MOTORSPORT – FERRARI stormed to the front of the pack a little after the opening four hours of this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours yesterday at Circuit de la Sarthe in France.
The meeting marks the fourth of eight rounds on the 2025 calendar of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).
Three Ferrari-powered Hypercars were leading motorsport’s most gruelling and popular endurance challenge at that point.
The Ferrari AF Corse #50 trio of Antonio Fuoco, Nicklas Nielsen, and Miguel Molina were the leaders ahead of their sister squad of Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye, and Philip Hanson in the AF Corse #83 contender. The #51 Ferrari AF Corse triumvirate of Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, and Antonio Giovinazzi followed in third.
All three crews were competing in Ferrari 499P Hypercars, with the Fuoco-Nielsen-Molina trio hoping to repeat their winning run in the season-opening round in Lusail, Qatar, last February. They had also triumphed in Le Mans last year.
Their Pier Guidi-Calado-Giovinazzi rivals, however, are aiming for a third straight triumph this WEC season, having taken the previous two events in Imola, Italy, in April and then at Spa, Belgium, in May.
The order continued to shuffle heading into the fifth hour of the race as the other Hypercars featuring Aston Martin, Porsche, Toyota, BMW, Alpine, Peugeot, and pole-sitters Cadillac continued their exciting battles into the dark of night.
A total of 21 Hypercars have been entered for Le Mans in the WEC’s top-tier class.
Meanwhile, Ferrari also topped the order after four hours in the LMGT3 category.
The #21 Vista AF Corse partnership of Francois Heriau, Simon Mann, and Alessio Rovera were in early command in their Ferrari 296 LMGT3 car.
Ranked behind them were the #46 Team WRT trio of Ahmad Al Harthy, Kelvin van der Linde, and nine-time world motorcycling champion Valentino Rossi in their BMW M4 LMGT3; while the #92 Manthey 1ST Phorm team of Ryan Hardwick, Riccardo Pera, and Richard Lietz completed the three in their Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3.
Twenty-four entrants were competing in LMGT3.
Finally, leading the LMP2 class at the four-hour mark were the #43 crew of Inter Europol Competition, featuring Jakub Smiechowski, Tom Dillmann, and Nick Yelloly. They steered their Oreca 07-Gibson ahead of the #48 crew of Oliver Gray, Esteban Masson, and Franck Perera competing for VDS Panis Racing. In third were the #9 Iron Lynx-Proton crew of Jonas Ried, Maceo Capietto, and Reshad de Gerus.
Seventeen LMP2 challengers have hit the track in the round, which marks this category’s only appearance of the WEC season.
The chequered flag at this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours is scheduled to come down today in the early evening at 5pm, Bahrain time.
Due to the extended race distance, double championship points are awarded.
From France, the 2025 WEC campaign then heads to Sao Paulo, Brazil in July, and then to Austin, Texas, and Fuji, Japan, in September.
The championship will then hold its grand finale in the kingdom at Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir this November.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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