LM24, Hour 24: Ferrari wins Le Mans, ending Toyota’s reign

The 2023 Le Mans 24 Hours, the centenary edition of the event that was first run in 1923, has been won by Ferrari AF Corse’s No. 51 499P Hypercar. 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 to take a famous win at the Circuit de la Sarthe.

It was a race that lived up to expectations and saw most of the Hypercar manufacturers in contention for the first half of the race before it came down to a battle between Ferrari and Toyota.

After a titanic scrap between Ferrari and Toyota’s No. 51 and No. 8 Hypercars, it was the Prancing Horse that claimed its 10th overall Le Mans win and its first since 1965.

The race 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.

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The No. 8 GR010 HYBRID came home second, but that 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 settled for a podium finish, crossing the line 1m21s behind the winning Ferrari — which had a minor drama at its final stop, the car struggling to fire up.

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 the car’s only notable hiccup. It was a really promising performance from Richard Westbrook, Alex Lynn and Earl Bamber, scoring Cadillac its first podium in WEC competition. Cadillac should take great pride in being the first team running an LMDh prototype across the line.

It was by no means a simple race for Cadillac, though, as the other two V-Series.Rs hit trouble in the race and spent much of it recovering. The Action Express example had its chances of a strong finish ended on lap 1 when Jack Aitken had an off in the wet on the exit of the first Mulsanne Chicane, going nose first into the guardrail, causing damage that cost the team multiple laps in the garage. The No. 3 Cadillac Racing machine had a better race, finishing fourth despite losing time when Sebastien Bourdais was rear-ended by the No. 21 AF Corse GTE Ferrari at the Dunlop Bridge and required a trip to the garage for repairs.

The No. 50 AF Corse 499P was delayed by mechanical issues and finished fifth.