Ferrari seal back-to-back Le Mans victories with #50 line-up winning dramatic race

Ferrari AF Corse defended the Le Mans 24 hours title in a dramatic and rain-affected race.

The dream seemed over for the line-up of Nicklas Nielsen, Miguel Molina and Antonio Fuoco when they were forced into an unscheduled pit stop with a flapping door in the late stages of proceedings.

However, out of sequence, they took a gamble to not stop again in the final hour and brought P1 home with just two per cent of energy remaining

“It was amazing, we’ve been working really hard,” Molina said post-race. “Last year we were really close and since the Monday afterward we wanted to come back.

“It was very chaotic, it was very tough. We knew we could have a good chance – we gave everything, it’s the best day of my career.”

Speaking about the final stages of the race where he was simultaneously managing the dangerously low energy and holding the charging #7 Toyota (Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez, Nyck de Vries) at bay, Nielsen admitted that “the last lap was very long”.

“The worst thing for me was when [the team] asked me to go slower because that’s usually when mistakes happen,” he said. “They kept me updated on the gap basically all stint, so it was all about managing the gap to the car in P2.

“It was a very long stint and a very long last lap for me, but we did it.”

Fuoco added: “It’s just amazing. We’ve been waiting for this moment since last year. In the end, we won it and we are just super happy.

“We all did a really good job since the beginning of the race, so think now is the moment to enjoy the win.”

The race was decided in a five-and-a-half hours sprint after several safety car periods, one of them lasting more than four hours, compressed the field.

The #50 Ferrari, its #83 privateer sister car (Robert Kubica, Robert Shwartzman, Yifei Ye), and the #8 Toyota (Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa) gradually edged away from their competitors and looked comfortable in the top three.

However, the race came to a cruel end for the #83 line-up when they came in for a scheduled pit stop but ran into a technical issue with overheating brakes. As smoke billowed from the Ferrari, the crew was forced to retire their effort.

More drama struck when the rain started to come down heavily with two hours left to go, forcing everyone to swap to wet tyres.

In the wet conditions, the #50 ran the best pace by far and escaped from the field. It was disaster behind them though when the #51 Ferrari (James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi, Alessandro Pier Guidi) hit the #8 Toyota and sent them spinning into the gravel and out of victory contention.

The #50 Ferrari too ran into trouble as the passenger door was not properly closed and started flapping. With just over one and a half hours remaining, they were ordered to take an unscheduled pit stop to fix the issue.

In the meantime, the #7 Toyota had worked its way up the order into second and led the cars on a regular pit stop strategy, the #50 Ferrari now running off sequence in the lead.

From there, the race was decided in a distance duel between Lopez in the Toyota and Nielsen in the Ferrari.

Lopez took time out of his opponent, but a number of errors, including a spin in the Dunlop chicane going into the final hour, meant the gap remained.

The race started to swing in Ferrari’s favour, especially with Nielsen able to preserve energy and enabling the gamble to only pit once more after the “door stop”.

Indeed, Nielsen managed the #50’s energy to perfection to bring P1 home, albeit with only two per cent of energy remaining, and defend the trophy for Ferrari.

For the second year running, Toyota had to settle for runner-up after a spin late in the race.

“This race is always tough,” Kobayashi said. “We did everything that we can do. Obviously, we’re missing something, it wasn’t enough. We had some problems as well, but just that last bit wasn’t enough.

“But I’m so proud, the whole team did everything we could.

“It’s a shame for car #8; I think they had the opportunity to win as well, to be fighting with car #50. But they had the contact with car #51 and dropped back into fifth position. So obviously it’s quite tough for us, but this is racing.

“We did everything, we took all the risks and we knew it was going to be a challenge. But if we never challenge, we never win. So we do our best and that is the Toyota racing philosophy, we never give up and we try until the end.”

The defending champions of the #51 Ferrari completed the podium after prevailing in an exciting late battle with the #6 Porsche (Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer, Laurens Vanthoor).

Toyota eventually finished fifth with the #8 car that was spun out of victory contention while the #6 Porsche (Matt Campbell, Michael Christensen, Frederic Makowiecki) came sixth, having sacrificed their chances for a top position with a too-late swap to wet tyres in the Sunday afternoon rain showers.

The #2 Cadillac (Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn, Alex Palou) was seventh, having featured heavily on Sunday with an off sequence pit stop strategy, from the #12 Jota Porsche (Callum Ilott, Norman Nato, Will Stevens) who was the best privateer team.

Jenson Button was ninth with his team-mates Phil Hanson and Oliver Rasmussen in the #38 Jota Porsche while the #63 Iron Lynx (Mirko Bortolotti, Daniil Kvyat, Edoardo Mortara) closed out the top 10 as Lamborghini was back in Le Mans.