the Hypercar manufacturers’ world championship from Porsche under the floodlights Saturday in the FIA WEC 8 Hours of Bahrain after a pair of safety cars and a full course yellow in the closing hours created high drama.
With a relatively tame first half, the season finale came alive in the final three hours, as the string of yellows kept the field bunched up and set up a sprint finish. Battles raged up and down the order in both categories with time winding down and the ambient temperature falling, producing a number of surprise results — in the case of Hypercar, having championship implications.
As for the titles, the No. 8’s charge to the front in the final hour saw Toyota claim manufacturers’ honors out of nowhere. The pole-sitting car looked down and out when it was turned into a spin in the opening hour by a TF Sport Corvette, costing the 2023 champions valuable track position, but they never gave up, and through a combination of willpower and tire strategy, found a way back into contention.
When Sebastien Buemi was strapped in for the run to the flag, he was in the zone and on a mission. After the final round of pit stops, which saw the car climb to second, he found himself in a straight fight with Porsche’s No. 5 car for the championship.
Buemi then promptly caught and passed Matt Campbell with a bold move for the win with 39 minutes remaining. The Australian was unable to respond once Buemi found a way through and eventually crossed the line third.
Second place slipped away in heartbreaking fashion on the final lap, when Antonio Giovinazzi found a way past in the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari, which led the majority of the race but lost precious time to a longer final pit stop.
“That was maybe my best drive,” Buemi said. “The early contact put us on the back foot, but it’s always a long game and our strategy was to make sure we saved some great tires for the end of the race.
“When I jumped back into the car, we were down in 10th and I honestly thought we had no chance to come back, but with our tire advantage I was able to make some moves and I knew the No. 5 would begin struggling at some point. In the end, everything fell into place perfectly.”
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“We saved tires for the end and Seb delivered,” added teammate Brendon Hartley. “We wanted to spoil the Porsche party and we did. It feels good to get a win going into the winter break.”
Despite Toyota’s miraculous turnaround, all was not lost for Porsche. In the drivers title race, Andre Lotterer, Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor clung on in the No. 6 963, despite finishing outside the top 10.
It was a roller coaster outing for the trio, who endured their worst result of the season after spending more than half the race recovering from a messy start.
Vanthoor, who was behind the wheel when the lights went out, dropped from sixth to dead last on lap one following contact with title rival Miguel Molina in the No. 50 Ferrari at Turn 4. A metronomic run for multiple hours put them back in podium contention, but their hard work was undone when a drive-through penalty for an FCY violation and two 5s time penalties for incidents dropped them to 11th.
Luckily, an equally disastrous outing for their title rivals in the No. 7 Toyota and No. 50 Ferrari allowed them to seal it with a non-points finish.
The No. 7 retired with a recurring fuel pump issue which struck hard after Nyck de Vries took the lead in the fifth hour and the No. 50 limped home in 12th.
Ferrari’s Le Mans-winning 499P failed to feature, struggling for pace after the contact at Turn 1 forced Miguel Molina in for an early nose change, then suffered a puncture when it was hit by an Alpine in the penultimate hour.
“A horrible race — a really horrible one,” Vanthoor said after becoming a Hypercar world champion. “But we did the baseline for this throughout the season, with great strategy and a great car. That’s why we are world champions today.
“It has to sink in. It’s one of the best days of my life. Besides this race, we were flawless; we were the perfect group.”
For Peugeot, Saturday’s race didn’t produce a fairytale end to its tough season, but the No. 93 9X8 finishing fourth will serve as a confidence boost for the team ahead of winter. Mikkel Jensen pushed hard at the end and managed to beat the No. 35 Alpine home.
UPDATE: The No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari lost its second-place finish to a post-race penalty for using too many tires during the race (28 instead of 26), and is now classified 14th after being handed a 4m55s time penalty for the infraction. Peugeot therefore took third and the No. 5 moves up to second.
Second win of the year for Vista AF Corse’s Ferrari in LMGT3. JEP/Motorsport Images
LMGT3 had high drama as well. Vista AF Corse’s No. 55 Ferrari held off TF Sport’s Corvettes to claim the Italian team’s second victory of the season and second in a row after the sister car won in Fuji.
Alessio Rovera was masterful late in the race, surviving a lengthy duel with an emotionally charged Charlie Eastwood, racing this weekend in memory of his late father.
“We managed to do it. My teammates (Simon Mann and Francois Heriau) did an amazing job managing the tires early, because the key was the last three hours,” Rovera said.
“I had new tires at the end and the fight with the Corvette was really nice. It was fair because we didn’t touch. It’s a win we deserved because we were really close to podiums all season.”
Eastwood followed Rovera home in the No. 81, crossing the line 3s back, ahead of Daniel Juncadella in the No. 82. It wasn’t a win, but it was by far the most impressive outing from the new Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R in WEC competition yet.
“It kind of sums up our season again — a story of what could have been without the safety car,” Eastwood’s teammate Rui Andrade summarized. “We were ahead by about 40s beforehand. We were in a good rhythm and had good pace, but I was kind of in no man’s land because we didn’t take tires on my second stint.
“We were hoping the strategy would pay off, and Charlie would get new tires and back into the lead. Nevertheless, I’m really happy to finish the season with such strong races back-to-back-to-back. Since COTA, the car has been super-strong and the team has done a great job making it faster and faster.”
