LE MANS — The No. 83 AF Corse team led by Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye and Philip Hanson fended off the pressure of the factory Ferrari AF Corse cars and seven other manufacturers to win the 93rd running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
AF Corse is the first customer team to win the twice-around-the-clock endurance race in 20 years.
While drama hit the rapid No. 51 Ferrari, the No. 83 stayed out of trouble to become the first customer team since Champion Racing in 2005 to take the biggest prize in sports car racing.
Kubica drove the car home to the delight of the passionate crowd, and as he took the checkered flag becoming the first Polish driver to win the Le Mans outright. His teammate Yifei Ye became the first driver from China to win the great race, while Philip Hanson became the 46th British winner in what was only his second Hypercar race at Le Mans.
Porsche Penske Motorsport were the only outfit to get close and kept on the coattails all race long, kept them in with a shout should a mistake arise.
That came when the No. 51 parked itself in the gravel. Kévin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor and in particular Matt Campbell, who triple-stinted the tires toward the end, allowed Estre to bring the car home only 14 seconds behind the winner Ferrari after completing 5,361 miles.
The No. 51 and No. 50 Ferrari AF Corse machines had a battle to the finish for third place, with the No. 51 handled by Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi, finishing less than a second ahead of its sister car wheeled by Antonio Fuoco, Nicklas Nielsen and Miguel Molina.
Fifth in the Hypercar class was the pole-winning Cadillac V-Series R for Team JOTA with Alex Lynn, Will Stevens and Norman Nato aboard.
Having won the 2023 LMP2 class, the yellow and green Inter Europol Competition team was back on the top step in France. The No. 43 ORECA with drivers Jakub Smiechowski, Tom Dillmann and Nick Yelloly battled through the night with the No. 48 shared by Oliver Gray, Esteban Masson and Frank Pererra.
The No. 43 took the lead with less than 15 minutes remaining to claim the victory, with the No. 48 second and the No. 199 ORECA of P.J. Hyett, Dane Cameron and Louis Deletraz claiming third.
The No. 92 Manthey 1ST Phorm Porsche was the car to beat for the majority of the race. Superlatives are not enough to describe their dominance, as they held the lead to the very end -with drivers Ryan Hardwick, Riccardo Pera and Richard Lietz etching their names into the history books.
In second, the No. 21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3 had a quiet yet effective race – steering clear of trouble with Francois Heriau, Simon Mann and Alessio Rovera at the controls.
