Ferrari’s 499P Hypercar has maintained its unbeaten run at the 24 Hours of Le Mans this weekend with the privateer #83 AF Corse (Robert Kubica, Philip Hanson and Yifei Ye) entry getting the better of the two Ferrari AF Corse ‘works’ cars to win the fourth round of the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship.
It’s the Prancing Horse’s third consecutive victory at the Circuit de la Sarthe while it is the first customer team to win Le Mans outright since Champion Racing triumphed 20 years ago.
Porsche took second with the #6 Porsche Penske 963, while the #51 Ferrari AF Corse 499P completed the podium after late race drama saw the #50 sister Ferrari 499P driven by Antonio Fuoco suffer a time-consuming late race excursion.
It was a disappointing result for Toyota Gazoo Racing. Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries valiantly overcame first-lap damage to recover from their disappointing qualifying. They gained 10 places and finished a hard-earned sixth in the #7 GR010 HYBRID.
Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa led the race at one stage and were challenging for a top-four finish when a mechanical issue cost over 20 minutes and dropped the #8 GR010 HYBRID out of contention. They eventually finished 16th.
“Obviously we had high hopes of fighting at the front, and we had the goal to win this race,” commented Hartley. “Ultimately, we didn’t have the pace, and we had a reliability issue as well. We fought hard to the end, and I am proud of everyone in the team for the effort they put in.
“At one point we were leading in the night and fighting in the podium positions, even with a lack of performance. Everyone has done a stellar job during the last two weeks, with a lot of hard work, dedication and sacrifice. It’s going to take a few days to regroup, recover and learn from this to fight back next year.”
The #8 battled into podium contention thanks to strong pace on soft tyres through the night, before a safety car at half distance created new opportunities by compressing the field. The #8 took the lead as lap 200 approached and the #7 – with its earlier deficit now wiped out – moved into the top 10.
As the final quarter of the race approached, a strong team effort had established the #8 in the top six and in a close fight with a Ferrari and a Porsche for an even higher finish. The #7 recovered to eighth, but the pace at the front was ultimately too hot for the GR010 HYBRIDs and the podium proved out of reach.
With four hours remaining, the #8 GR010 HYBRID’s challenge was ended when a broken component caused its front left wheel to detach. After returning to the pits on three wheels, mechanics worked together quickly to replace the front left assembly. Ryo resumed in 19th, having lost seven laps.
Manthey maintained its undefeated LMGT3 category record at Le Mans as the German squad secured back-to-back triumphs at the Circuit de la Sarthe, with the #92 crew of Richard Lietz, Riccardo Pera and Ryan Hardwick largely steering clear of trouble to pip the #21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari and #81 TF Sport Corvette to glory. For Lietz, the result marked his sixth career success in the race.
Inter Europol Competition looked to be on-course for victory in the LMP2 category with its #43 ORECA-Gibson prototype, but a late drive-through penalty for pit-lane speeding subsequently handed the advantage to the closely-following VDS Panis Racing car.
That looked to be that, until Esteban Masson suddenly slowed in the final 20 minutes, enabling Nick Yelloly to sweep back past and cement Polish outfit Inter Europol Competition’s second Le Mans win in three years.
Round five of the 2025 FIA WEC campaign – the Rolex 6 Hours of São Paulo in Brazil – will take place on 11-13 July at the iconic Autódromo José Carlos Pace (Interlagos).
Le Mans 24 Hours – Provisional Result
1st #83 AF Corse (Kubica/Ye/Hanson) 387 laps
2nd #6 Porsche Penske (Estre/Vanthoor/Campbell) +14.084secs
3rd #51 Ferrari AF Corse (Pier Guidi/Calado/Giovinazzi) +28.487secs
4th #50 Ferrari AF Corse (Fuoco/Nielsen/Molina) +29.666secs
5th #12 Cadillac Team JOTA (Stevens/Nato/Lynn) +2mins 18.639secs
6th #7 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing +1 lap
8th #38 CADILLAC HERTZ TEAM JOTA (Bamber/Bourdais/Button) +1 lap
16th #8 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing +7 laps
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