Off the podium, the No. 60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini came from nowhere to take fourth and Morris Schuring steered Manthey EMA’s Porsche to fifth.
Further down the order, the two McLarens that locked out the front row in Qualifying fell away after a strong start to the race. The No. 59 ended up sixth and the No. 95 dropped to eighth. They finished ahead of the title-winning Pure Rxcing Porsche which could only muster ninth, and both the Iron Dames Lamborghini and Heart of Racing Aston Martin.
All three looked to be in the running for victory in the second half of the race due to the timing of the first safety car, which fell at the right time and enabled them to rise up the order. In the late-race melee, though, they faded and failed to retain top five positions.
The No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P of Robert Kubica, Ye Yifei and Robert Shwartzman became the sixth car in six FIA WEC races in 2024 to claim an overall victory Saturday evening at Circuit of The Americas in Texas. AF Corse’s privately-entered car …
The No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P of Robert Kubica, Ye Yifei and Robert Shwartzman became the sixth car in six FIA WEC races in 2024 to claim an overall victory Saturday evening at Circuit of The Americas in Texas.
AF Corse’s privately-entered car took the Lone Star Le Mans win in dramatic circumstances after a drive-through penalty in the final hour cost the No. 7 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 HYBRID the lead.
Toyota’s drive-through, handed to the No. 7 crew when Kamui Kobayashi was found to have not respected yellow flags while marshals recovered a stranded Peugeot, ultimately cost the Japanese manufacturer its third win of the season.
Kobayashi and his teammates Nyck de Vries and Mike Conway were forced to settle for second, as the Japanese ace was unable to reel in Shwartzman in the final 40m. He pushed his GR010 to its limits and managed to reduce the deficit from 9.5s to 1.7s by the end — making it the second-closest green flag finish in championship history — but couldn’t quite get close enough to make a move.
The race was highly entertaining in the closing stages and made for a truly momentous occasion for the both No. 83 crew and Ferrari. It was the first WEC overall victory for all three drivers and the first win for the 499P in a WEC race outside of the Le Mans 24 Hours. The race also added to a special weekend for the Prancing Horse, which won the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix at Monza earlier in the day.
It was a strategic war that went through multiple stages. In the first half, the Ferraris looked dominant, sitting 1-2-3 after a fast start, before BMW and Cadillac climbed into contention 2h in. It then turned into a strategic battle, as both the medium and hard Michelin compounds were utilized in the race. The teams at the front were split, some chose to experiment with different combinations, and others stuck to the mediums as the trackside temperature fluctuated.
The winning Ferrari switched between running three mediums and a single right-rear hard, and hards on all four corners in the race while the best Toyota and Porsche stuck to mediums the whole way through. This tactic would be key to the final result, as it kept Kubica at the start, Ye in the middle and Shwartzman at the end of the race permanently in the top three.
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“We can be happy. It’s been a tough race and we knew it would be critical with tires and traffic management, but the car worked super well. It started well, it finished even better. We couldn’t hope for a better Sunday,” Kubica said.
“There was a lot of pressure in the final laps because my tires were going away. I was sliding all over the place, and any mistake could have cost us the victory,” added Shwartzman.
Behind the No. 7 Toyota, the podium was completed by the Le Mans-winning No. 50 Ferrari which started fourth and ran a consistent, clean race en route to making it a double podium for AF Corse.
Cadillac earned its best result of the season in fourth but will leave slightly frustrated on a day in which it had the pace to claim a podium finish with a clean race.
Alpine, too, enjoyed a standout performance, the No. 35 A424 completing the top five with a performance that suggests the French marque has taken a significant step forward.
“It wasn’t a perfect weekend, but we improved. We got into Hyperpole and finished P5. It was not the result we expected after a tough start to the race and a drive-through, but we recovered and in the end, we can be proud and build on this,” No. 35 driver Charles Milesi told RACER.
BMW, on the other hand, wasted a chance to come away with its first podium in the class. The M Hybrid V8s looked transformed early, with pace that matched the Ferraris. As the race wore on both cars faded through a combination of penalties and errors. The No. 15, which suffered a spin that cost a chunk of time early on, was the better placed of the two at the end, off the lead lap and eighth.
The final result of Lone Star Le Mans was both historic and critical for the championship battle. The No. 7 Toyota and No. 50 Ferrari made gains Saturday, finishing ahead of the championship-leading No. 6 Penske Porsche, which struggled for outright pace, survived a heated clash with the No. 8 Toyota and fell from fifth to sixth after a late drive-through.
By salvaging a points finish, Porsche’s Andre Lotterer, Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor still hold the lead going into the race at Fuji, but its margin has been reduced to 12 points over the two chasing crews who now sit on equal points in second.
“It’s not ideal,” Lotterer said. “I think we could have finished fifth, we finished sixth, we didn’t use our maximum potential. We were able to move forward though from 14th on the grid which was important.”
Further down the order, it was a tough race for the Lamborghini which lacked ultimate pace and finished 14th. The No. 8 Toyota also failed to fight at the sharp end like the sister car and eventually dropped down the order when it was dealt two costly penalties, the first for the aforementioned contact with the No. 6 Porsche, the second for not respecting yellow flags like the No. 7 and No. 6. It came home 15th.
The No. 50 would be the only factory Ferrari 499P to make it to the finish, as the No. 51 retired in the second hour while sitting second. The car retired as contact with the No. 78 AKKODIS Lexus damaged a wheel rim and led to a terminal drivetrain issue.
