This 2024 WEC 24 Hours Of Le Mans race report is proudly brought to you by Toyota Gazoo Racing.

The 24 Hours of Le Mans, the jewel in the WEC crown, is the fourth round of the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship. It was a challenging, unpredictable race, with changeable weather conditions making strategies a lottery. A heavy downpour in the early morning hours brought out the safety car, which remained for a good five hours. 

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As it is with endurance racing, some teams suffered cruel luck. While others managed to survive issues to finish higher in the finishing order. No fewer than 23 Hypercars took to the grid, with 62 machines in all classes starting the race.

Anyone’s Game

The race was a battle between Porsche, Ferrari and Cadillac to begin with, however, Porsche fell out of the running for victory in the latter stages, while Toyota came into play. The entire race, other than the extended safety car period, was a fascinating play of cat-and-mouse between the manufacturers in question. The final minutes had Ferrari #50 (Nielsen/Fuoco/Molini) battling Toyota #7 (Kobayashi/Lopez/de Vries) in the pouring rain, while Ferrari #51 (Pier Guidi/Callado/Giovinazzi) and Porsche #6 (Vanthoor/Estre/Lotterer) vied for the final podium place.

Flapping Ferrari

Despite a late pitstop to fix a flapping passenger door, Niklas Nielsen kept his composure in challenging weather conditions to coax Ferrari #50 to victory, less than 15 seconds clear of Toyota #7. Lopez, driving #7, will wonder what could have been: he had a spin with one hour remaining which cost him 15 seconds. Ferrari #51 completed the podium, 1,6 seconds ahead of Porsche #6. Toyota #8 (Buemi/Hartley/Hirakawa), in contention for at least a podium finish, had to be content with fifth place after being tagged into a spin by Ferrari #51.

Penalties Aplenty

While Ferrari #50 had a near flawless run, a late release in one of their pitstops blotted their copybook. Molina immediately backed off and allowed the LMP2 car space, which the stewards decreed was not worthy of a penalty. Ferrari #51 was penalised for an unsafe release earlier in the race, along with another five seconds late in the race following an incident with Toyota #8.

Allesandro Pier Guidi tagged Sebastien Buemi into a spin while vying for third place with an hour remaining. Ferrari AF Corse #83 (Kubica/Shwartzmann/Ye) ran strongly at the front of the field, leading for a number of hours. While Kubica was lapping Dries Vanthoor, he moved across the BMW’s bow on the Mulsanne straight, pitching the Belgian driver into the barrier. The Pole was penalised a 30-second stop-and-go, which dropped the #83 machine to fifth position. The car was retired with just under four hours remaining, after plumes of smoke emerged from what appeared to be the brake duct in a pitstop.

Click here to read about Toyota’s history at Le Mans Part One and Part Two.

Toyota Woes

Toyota #7 suffered a setback before the race began, when Mike Conway suffered injuries in a bicycle accident, resulting in his withdrawal. Jose Maria Lopez, who had been relegated to the Lexus GT team for 2024, was called up to replace the Englishman for the race. They suffered a further setback in qualifying when Kobayashi beached the car, forcing a red flag. As a result, the car’s times were deleted and they had to start at the back of the Hypercar grid.

They ran solidly and crept up the leaderboard as the race progressed, to the point of vying for victory. Lopez suffered a spin in the Turn 2 chicane with one hour remaining while chasing Ferrari #50 for the lead. He seemed to have a power issue soon after his final pit stop, but returned to full power with 30 minutes remaining. The #8 team must feel aggrieved with their being tagged by #51 and only 5 seconds being added to the Ferrari’s next pitstop.

Pre-race Favourites

Porsche will rue not winning this event, as no fewer than six Porsche 963 Hypercars took the start, with the Penske #6 machine (Estre/Lotterer/L. Vanthoor) starting from pole position. Both #6 and #5 (Christensen/Campbell/Makowiecki) machines ran close to the front of the field, but none of their machines finished on the podium.

The #6 machine finished fourth, while #5 finished sixth. JOTA Porsche 963 #12 (Stevens/Illot/Nato) required an entire rebuild after Calum Illot wrote off the car in Free Practice 2. The team worked night and day to ensure it could turn a wheel by Friday morning. They survived further major mishap and finished the race in eighth place, ahead of sister machine #38 (Hanson/Button/Rasmussen) in ninth.

