Ferrari wins the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Giovinazzi, Pier Guidi and Calado – Corriere.it

Le Mans Ferrari returns to make history at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The No. 51 499P driven by Calado, Pier Guidi and Giovinazzi won the French marathon after a breathtaking battle with Toyota that lasted nearly a day. A very important victory for the wild horse who returned to the French endurance race in the year of the circuit’s centenary, after half a century of absence in Hypercars, the first category in the World Endurance Championship (WEC).

Ferrari’s last victory at Le Mans dates back to 1965 when it was Rindt and Gregory They drove the 250 LM in triumph (with the complicity of the “ghost pilot”, Ed Hugus). Ferrari managed to beat Toyota, the favorite of this edition and the undisputed winner of the world’s most famous 24-hour race since 2018. A head-to-head match between Japan and Italy continued throughout the marathon, with the Ferrari cars starting first and second (Nielsen on No. 50 and Calado on 51) and was immediately overtaken by Buemi’s No. 8 Toyota GR010. It was just the beginning of an infinite flexibility from which no one ever escaped and accumulated great advantage, and to the end kept everyone in suspense between rain and sun, heat and cold.

As it got dark, Pier Guidi’s Rossa was well ahead of the Toyotas that followed soon, but the first turn came around midnight. To avoid a spinning Porsche GT, Pierre Guidi’s Ferrari ended up in the gravel and lost half a lap before re-entering the track in fifth place. An hour later, the Toyota that has problems: Kobayashi’s No. 7 car is forced to retire Due to a hard rear-end collision with the No. 66 Ferrari Gt and the Japanese manufacturer left the lead for a few laps before taking the lead again with the No. 8 Buemi, Hartley and Hirakawa. At two o’clock, another twist. A stone on the track damaged the electric motor cooling system of the Ferrari 50 driven by Fuoco, forcing the car to stop for a long time and the Japanese cars to gain a bit of a margin.

From the middle of the race, the head-on heartbeat begins. At midnight, a very fast lap of the No. 51 with Pier Guidi at the wheel allows Ferrari to get the No. 8 Toyota: at the pitstop, Ferrari takes off first while Toyota is held up to change a piece from the front. From this moment the Ferrari 51’s dominance begins at a fast pace and without hesitation. As the first dawned, the Reds were a minute ahead of the Toyota, and hearts are beating, but we’re trying to keep our feet on the ground because the unexpected is just around the corner.

And in fact at 10.32, five and a half hours after the end of the race, the dream appears to have been shattered: a system reset for Giovinazzi’s 51 pit stop causes a one-minute delay, passing Buemi’s No. 8 Toyota. The distance between the two hypercars was less than a second and in 10.48 Pierre Guidi sensationally passed the Toyota in the second Hunaudières race.

The Piedmontese driver pushes hard and regularly but the Toyota He does not give up and resists even the unimaginable. With three hours left, the gap between the Reds and the Japanese is just 5.7 seconds, even the smallest mistake could cost the entire race. For the next hour and a half, Ferrari went up the lead, second by second, until at 2.16pm Hirakawa’s No. 8 Toyota lost its rear and spun, hitting the Arnage corner barriers. The cheers of the Ferrari fans echoed around the circuit, as Hirakawa returned to the pits as the front was replaced and came out with a delay of more than 3 minutes and 22 seconds. Looks like it’s done.

One hour and ten from the end of the 499p race #51 returns to the last tire change and refueling before the finish: The driver who will bring the galloping horse to the finish line at Le Mans is Alessandro Pier Guidi. Number 51 turns regularly to secure his well-deserved earnings, but the surprises are far from over. Pier Guidi returns to the pits to refuel but the car doesn’t seem to have restarted and restarts a minute later with a breath. Toyota is gaining ground, staying clear for the final twenty minutes of the race. But it’s all useless: Ferrari Calado, Guidi and Giovinazzi crossed the finish line first (341 laps, more than a minute and a half ahead of the Japanese), winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans 58 years after the last time. Foucault’s twins, Molina and Nielsen, finished fifth.