Giovinazzi was unable to get the car fired and up to full speed, returning to the pits under electrical power only before stopping on the pit apron. The car was then pushed into the garage and withdrawn from the race, the specific reason not yet disclosed.
It wasn’t the only car to hit mechanical trouble, as the No. 12 JOTA Porsche spent most of the race in and out of the garage with niggling issues. The No. 94 Peugeot also failed to make the finish, the car pulled off to the side of the circuit down the back straight 4h into the race, after a tough race that began with a puncture on the opening lap caused by contact with the No. 12.
Meanwhile, LMGT3 was utterly dominated by Heart of Racing, which claimed a lights-to-flag win from pole with its Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3 EVO driven by Ian James, Daniel Mancinelli and Alex Riberas.
Maybe it was a home-field advantage. Maybe it was perfect execution. JEP/Motorsport Images
The trio were absolutely faultless in the punishing heat and completed the race almost entirely unchallenged, finishing with a winning margin of 20s. It was a maiden WEC LMGT3 victory for the team, all three drivers and the 2024-spec Vantage GT3, and came on home turf for Heart of Racing. It is also a 10th WEC class win at COTA for Aston Martin.
“Everyone worked in unison. I couldn’t be happier to do this in America,” James said.
“We won at home and for us, an American team, it’s great,” Mancinelli added.
Behind, the championship-leading No. 92 Pure Rxcing Porsche extended its points lead to 28 points with yet another strong finish, the car growing stronger as the race wore on.
Joel Sturm, Klaus Bachler and Alex Malykhin — on the weekend which Malykhin described as the toughest of the season due to the weather, lack of circuit knowledge and success ballast applied to the car — dug deep and again came away with another massive result. They not only finished second, but crossed the line ahead of their title rivals too.
“Our team is just so good and we make such good strategic decisions that we end up in good positions. I’m really happy with second. It’s not a win but it’s not mega bad!” Sturm reacted. “Pace wasn’t the key today. We just stayed out of trouble and didn’t make mistakes.”
By pulling away even further in the points battle, the Lithuanian-flagged team has edged ever closer to claiming the LMGT3 drivers’ and teams’ championship.
“We didn’t have the pace for P1,” Sturm said. “It’s been tough, but we are picking up the points and that’s important.”
Completing the podium and securing a double podium for Porsche was the Manthey EMA 911. Yasser Shahin, Richard Lietz and Morris Schuring, like their Manthey teammates in the No. 92, fought through the field and were rewarded handsomely for staying out of trouble. In championship terms, it was damage limitation, finishing just behind Pure Rxcing keeps them in the fight.
It was a worse situation for WRT’s No. 31 crew of Augusto Farfus, Darren Leung and Sean Gelael, who finished fifth behind the No. 59 United Autosports McLaren and now head to Fuji 34 points adrift.
Ferrari AF Corse locked out the front row for Sunday’s FIA WEC Lone Star Le Mans at COTA, with the factory No. 51 499P of Antonio Giovinazzi setting the best time of the week in Hyperpole Saturday afternoon to claim the best grid spot. Alongside the …
Ferrari AF Corse locked out the front row for Sunday’s FIA WEC Lone Star Le Mans at COTA, with the factory No. 51 499P of Antonio Giovinazzi setting the best time of the week in Hyperpole Saturday afternoon to claim the best grid spot.
Alongside the Italian on the front row will be the privately entered No. 83 499P, which ended up just under 0.2s shy after Robert Kubica’s best effort in the 10-minute dash.
“I am really happy. Since the beginning of the weekend, we’ve had a strong car and we have put it all together. We have good race pace too,” Giovinazzi said after scoring his first WEC pole.
The fight for pole was a thriller, with multiple manufacturers seemingly in with a shout until Ferrari’s drivers found a way to take command and turn up the wick.
Of the drivers in the mix, Cadillac Racing’s Alex Lynn turned heads, as did Charles Milesi from Alpine.
Milesi sat on provisional pole briefly before Giovinazzi’s best lap came in, his best tour a 1m50.751s in the No. 35 A424. While it wasn’t quite enough for a front row spot, it did ensure that the French marque will start on the second row in fourth. Lynn’s effort produced a similar result, a late flyer put the No. 2 V-Series.R third.
The Le Mans-winning No. 50 Ferrari ended up fifth, ahead of the fastest factory Porsche — the No. 5 — that will start sixth. It was a solid effort from BMW Team WRT, its M Hybrid V8s making it to the shootout and claiming seventh and eighth.
The No. 7 Toyota ended up qualifying second of the three title-contending cars in ninth, ahead of the No. 12 HERTZ Team JOTA Porsche that failed to get within a second of the pole time.
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Before Hyperpole, qualifying was extremely tight, the battle for shootout spots as fierce as it has been all season.
The No. 93 Peugeot just missed out after ending up 0.02s off the cutoff time in 11th after Mikkel Jensen’s best effort. The No. 8 Toyota also failed to make it in and ended up 12th, Sebastien Buemi left scratching his head after he too was less than 0.1s shy.
Perhaps the biggest storyline was the championship-leading No. 6 Porsche Penske 963 not making it through into the top 10. Kevin Estre struggled and his best time of 1m51.984s was only enough for 14th.
