LE MANS, France — The Centenary running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans came to a rousing conclusion Sunday afternoon with a Ferrari in victory lane at the famed Circuit de la Sarthe.
Alessandro Pier Guidi was at the wheel of AF Corse’s No 51 Ferrari 499P Hypercar at the end of the twice-around-the clock grind, giving the Italian manufacturer its 10th overall Le Mans triumph but first since 1965.
Pier Guidi shared the winning car with Antonio Giovanazzi and James Calado. The winners fought a valiant battle with the No. 8 Gazoo Racing Toyota Hypercar handled by Ryo Hirakawa until an error by Hirakawa, sealed the team’s fate.
Still, the Toyota, which was shared by Sebastien Buemi and Brendon Hartley came home second, one minute and 21 seconds behind the winning Prancing Horse.
The second-place finish ended Toyota’s five-year winning streak at Le Mans.
Completing the podium was the No. 2 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R, which was driven by Richard Westbrook, Alex Lynn and Earl Bamber. It was Cadillac’s its first podium in WEC competition.Â
The No. 3 Cadillac Racing entry came home fourth, with Sebastien Bourdais, Renger Vander Zande and Scott Dixon at the controls.
The pole-starting AF Corse No. 50 Ferrari came home fifth despite being losing times to repair mechanical gremlins.
The winning Ferrari completed only 342 laps, which is the fewest laps by a race winner since Audi in 2001.
The battle for victory in the LMP2 class was separated by only 21 seconds at the end of 24 hours, with the No. 34 Inter Europol ORECA claiming the first Le Mans victory for a Polish team.
Albert Costa, Jakub Smiechowski and an injured Fabio Scherer (broken foot) pushed the team to victory, holding off the Team WRT ORECA wheeled by Louis Deletraz, Rui Andrade and Robert Kubica.
Third in class was the No. 30 Duqueine ORECA shared by Neel Jani, Rene Binder and Nico Pino.
The Corvette Racing No. 33 C8.R started on the pole in the GTE Am class, but had to battle from behind to take top honors in the class.
Driven by Ben Keating, Nico Varrone and Nicky Catsburg, a damper failure two hours into the race cost the team two laps.
But the team was not to be denied, fighting back to claim the ninth Le Mans class win for Corvette.
The No. 25 ORT by TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage (Ahmad Al Harthy, Michael Dinan and Charlie Eastwood) finished second. Drivers Michael Wainwright, Benjamin Barker and Riccardo Pera brought the GR Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19 home third in class.
Despite having to repair a broken driveline during the middle stages of the race, the Garage 56 Chevrolet entry fielded by NASCAR and Hendrick Motorsports was 39th at the checkered flag.