American Challenge

Cadillac had a strong race at Le Mans, with Cadillac #2 (Bamber/Lynn/Palou) spending much of the time at the front of the field. Unfortunately, they fell back with five hours remaining, but finished seventh. The #3 sister car (Bourdais/Dixon/van der Zande), with Le Mans local Sebastian Bourdais, ran strongly for the first two hours, before falling down the order. The car was eventually retired with an electronic issue with less than five hours remaining. The #311 Whelen Racing (Derani/Aitken/Drugovitch) machine had a heavy shunt with the barriers at the exit of Indianapolis corner. They staggered over the finish line 29th overall.

Eurobeats

Peugeot had both cars finish, as well as Lamborghini, however, neither marque had a major role to play in the race story.  Lamborghini #63 (Bortollotti/Kyvat/Mortara) rounded out the top 10, while #19 (Grosjean/Caldarelli/Cairoli) finished 13th. Peugeot #94 (Vandoorne/di Resta/Duval) and 93 (Müller/Vergne/Jensen) finished 11th and 12th, respectively.

Isotta Fraschini #11 (Bennett/Vernay/Seravalle) had a quiet race. They circulated under the radar, but are to be commended for reaching the chequered flag of this grueling event. They were classified 14th. Alpine had a disastrous race. The team retiring both of their cars minutes from each other with engine issues after six hours.

Not to be

BMW also had a disastrous event, with both of their Hypercars being involved in accidents. WRT BMW #15 (D. Vanthoor/Marciello/Wittmann) had an early spin and spent the rest of their time in the race trying to make up for the mistake. While being lapped by the leader, Kubica’s #83 Ferrari tagged Vanthoor, putting him into the barrier and destroying the front end of his mount. Frijns, piloting the #20 (van der Linde/Frijns/Rast) machine, had a heavy shunt with the tyre barrier two-and-a-half hours into the race. Frijns staggered back to the pits for repairs. They were not classified at the fall of the chequered flag.

LMGT3

Manthey Ema Porsche #91 (Shahin/Schuring/Lietz), with two rookie drivers, took victory in the LMGT3 class at Le Mans 24h. WRT BMW #31 (Gelael/Farfus/Leung) finished a fine second, albeit almost a lap behind the victors. The Proton Mustangs featured well, finishing third (#88 – Olsen/Pedersen/Roda) and fourth (#44 – Mies/Hartshorne/Tuck), respectively.

The Akkodis ASP Lexus #78, featuring Kelvin van der Linde, finished seventh in class. There were a few notable incidents in the class. Thomas Flohr (AF Corse Ferrari #54) was the first retirement, losing it spectacularly at the Dunlop bridge. WRT BMW #46 (Martin/Rossi/Al Harthy) crashed just after midnight, when Al Harthy went off the circuit into the tyre barriers, shortly after Rossi handed the car to him from the lead in class.

While Al Harthy was uninjured, the car was too badly damaged to continue and the team retired the car. Heart of Racing Aston Martin #27 had an alarming crash soon after the long safety car period. Making way for the chasing Hypercars, the driver lost control on a damp patch at the exit of Indianapolis corner. The car slid into the tyre barrier, pitching it onto its roof at track side! Thankfully, the driver walked away uninjured.

LMP2

Two American rookies (Bijoy Garg and Nolan Siegel), who grew up together and raced against each other since their karting days, partnered Oliver Jarvis (United Autosports #22) in their drive to victory in the LMP2 class. Inter Europol #34, last year’s class victor, finished second, despite losing a wheel after 3-and-a-half hours’ racing. IDEC Sport #28 finished third, while AF Corse #183 was fourth and winner of the ProAm category in class. Duqueine Team #30 had a spectacular engine failure just after midnight.

The top ten finishers in each class score points. There are three points-scoring allocation forms, with different allocations for 6-hour, 8-10-hour and 24-hour events, respectively. 

Title Race

Vanthoor/Estre/Lotterer maintain their Hypercar championship lead with 99 points, ahead of Kobayashi/DeVries with 82 points. Illot/Stevens lie third with 60 points. Sheldon van de Linde has 10 points and lies 16th in the standings.

In the GT3LM class, the Manthey drivers Malykhin/Sturm/Bachler and Shahin/Schuring/Lietz are tied with 75 points apiece. Next are the trio of Farfus/Leung/Gelael with 73 points. Kelvin van der Linde lies 14th in the standings, with 16 points.

The fifth round of the WEC takes place on 14 July in Brazil. The 6 Hours of Sao Paulo will be the first WEC event to run in South America since its inception in 2012 and the first since the World Sportscar event in 1972.