“The car was difficult to drive. I didn’t put a lap together, I didn’t figure out how to go fast without a mistake. I couldn’t put it together so we will have to see if we can make it better for the race. We will see what we can learn from the sister car. It’s very difficult,” a disappointed Estre said after climbing out the car.
The No. 6 wasn’t the only Porsche that didn’t make the final shootout. Proton’s 963 ended up 16th and JOTA’s No. 38 would finish the session 17th after Jenson Button suffered a spin on his final flyer.
Before the Hypercar drivers took to the circuit, Heart of Racing scored Aston Martin’s first LMGT3 pole with the new evo-spec Vantage.
New spec, plus some hometown form for Ian James and Heart of Racing. JEP/Motorsport Images
Ian James’ best time in the No. 27 Aston was a 2m05.587s, set with 3m to go in Hyperpole. Confident it was good enough for a front-row spot, the Briton then parked up with 1m to go and watched the final times come in.
“I feel great for the team on home soil; it’s our first pole and a great achievement,” James said.
Sarah Bovy came closest for Iron Dames. A late improvement from the Belgian put the No. 85 Lamborghini second with a 2m05.759s.
“It’s a good team effort. We worked hard to get the car more competitive. We could go for it but I lost power steering so I couldn’t improve. P2 is not a bad position to start from; we just need to fix that issue to start the race,” Bovy said.
Her flyer initially pushed championship leader Alex Malykhin in the Pure Rxcing Porsche to third, though the No. 92 911 would eventually fall to fourth after Francois Heriau set a rapid 2m06.011s. That put the No. 55 Vista AF Corse Ferrari third and on the second row. The top five was completed by TF Sport’s No. 82 Corvette of Tom van Rompuy.
Many eyes were on the returning Ben Keating in the No. 88 Proton Ford Mustang during Hyperpole. The Texan looked to replicate his strong form in GTE Am Qualifying last year, but he could only manage ninth.
His time was just over 1s off pole and slower than the No. 54 Vista AF Ferrari, No. 59 United Autosports McLaren and No. 777 D’Station Aston Martin which will occupy positions sixth, seventh and eighth on the grid come Sunday.
With eight of the nine brands in the class making it into Hyperpole via the qualifying session, several significant cars didn’t make the cut.
The No. 95 United Autosports McLaren was the fastest of the cars that didn’t make the top 10, with Josh Caygill missing out by under 0.1s.
“Disappointed not to make it through; [We] did briefly but we got called for track limits. We will have to take it sensible tomorrow and see how it goes,” Caygill said between the two sessions.
The Manthey EMA Porsche which won at Spa and Le Mans also didn’t make it through, qualifying 16th.
Lexus ended up the only brand that didn’t make the cut. French team AKKODIS ASP will start the race 12th and 17th with its pair of RC F LMGT3s.
Sunday’s race is set to get underway at 1 p.m. CT.
Ferrari AF Corse’s pair of factory 499P Hypercars finished Friday’s practice running at COTA 1-2 in the times as heat continued to climb trackside and the lap times continued to fall. Leading the way was the No. 51 Ferrari of last year’s 24 Hours of …
Ferrari AF Corse’s pair of factory 499P Hypercars finished Friday’s practice running at COTA 1-2 in the times as heat continued to climb trackside and the lap times continued to fall.
Leading the way was the No. 51 Ferrari of last year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans winner, Antonio Giovinazzi, who placed his car atop the time sheets just 10m into the session with a 1m52.268s. A few minutes later, the No. 50 Ferrari of reigning Le Mans champion Antonio Fuoco crossed the line to set a 1m52.320s, good for second place on the board.
The No. 20 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 showed some speed early on as Robin Frijns set the third-fastest time (1m52.383s), but just before halftime, Sheldon van der Linde was four laps into a stint when he spun exiting Turn 15 and lost his right rear wheel.
The incident brought out a red flag — the only interruption of the session — but a bizarre one for the often beleaguered Bavarian machine which was towed back to the garage otherwise intact.
Alex Lynn was fourth fastest in the No. 2 Cadillac V-Series.R, which continues to show good one-lap pace around COTA. In fifth was AF Corse’s privateer Ferrari, the No. 83 of Robert Kubica, ahead of the No. 8 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 Hybrid of Sebastien Buemi in sixth.
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The best of the Porsche 963s was not one of the Porsche Penske Motorsport works cars, but rather the No. 12 Hertz Team JOTA car of defending Lone Star Le Mans winner Norman Nato in eighth.
Matt Campbell was only 13th fastest in the No. 5 Penske Porsche but, as the session progressed, long-run development became more of a focus over one-shot speed.
LMGT3 was led by TF Sport with its No. 82 Corvette, its best time a 2m05.630s from Daniel Juncadela
It was tight up top, though, as the two Vista AF Corse Ferraris completed the top three with times in the 2:05s and within 0.1s of the quickest Z06.
NEXT UP: Free practice three, Saturday morning at 11:00am CT.
As the clock started on the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen, the sixth round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, polesitter Louis Deletraz quickly found his No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06 GTP car swamped by …
As the clock started on the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen, the sixth round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, polesitter Louis Deletraz quickly found his No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06 GTP car swamped by competitors and as he slid backwards in the field. Five-and-three-quarter hours later, as he led the field to the green on the final restart, it happened again as Felipe Nasr pushed his No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 past in Turn 1.
