Ferrari has won its first 24 Hours of Le Mans in 58 years, with the #51 AF Corse 499P Hypercar driven by Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi taking victory early this morning.
A race-long battle with the #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing came to an end with less than two hours remaining when Ryo Hirakawa spun the Toyota GR010 into the wall, sustaining damage to the front and rear wing and losing several minutes as a result.
Brendon Hartley had driven four consecutive stints prior to this to bring the team to within 10 seconds with two hours remaining, only for Hirakawa to lock up and spin at Turn 14 and set the Ferrari on a course for victory.
Toyota retained second following some quick repairs, with Hartley and Hirakawa joined on the second step by Sebastien Buemi.
Cadillac’s maiden outing in the premier class of the 24 Hours of Le Mans finished with a podium for the Chip Ganassi Cadillac Racing #2 entry of Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn and Richard Westbrook and fourth place for the #3 of Scott Dixon, Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande.
Late drama briefly appeared on the cards in the closing stages as Ferrari led by over three minutes, Pier Guidi unable to restart the car on their final stop with 30 minutes remaining and having to complete a full reset to resume running.
Over a minute of their lead was lost while this was completed; however, a further stop for fuel was required by Toyota, which saw the gap sitting at just under two minutes once both returned to running.
Glickenhaus then proceeded to run one of their entries into the barriers, triggering a slow zone caution in the final 20 minutes; however, no Safety Car was required to retrieve the car.
The #50 Ferrari AF Corse 499P rounded out the top five, overcoming mid-race damage to moving forward through the pack over the final 12 hours for a solid result.
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