‘We did it’ - Ferrari win second successive Le Mans 24 Hours race

AFP | Le Mans

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Ferrari overcame wretched weather and tenacious rivals to claim back-to-back editions of the Le Mans 24 Hours race yesterday.

Nicklas Nielsen took the chequered flag after a vintage and gruelling contest, the Dane sharing driving duties in the Italian constructor’s No 50 car with Italian Antonio Fuoco and Spaniard Miguel Molina.

Toyota’s No 7 car took second with Ferrari’s No 51 car, which triumphed last year, completing the podium.

Twenty-four long hours, 311 laps and 4,238 kilometres after French football great Zinedine Zidane had sent the 62 car-grid on its way on Saturday, Ferrari emerged victorious after a classic version of motorsport’s supreme endurance test. “I had a very long stint driving, the last lap was so long, but we did it” said Nielsen.

“We were ready for this moment for one year, we won it. We did a good job since the beginning, now is the moment to enjoy,” Molina chipped in. “This is amazing, last year we were so very close,” he added after the triumphant trio’s fifth place in 2023. Porsche’s pole-sitting No 6 car narrowly missed a podium place in fourth ahead of Toyota’s No 8 car.

In an attritional affair, the night proved long and tedious with incessant rain forcing long yellow flag periods. That reduced the gleaming high-spec racing cars capable of going well in excess of 300kph to pottering along at speeds normally associated with a family hatchback heading to the local supermarket.