Nasr then held off Renger van der Zande and the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R to take the second win of the season for he and Dane Cameron after the Rolex 24 at Daytona, and the third win of the season for Porsche Penske Motorsport. Nasr and Cameron became the first repeat GTP winners in 2024 and padded their championship lead.
“I knew I was going to have one chance, and that one chance came right at the restart,” explained Nasr. “All I did was work my tires and brakes as hard as I could just to get temperature in everything and as soon as we got the get-go in the last corner I could see the car ahead of me struggle and I said, ‘Man, I’m going for it,’ and made the move stick. Then it was all about managing the traffic ahead.”
In between that first start and the final restart were four hours of survival and a red flag for a track with an inch of water on it. The race had an almost full reset with 16 minutes of all-out sprint racing to end it.
Weather was expected to play a part, and it did, often throwing a wrench into strategy and reversing the course of several team’s fortunes. The first shower came at almost exactly halfway. At that point, Nick Tandy was demonstrating the speed of the PPM 963s by pushing the No. 6 to a 15s lead.
The No. 7 was slightly off sequence and stayed out while the rest of the field pitted during a full-course caution that came out with 3h51m remaining. When the rain started, most cars pitted for rain tires, but Cameron hadn’t brought the No. 7 in when a full-course caution came out for a crash that ended up blocking pit-in. Running low on energy, it looked like Cameron was out of luck, but as the field circulated under yellow, the rain stopped and the track began to dry. When Cameron was finally able to pit the No. 7 for fuel, the team kept the slicks on the car.
“In the moment, honestly, it felt like we were a bit unlucky and we thought we had kind of got it wrong,” said Cameron. “It seemed okay — little bits of rain — and then suddenly a big downpour came on the front. I thought we were a bit in the s***, and I thought we missed it. Then it went yellow and suddenly it’s like, ‘Well, it’s going to be dry. We’re going to be fine here.’”
At the restart, Cameron had the car in the lead after a lap, and then all the others pitted for slicks as well. The PPM Porsche luck seemed to run out later when the second rainstorm began with 1h46m left. All the GTP leaders came in for wets. Both Porsche Penske Motorsport 963s got trapped in their pit boxes in the crowded pit lane, and while the No. 6 and No. 7 had been first and third, respectively, they ended up fifth and sixth while the two Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06s led the field, the No. 40 leading the No. 10.
The downpour sent several cars sliding off track, which triggered a full-course caution. That became a red flag as water overwhelmed the track and cars could barely stay on the pavement even behind the safety car. By the time the race went green with 16 minutes left, it had undergone a complete reset.
When the red changed back to a full-course caution and the field was back under the safety car, all the cars that had pitted for wets came back in for slicks, as the track was nearly dry again. Deletraz led in the No. 40 Acura, but Nasr had come out of the stop in second, followed by van der Zande in the No. 01 Cadillac, Mathieu Jaminet in the No. 6 PPM 963 and Connor De Phillippi in the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8.
The restart was delayed by the No. 10 Acura losing a wheel, leaving only 16 minutes of intense racing to go. When it came, it was almost a replay of the start 5h45m hours prior, when Deletraz was swamped by the cars behind as he struggled to get temperature in the tires. Nasr and van der Zande were by quickly, Nasr making his move in Turn 1 at the green. Jaminet followed a short time later, pushing Deletraz back to fourth.
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With the No. 01 Cadillac now on the tail of the No. 7 Porsche, van der Zande started pressuring Nasr, but Nasr’s decisive moves in traffic kept van der Zande at bay. Nasr crossed the finish 0.749s ahead of the Cadillac.
“It’s that [intense] feeling of no time to waste and that’s how we went into that final with the traffic,” said van der Zande of the chase. “[The GT cars] are also obviously also fighting for their position, so at one point going into the chicane with a Corvette and I think an Aston Martin, they were fighting each other and then I come around as well. It’s quite tricky, and it’s really a dance between those cars and us to not touch each other, but we made it happen. This championship is the only championship in the world [that] has that kind of racing, which is very particular and very cool.”
The No. 6 PPM 963 of Jaminet and Nick Tandy was third, and Deletraz and Jordan Taylor fourth as the top four finished in championship order.
The No. 25 BMW of De Phillippi and Nick Yelloly was an improbable fifth. De Phillippi had crashed the car in the closing minutes of the second practice session on Saturday morning, damaging the monocoque. The test car had to be shipped in from Indianapolis, and BMW M Team RLL crew had to get to work in the early hours of the morning to move most of the back half of the crashed car onto the substitute chassis.
The crew got it done in time for the race, but missed the installation lap. That meant the car had to start from pit lane and serve a subsequent drive-through penalty.
The No. 25 crew was aided by problems for the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac Racing V-Series.R, which needed a new nose after Pipo Derani had contact with traffic, and the No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche 963 serving a long penalty for contact with the Michelin RFID readers at pit exit.
Cameron and Nasr now lead the GTP points by 93, with 2044 to van der Zande and Bourdais with 1951. Jaminet and Tandy are third with 1912, followed by Jordan Taylor and Deletraz with 1845.
Jake Galstad/Lumen
With newly minted 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Nicklas Nielsen in the No. 88 ORECA for its final stint, AF Corse took the LMP2 victory, with Nielsen, Luis Perez Companc and Lilou Wadoux Ducellier.
