Practically Perfect
How strong has Ferrari been in WEC Hypercar so far this season? Even a perfect Porsche effort at Le Mans didn't keep a 499P from taking yet another win.
Heading into the 24 Hours of Le Mans, every Hypercar factory team needed a near-perfect outing to have any hope of putting pressure on Ferrari in the race and the WEC Hypercar Manufacturers' season-long championship.
Among those with a realistic shot at the title, nobody needed perfection more than Porsche.
Last year's full-season runners-up--Toyota edged them out by just two points in the final hour of the season finale, though the No. 6 Porsche Penske 963 trio of Laurens Vanthoor, Kevin Estre and Andre Lotterer took the drivers' title--struggled in the first three rounds.
The podium-less start left them buried in sixth place in the standings, looking up at not just Ferrari and Toyota, but also BMW, Alpine, and Cadillac. Ferrari, which swept the first three races, was 114 points clear of Porsche.
Back To Front
But on the season's biggest stage, Porsche didn't disappoint.
The No. 6 team of Vanthoor, Estre and Matt Campbell had a flawless 24 hours. The effort combined with the No. 5 Penske 963's seventh-place finish on track and a post-race penalty to one of the factory Ferraris was enough to give Porsche hope heading into the season's second half.
But as good as it was, it was only good enough for second. Co-drivers Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye and Phil Hanson and AF Corse No. 83, the Ferrari-supported team that is technically a privateer and therefore not part of the manufacturers' title hunt, ended up atop the podium—each driver capturing his first overall Le Mans win. For Ferrari, it was three wins in three Le Mans starts for one of its 499Ps.
"It stings, coming this close to writing history," Vanthoor posted on his X feed after the race. "But we can also be proud. We didn’t make a single mistake. No penalties. No contact. No off-track. And all of that while constantly pushing 100% to keep up with Ferrari."
The No. 6's race performance was even more sublime considering Porsche Penske's rough start to the WEC season. Forget wins or podiums--the team's best finish in the first three races was the No. 6's eighth-place result in Round 2 at Imola. The No. 5 cracked the top 10 just once.
For a while, Le Mans was setting up to be more of the same.
The No. 6 team was disqualified from qualifying for not meeting minimum weight, putting it last in class—21st--on the starting grid. The No. 5 softened the blow with its third-place qualifying run, but for a team that needs all the points it can score to climb up the manufacturer's standings, having one car lagging near the back is not ideal.
Once the race started, Porsche found its groove. The No. 5 jumped into the lead on the opening lap, and the No. 6, with Estre behind the wheel, launched into a stellar run. Estre passed seven cars on the opening lap and cracked the top five before the first hour was up.
When Estre came in to hand the No. 6 963 car over to Vanthoor after 37 laps and a little more than two hours, he was leading the race.
"I had a lot of fun out there," Estre told TNT Sports following his eye-opening stint. "We had a great car. I had sort of a flow. You know, sometimes you get lucky in traffic, you take the right decision, going right [then] left, and everything went right. Really happy with that, but it's still a long race."
A Four-Way Fight
The race evolved into a battle between the three Ferrari 499Ps--the Nos. 50 and 51 factory cars and the No. 83 privateer--and the No. 6 Porsche. Each would lead for extended stretches, and each of the Ferraris would make minor mistakes. The No. 50 and No. 83 each picked up five-second penalties for on-track shortcuts, and the No. 51 spun while pitting from the lead in the 19th hour.
The No. 6 Porsche powered on, benefitting from a tire management strategy that enabled the team to run double stints before putting on fresh Michelins down the stretch. Ferrari elected to keep tires on for three full energy runs, opting for the shorter pit stops vs fresh tires.
"We chose to do the double and to push like hell," Estre told Sportscar365. “They chose to go for a triple stint and maybe track position, but in the end, their tire degradation was higher than what they expected, probably.”
As the race entered the last few hours, the pecking order became clearer: the No. 83 was the car to beat, and the Porsche had work to do to prevent a Ferrari sweep. The No. 6 963 team not only muscled its way onto the podium, but it jumped the No. 50 Ferrari to take second place in the 23rd hour.
The push stalled there, however, as the Porsche crossed the line 14 sec. behind the winning No. 83 Ferrari.
"The No. 6 crew made zero mistakes, zero penalties, zero off-track incidents," Porsche Penske Motorsport Managing Director Jonathan Diuguid told Sportscar365. "And that’s what put them in position to be fighting there at the end.”
Added Estre: “It’s a good surprise to be second because for a long time we thought it’s going to be a Ferrari 1-2-3."
‘Yes, It Sucks.’
Instead, it ended up 83-6-50. A post-race disqualification of the No. 51 car for missing hardware on its rear-wing support leaves Porsche Penske in an even better position heading to Brazil.
Ferrari's lead is still sizable--77 points over six-time defending champion Toyota and 88 ahead of Porsche. But the No. 50's loss of points combined with the bump the nearest competitors behind it got by advancing one spot up in the standings--the No. 51 crossed the line fourth overall--tightens the race considerably.
Before thinking about a full-season title, though, somebody has to beat Ferrari to the checkered flag. Le Mans proved that even a perfect outing by a top-tier team may not get the job done.
"Yes, it sucks," posted Vanthoor, who is still looking for his first overall win in his sport's biggest event. "But that’s life sometimes. Congrats Ferrari."
Reference
Estre, Diuguid post-race comments--https://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/estre-le-mans-runner-up-finish-good-surprise-for-porsche/
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