In tricky conditions, Ferrari AF Corse’s Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen won the 24 Hours of Le Mans Sunday morning (June 16). It is Ferrari’s second straight victory in the endurance classic, but it was the team car that won last year.
“It was amazing,” Molina said after the race. “It is the best day of my career. Thanks to everyone that has supported me since I was young. To my family, my parents, my wife, to my kids and to everyone.”
Fuoco, Molina and Nielsen’s margin of victory was 14.221 seconds over Toyota GAZOO Racing’s Nyck de Vries, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez. Ferrari AF Corse’s No. 51 for James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi were third, then Porsche Penske Motorsport’s No. 6 for Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer and Laurens Vanthoor. The No. 8 Toyota of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa was fifth. Nine cars finished on the lead lap.
Vanthoor started from the overall pole in his Porsche 963, but he was overhauled on the first lap by Nielsen at Indianapolis.
The first line in the sand in the race occurred during the second hour. A rain shower descended upon the 8.467-mile circuit, leaving teams to choose what do to do. Most of the leaders chose to pit for rain tires. The leading No. 50 Ferrari stayed out, as did Robert Kubica in the AF Corse No. 83 Ferrari and Hertz Team JOTA’s Will Stevens.
That was ultimately the right move as it dried relatively quickly. The teams that stopped ended up having to make another pit stop in order to switch back to slicks and ultimately lost a couple of minutes.
BMW M Team WRT had a terrible race. Dries Vanthoor‘s weekend started well with the fastest time in qualifying practice.
Then, he crashed a couple hours later in the next practice. He crashed again in Hyperpole qualifying. During the race, Dries had contact with Kubica and crashed out.
The No. 20 didn’t have things much better. Robin Frijns spun and hit the barrier in the Ford chicane early on past pit-in. As a result, he had to drive eight miles with a busted suspension.
Frijns got the car back to the garage, but repairs took a very long time. The team did get the car back out, but it was 215 laps down at the finish and not classified as a finisher.
Ultimately, weather played a huge role in the race. While the track dried from the f’irst shower, rain would come and go throughout the race. The worst of the rain came in…
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