“It’s been a good couple of weeks I would say,” Nielsen said. “I’m happy to take my maiden win in IMSA as well — super competitive championship. I think we’ve been fast and competitive the whole IMSA season, but we’ve just been a bit unlucky. Obviously with the contact and then the fire in Sebring, that didn’t really help us, but I’m very happy to bounce back here.”
The No. 88 was nearly taken out a couple of times, once on the first lap as Dwight Merriman poked the nose of the No. 18 Era Motorsports ORECA inside and spun Companc, and at the end of the race when Felipe Fraga tried a similar move, but only spun his own No. 74 Riley Motorsports ORECA. It was one of several moments of luck that led to victory.
“We were actually a bit lucky with the first big shower we had when we had the safety car then replaced by the red flag, because we actually started the refueling and then it started to rain heavily in the pit lane and then we decided to go on the wets. Once the restart happened it was more or less already dry again, so I would say we were lucky and then we were a bit unlucky again. More or less everyone had to box for either tires a fuel,” explained Nielsen.
“In the end there was just a hard fight with Colin Braun and Felipe [Fraga]. Racing here is always tough.”
Fraga recovered to finish third on the track, but the second-place No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR team of Colin Braun, George Kurtz and Toby Sowery fell afoul of drive time rules, so Fraga, Gar Robinson and Josh Burdon claimed second. The No. 52 Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA of Jakub Smiechowski, Tom Dillman and Nick Boulle finished third.
Merriman, Ryan Dalziel and Connor Zilisch maintain their LMP2 points lead, but they’re now only four points better than the Riley Motorsports squad, 942 to 938.
With the race returning to green in the ninth hour, the 92nd edition of the Le Mans 24 Hours has come alive, with the cars on the lead lap in each class bunched up and another bout of rain throwing a wrench in the works. The No. 83 Ferrari led at …
With the race returning to green in the ninth hour, the 92nd edition of the Le Mans 24 Hours has come alive, with the cars on the lead lap in each class bunched up and another bout of rain throwing a wrench in the works.
The No. 83 Ferrari led at the restart, but Robert Kubica and every car bar the No. 5 Porsche and No. 311 Whelen Cadillac dived straight in for wets.
Staying out on slicks proved to be a mistake. The No. 5 Porsche, after inheriting the lead, dropped down to 11th, while the No. 311 ended up falling to 12th and last of the cars on the lead lap with Pipo Derani struggling to keep the pace.
Kubica retook the lead off Fred Makowiecki for the No. 83 crew with ease on wets, but moments later was handed a 30s stop-go penalty for causing the collision that led to the No. 15 WRT BMW crashing out of the race. The infraction dropped the car to sixth.
After all this, the No. 8 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 HYBRID suddenly leads the race, with Ryo Hirakawa holding station with a 17s gap back to Laurens Vanthoor in the No. 6 Penske Porsche.
The No. 7 Toyota completes the top three, and for this trio, the comeback is complete after they all lost time to tire gambles early in the race.
Cadillac occupies fourth with the No. 2, with the No. 50 Ferrari completing the top five.
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LMP2, meanwhile, saw drama for Duqueine Team’s ORECA punctuate the hour. Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer stopped the car with the rear end smoking, the car’s engine seemingly overheating under the safety car — an on-the-spot retirement.
Out front, the No. 37 COOL Racing ORECA finds itself back in the lead, rapid Dane Malthe Jakobsen installed for what is easily the toughest sequence of the race yet, with the night hours underway and parts of the track drying.
The No. 24 Nielsen Racing example, since the Safety Car, has climbed to second with 2023 class winner Fabio Scherer now lapping the circuit. The No. 183 Pro/Am leading entry with Ben Barnicoat at the wheel is third.
LMGT3 saw one of the key contenders hit potentially terminal trouble.
The No. 46 Team WRT BMW, with Bronze-rated Ahmad Al Harthy at the wheel, ended up sliding off the circuit on the run down the hill after the Dunlop Bridge, hitting the tires nose first. The impact caused a water leak and the car plummeted down the order.
Al Harthy, who seemed a total passenger once the back end stepped out on him, was understandably mortified on the team radio: “It just slipped on me. Not again, oh my God, guys,” he said.
The car was retired just into the tenth hour, ending the charge for Valentino Rossi in his first Le Mans start — a crying shame after he led a portion of the opening hours. It also adds to BMW’s woes. The German marque’s only chance of success rests with the No. 31 M4 LMGT3 in 10th, as both its Hypercars have been knocked out of contention.
This leaves the Manthey Pure Rxcing Porsche out front in the lead, with the No. 88 Proton Mustang now back into the fray with Dennis Olsen trying to reel in Klaus Bachler.
Manthey EMA’s Porsche is third.
With conditions treacherous, tire choice is set to be crucial going forward as the field gradually switches back to slicks.
The driver lineup for a third, privately-funded Ferrari 499P Hypercar for the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship is set to be announced with the official full series entries on Monday, with a Formula 1 race winner leading the new trio of drivers. …
The driver lineup for a third, privately-funded Ferrari 499P Hypercar for the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship is set to be announced with the official full series entries on Monday, with a Formula 1 race winner leading the new trio of drivers.
The third Ferrari, which will race alongside the pair of full works cars from Ferrari AF Corse, will compete under the AF Corse SRL banner and is set to feature former F1 star Robert Kubica (pictured above) — who was announced as an AF Corse driver for 2024 earlier this week and tested a 499P at Imola that same day — and Chinese driver Yifei Ye.
