Robert Kubica Takes Ferrari To Victory At The 24 Hours Of Le Mans

Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye & Philip Hanson Won The 24 Hours Of Le Mans In The No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari

The No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P won the 24 Hours Of Le Mans in the hands of Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye and Philip Hanson. They won the prestigious endurance race ahead of Porsche and the factory Ferrari team. AF Corse is the first customer team to win Le Mans in over 20 years.

Kevin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor, and Matt Campbell piloted the No. 6 Porsche Penske to a sensational drive from P21 to P2. Antonio Giovinazzi, Alessandro Pier Guidi, and James Calado in the No. 51 finished P3 in the factory Ferrari effort.

Hypercar Class

Whilst the Ferrari took the victory, Cadillac set the pole position after showcasing strong pace. However, it never translated into race pace. Initially, the No. 51 Ferrari led the battle with the No. 83 AF Corse.

With the four hours remaining, the No. 78 Lexus LMGT3 crashed, which caused a full-course yellow. Alessandro Pier Guidi spun in the pit lane, which beached the No. 51 Ferrari. This handed the lead to the No. 83 AF Corse in the chaos. This is where Robert Kubica started to showcase his racing experience and led in his last stint for nearly 3.5 hours.

The Polish driver drove nearly 43% of the race-winning laps of the No. 83 AF Corse. The victory was also a first for Robert Kubica and Yifei Yei, being the first Polish and Chinese drivers to win the prestigious endurance race. Ferrari has also maintained dominance at Le Mans for three consecutive years.

Porsche was the closest challenger to Ferrari, but they were disqualified from qualifying as they were underweight. Kevin Estre battled to P5 within the first hour and finished P2, just 14.084 seconds behind the AF Corse. Notably, the No. 51 Ferrari suffered technical issues in the closing hour, which made the team ask the drivers to hold positions.

LMP2 Class

Jakub Smiechowski, Tom Dillman, and Nick Yelloly secured victory in the LMP2 class for No. 43 Inter Europol Competition. It was a close-fought battle with No. 48 VDS Panis Racing driven by Oliver Gray, Esteban Masson and Franck Perera. With just 32 minutes remaining, the No. 43 car was given a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane.

However, the luck was on the No. 48 car’s side. Inter Europol Team secured its second Le Mans class win in three years with this opportunity. PJ Hyett, Dane Cameron, and Louis Deletraz drove the No. 199 AO by TF car to finish P3.

LMGT3 Class

The No. 92 Manthey 1ST Phorm Porsche claimed the class victory by dominating the LMGT3 class. It was driven by Ryan Hardwick, Riccardo Pera, and Richard Lietz. They secured a back-to-back victory at the French endurance race.

Richard Lietz secures his 6th Le Mans victory in addition to winning GT races in 2007, 2010, 2013, 2022, and 2024. Francois Heriau, Simon Mann, and Alessio Rovera drove the No. 21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari to a second-place finish in the class. The No. 81 TF Sport Corvette took the final step of the podium, driven by Tom van Rompuy, Rui Andrade and Charlie Eastwood.