Manthey EMA emerged victorious in the first 24 Hours of Le Mans for the new-for-2024 LMGT3 category.
The #91 Porsche 911 R LMGT3 of Yasser Shahin, Morris Schuring and Richard Lietz delivered the 111th class win for Porsche in impressive style. It was also a fifth win for Richard Lietz, competing in his 18th Le Mans, placing the 40-year-old Austrian driver seventh in the overall standings for victories at the event.
The inaugural 24-hour race for the new category had much to live up to, but its 23-car grid delivered a spectacular contest of pace, strategy and attrition. The new cars, teams and marques battled hard in challenging conditions, particularly during the night and early morning which was spent in the wet under the Safety Car.
From the outset, the consensus was that the pair of Manthey-run Porsches were likely to continue their World Endurance Championship leading form, but of the two it was the #92 Manthey PureRxcing entry of Aliaksandr Malykhin, Joel Sturm and Klaus Bachler that was more fancied for the win.
But the car fell foul of a gearbox issue in the seventh hour though, having run strongly at the front of the field. The car would resume and take the finish, but out of contention.
That handed the challenge for Porsche honours to the #91 Manthey EMA car, the crew of which delivered an intelligent drive that stayed out of trouble, gauged the pace and used its mix of experience and resilience to control the race when it mattered.
Joel Sturm delivered pace that broke through the order from a lowly 16th grid position to hand a decent car to Yasser Shahin as Bronze driver time became a priority.
The car was in the mix throughout the extensive time spent under the Safety Car throughout the night stints, Lietz delivering a masterpiece of a drive at the front on Sunday morning, soaking up pressure from the hungry, hard-charging #31 Team WRT BMW in the closing stages. In clear air, the Porsche was rarely threatened.
Second place went to Team WRT’s #31 BMW M4 LMGT3 crewed by Darren Leung, Sean Galael and Augusto Farfus. Leung kept the car out of trouble early on, with Galael and Farfus completing the gruelling night sessions under the safety car.
As conditions improved and the Safety Car was released on Sunday morning the car was in good shape for Farfus to push on into the top three, breaking through the #27 Aston Martin and the #85 Iron Dames Lamborghini to take the race to the leading Porsche with Sean Galael sharing the work.
A spirited effort challenged the #91 Porsche, but the pace of the BMW wasn’t enough to score the Bavarian marque a win on a disastrous weekend for the Hypercar team, though it was sufficient to maintain an unassailable gap to third place at the end.
The other side of the Team WRT garage hosted the much higher profile #46 BMW M4. Crewed by Ahmad Al Harthy, Maxime Martin and Valentino Rossi the car delivered pace and presence. A well-balanced crew, Martin’s experience anchored the pace with Rossi able to capitalise and press on.
Indeed, the seven-time MotoGP champion led the class from the fourth hour into the dusk and traded the lead with the #92 Manthey Pure Rxcing Porsche. As conditions worsened into the night Ahmad Al Harthy, usually a safe pair of hands, lost the car in the Forest Esses ending its promising run.
The final podium position was thoroughly deserved by the first of the Ford Mustangs.
The #88 black liveried car crewed by Giorgio Roda, Mikkel Pedersen and Dennis Olsen was the class of the three-car Proton Competition entry, which demonstrated pace and resilience, particularly in the hands of Olsen and Pedersen on Sunday morning where time and track position was created.
Just off the podium was the yellow-liveried #44 Mustang LMGT3, a truly gritty drive from John Hartshorne, Ben Tuck and Christopher Mies delivered a fine fourth place for the car’s first Le Mans and a parting gift for Hartshorne’s last.
With the early pace of the #77 Mustang setting the pace under Ben Barker, the result could have been better, the blue-liveried stablemate the victim of a steering rack failure having been amongst the leaders. The car was still a classified finisher, running well after its repair but finishing 17th and last in class.
Akkodis ASP Team arrived at Le Mans as something of an unknown quantity over the distance. With Jose Maria Lopez being drafted into Toyota Hypercar duty, Jack Hawksworth was called up at short notice.
The British driver delivered pace and determination for the #87 Lexus RC F LMGT3, which spearheaded a solid run with Takeshi Kimura and Esteban Masson, the French Silver driver matching Hawksworth’s pace as the car found its way into contention in the top five as pit strategies responded to conditions.
Front bodywork damage in the 22nd hour took the car out of contention, leaving the similarly paced #78 RC F LMGT3 of Kelvin van der Linde, Timur Boguslavsky and Arnold Robin to take seventh. Both cars received a fair share of penalties for their robust presence throughout the race. A fine first Le Mans outing.
Le Mans welcomed several fresh new teams and machinery to its unique challenge. Inception Racing’s #70 entry was the torchbearer for the McLaren LMGT3 Evo.
Collecting Hyperpole honours in the hands of Bronze driver Brendan Iribe, the car led impressively at the start. Frederik Schandorff fended off the charging #77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang of Ben Barker and the #66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari 296 LMGT3 in the hands of Larry Ten Voorde, Giacomo Petrobelli and Salih Yoluc, which had been the best of the Ferraris; a strong return to form in the British Ferrari specialists 14th Le Mans.
The other pair of McLarens entered by United Autosports would show pace and presence until a starter motor failure sidelined its #95 car after a strong performance inside the top 10, soon followed by the retirement of its sister #59 car, both retiring in the 20th hour.
Vista AF Corse had a low-profile Le Mans for Ferrari, Thomas Flohr posting the first retirement of the race in the #54 car at the Dunlop Chicane, the #55 trailing the pace throughout.
The #86 GR Racing 296 LMGT3 had shown a strong turn of speed, particularly in the hands of Daniel Serra who hauled the car into sixth place and was looking good for a strong finish before the car lost drive out of the Dunlop Curves in the closing stages.
Aston Martin’s fortunes looked good with Heart of Racing, the crew of Ian James, Daniel Mancinelli and Alex Riberas were strong all week, hardly missing a beat.
The experienced crew campaigned the car hard, often in the top three and looking good for a solid result until Riberas made light contact with a passing Ferrari prototype in the flat-out right-hander into Indianapolis.
The effect on the car’s trajectory was catastrophic, the #27 Aston Martin slewing sideways, hard into the tyre wall at the left-hand entry, the car flipping onto its roof. Driver thankfully unhurt, car destroyed.
A final mention goes to the #85 Iron Dames Lamborghini Huracan. Sarah Bovy set a solid baseline for the car inside the top 10 in the early stages of the race, but contact with one of the Porsche prototypes in the fifth hour dropped the car down the order, making it hard work to haul the Lamborghini, in its first Le Mans, back into contention.
The car cycled up and down the order and showed promise until the final two rounds of stops, where the Ford Mustang pairing had the edge on pace and turnaround. The car would round off the top five finishers but should take encouragement from its solid performance.