“I’m happy that my path and the path of AF Corse will be the same next season,” said Kubica, who raced with the WRT team in LMP2 in the WEC this year. “AF is one of the most successful teams ever in motorsport: I’m sure we’ll do a great job together. What’s more, I’m back in an Italian team, which is no small matter.”
Initially, it was expected that the third car would feature backing from Richard Mille, the watchmaker and FIA Endurance Commission president, following his GTE Am effort with the Italian brand in 2023. However, the funding package is now believed to be from Asia, bringing Ye into the program.
Ye, who competed with Hertz Team JOTA’s Porsche 963 in the WEC this season, will therefore compete against his former team in the WEC’s Hypercar teams’ championship for privately entered Hypercars next season. His move leaves JOTA — which is set to scale up to a two-car Hypercar effort in 2024 — with another seat to fill for the forthcoming campaign, as Antonio Felix da Costa has also been pried away from the British team due to his Formula E commitments with Porsche.
In the third Ferrari Ye is set to be joined by former Formula 1 star Robert Kubica, who was announced as an AF Corse driver for 2024 earlier this week and tested a 499P at Imola that same day.
The driver trio is expected to be completed by Ferrari F1 reserve driver Robert Shwartzman. The Russo-Israeli driver also has experience behind the wheel of a 499P, having sampled the car at the post-season Bahrain rookie test earlier this month, where he confirmed to RACER his interest in a race seat.
“I am open to everything — I am not just focused on F1,” he said. “I really hope that after this test there will be an opportunity to try and race the Hypercar and get the whole experience in endurance racing.”
The 2024 FIA WEC entry to be released on Monday is expected to include 37 cars overall.
Ferrari AF Corse’s No. 51 499P Hypercar has won the Le Mans 24 Hours – the centenary edition of the event that was first run in 1923. In a race that had everything: incidents, sudden weather changes, surprise class leaders, mechanical dramas and …
Ferrari AF Corse’s No. 51 499P Hypercar has won the Le Mans 24 Hours — the centenary edition of the event that was first run in 1923. In a race that had everything: incidents, sudden weather changes, surprise class leaders, mechanical dramas and countless on-track battles, Antonio Giovanazzi, James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi survived one of the most chaotic races at La Sarthe in recent memory to take a famous win in front of an enormous crowd of 325,000 people.
Race winners Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi in their Ferrari AF Corse 499P relishing a win in front of the biggest crowd seen at Le Mans in years. Rainier Ehrhardt/Motorsport Images
It was a race that lived up to wild expectations and saw most of the factory cars in the top class remain in contention for the first half of the race before it came down to a battle between Ferrari and Toyota on Sunday morning.
After a titanic scrap between the No. 51 and No. 8 Hypercars, the Prancing Horse claimed its 10th overall Le Mans win and its first since 1965 — an achievement all the more impressive given the young the age of the 499P program. In the car’s first Le Mans appearance, the No. 51 was fast and near-bulletproof, breaking Toyota’s unbeaten run to start the FIA WEC season by completing 342 laps of the circuit.
Racing went down to the wire, with the top two on the lead lap until the very end, as close as 16 seconds apart in the penultimate hour before a costly error from Ryo Hirakawa in the No. 8 at Arnage effectively ended Toyota’s chances. The pendulum kept swinging, with the Toyota’s chances of victory changing by the hour before Hirakawa was entrusted with chasing down the Ferrari in the final dash to the finish. The pit wall was urging him to catch and pass Giovanazzi, but the pressure got to the Japanese driver, who ended up in the barriers with damage to the front and rear of the car that required an emergency stop for repairs. In doing so, the car almost fell off the lead lap.
The aftermath of Hirakawa’s exuberant driving. Rainier Ehrhardt/Motorsport Images
Giovanazzi was ebullient during the celebration.
“It’s just special. We ran the car less than a year ago for the first time. To be here is fantastic. We didn’t expect to survive for 24 hours, but the whole team did a fantastic job. We are all here… After 50 years, we are back and we need to be really proud,” he said.
The No. 8 GR010 HYBRID would eventually come home second, but the runner-up result will come as a colossal disappointment for Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Hirakawa and the entire team, who headed into the race with the sole aim of scoring Toyota’s sixth consecutive overall win. Instead, they had to settle for a podium finish, crossing the line 1m21s behind the winning Ferrari, itself having a minor drama at its final stop, the car struggling to fire up.
“It was a tough one, just to remain on track,” Buemi said. “We were a bit too slow (and) we had to over-drive to keep up with them (Ferrari). They were faster than us. They had more pace. We did everything we could, but full credit to them, they have been very impressive. We have to come back stronger at Monza.”
Completing the podium was the No. 2 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R which had a metronomic run to the flag — a spin in the wet at Mulsanne Corner was the car’s only notable hiccup. A really promising performance from Richard Westbrook, Alex Lynn and Earl Bamber, scored Cadillac its first podium in WEC competition, the first LMDh car across the line.
“We knew coming in that we had to run our race. We had to run clean because we knew Ferrari and Toyota would be super fast and we had to be the car that doesn’t make a mistake and is always there,” Lynn said. “That is the theme of our season. We always dig in and grind out a result. That’s why I’m so proud of this team and this Cadillac race car. It never misses a beat, and now we can say — on the biggest stage — it didn’t even in the first year of the program. It’s only going to get better.”
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It was by no means a simple race for Cadillac though, as its other two V-Series.Rs hit trouble early and spent much of the race recovering. Action Express had its chance of a strong finish end on the opening lap when Jack Aitken had an off in the wet on the exit of the first Mulsanne Chicane, going nose-first into the guardail, causing damage that would cost the team multiple laps in the garage. The No. 3 Cadillac Racing machine had a better race, finishing fourth, though it, too, lost time when Sebastien Bourdais was rear-ended by the No. 21 AF Corse GTE Ferrari at the Dunlop Bridge on Saturday night and required a trip to the garage for repairs.
The No. 50 AF Corse 499P was delayed by mechanical issues, including a lengthy stint in the garage for a brake leak, and finished fifth.
For Toyota and Ferrari, the second half of the race was extremely tense as both teams were left with a single car apiece in the fight for victory. The No. 7 Toyota had looked to be the faster of the two GR010s but Kamui Kobayashi ended up getting caught in a multi-car pile-up at Tertre Rouge going into a slow zone. Kobayashi was hit from behind by two cars at once — an Alpine ORECA and the JMW Ferrari — which terminally damaged the car.
Ferrari’s No. 50 also looked strong from pole position, but its woes meant Antonio Fuoco, Nicklas Nielsen and Miguel Molina were forced to play rear-gunner for the second half of the race and apply pressure to the No. 8 crew when the two cars came together on track.
But what of the other manufacturers? Porsche and Peugeot both spent time in contention for victory, in part because the opening hours of this race were so chaotic. Pre-race rain made for a greasy track at the start. Further heavy rain came in two bouts into the evening, each time shuffling the order and catching out so many key drivers who were left to fend for themselves on slick tires in the driving rain.
After struggling through the opening rounds of the WEC season with its 9X8s, Peugeot’s search for pace and durability led to Gustavo Menezes hauling the No. 94 into the lead. The Californian was mercurial in the tricky wet conditions, putting Peugeot in the shock position to fight for a famous upset.
The most surprising development early on was the rise of Peugeot, the final classification not telling the full story for the French manufacturer. Rainier Ehrhardt/Motorsport Images
Alas, it wasn’t meant to be and the race gradually unraveled for the Peugeot TotalEnergies effort. Menezes, in fact, went from hero to zero overnight, ending up in the barriers at a Mulsanne Chicane, which resulted in the car being repaired in the garage for over 20 minutes. Later in the race the No. 94 hit further trouble with its hydraulic pressure, an issue that impacted both cars.
The No. 93’s eighth-place finish wasn’t the result anyone in the team would have aimed for. Nevertheless, making the end with both cars, and showing some pace on the most important circuit on the calendar, was a mark of real progress, leaving the team wondering whether or not this is the moment the 9X8 program turns the page.
Yifei Ye, another driver who took the lead and then ended up in the barriers, turned the heads of everyone when he steered the Hertz Team JOTA Porsche (which started 60th) to the lead in the fifth hour. Ye then pushed too hard through the Porsche Curves and had an off that severely damaged the car. JOTA would cross the line, but as the last of the classified finishers — 244 laps completed after a lengthy list of woes later in the race. It was a memorable outing for JOTA in only its second race with the 963, but it will leave knowing a better result was on the table.
The same can be said across the board for Porsche. The three factory Penske cars had a torrid time, with mechanical issues impacting each of them. The No. 75 IMSA-crewed car retired out on track with a power loss overnight. The two WEC cars made the finish, 13 and 22 laps down, after a leaking coolant pipe issue overnight and a power loss in the final hour for the No. 5. A puncture, high voltage issue and an off at the Porsche Curves for the No. 6 while pushing to take fourth from the No. 3 Cadillac ended its chances. Unfortunately for the German giant amid its 75th anniversary celebrations, the post-race debrief will not be a positive one.
Of the three non-hybrid entries from Glickenhaus and Vanwall, the American 007s impressed the most, finishing a very respectable sixth and seventh overall.
After long nights for both sets of mechanics, the two AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE EVOs and the No. 3 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R are back in action at Spa following yesterday’s incidents in Free Practice 2. At AF Corse, getting its pair of 488 GTE EVOs …
After long nights for both sets of mechanics, the two AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE EVOs and the No. 3 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R are back in action at Spa following yesterday’s incidents in Free Practice 2.
At AF Corse, getting its pair of 488 GTE EVOs that came together at Raidillon yesterday ready for track action today has been a colossal task.
The No. 21, which hit the rear of the No. 54 as it was exiting the endurance pits after an error from Diego Alessi, was damaged beyond repair in the incident. Thankfully, Ferrari confirmed to RACER last night that both drivers are OK. Alessi, however, has been handed a 30-second stop-and-go penalty to be served during this week’s race, or the next race he takes part in.
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Alessi was found by the stewards to have caused the FP2-ending collision with the No. 54, which was exiting the pits on cold tires and under the protection of white flags, and on the racing line, as instructed by the race director.
AF Corse has had to source a replacement car for the No. 21. Its No. 54 example, on the other hand, is almost ready to go after an overnight shift by the mechanics to repair the extensive damage to the car’s front and rear.
Meanwhile, at Cadillac Racing, the No. 3 IMSA-crewed V-Series.R is also now fully prepped for today’s track action.
Following the fire out on track, which the team admitted was caused by a “self-induced error,” an engine change was required. The team had to transport a spare engine to the circuit from Germany before fitting it overnight.
