Ferrari’s win at Le Mans with the #50 499P, together with the tight-knit group behind all scoring double the normal 6 hour race points in the FIA WEC, has put the Championship chases into overdrive for the second half of the 2024 season.
Ferrari AF Corse’s #50 car becomes the fourth race winner in four rounds after the #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 at Qatar, Toyota Gazoo Racing’s #7 GR010 Hybrid Hypercar at round two in Imola and Hertz Team JOTA and its privately run #12 Porsche 963 at Spa-Francorchamps last month.
Manufacturers Hypercar World Championship
Post-Le Mans just 12 points separate the top three manufacturers – Porsche, Ferrari and Toyota – in the overall Hypercar manufacturer standings. With a total of 108 points, Porsche top the leaderboard with Ferrari now on 99 points and Toyota right there too with 96 points. More than 100 championship points are still available at the remaining WEC rounds in Brazil, USA, Japan and Bahrain.
Hypercar Drivers
The #6 Porsche crew of Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer and Laurens Vanthoor retained the lead in the Drivers World Championship with their fourth place finish at Le Mans. The #50 Ferrari crew of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen move into second spot, just nine points short of the Porsche trio’s 99 points after their double-scoring Le Mans win.
Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries now sit third (with their absent regular team mate Mike Conway dropping behind) a further eight points back with the #12 Hertz Team Jota pairing of Callum Ilott and Will Stevens now back to fourth, they had been second pre-Le Mans.
Hypercar Teams
In the contest for the privately owned Hypercars, the Championship lead extended significantly.
Hertz Team Jota’s rapidly rebuilt #12 Porsche 963 took maximum points after finishing eighth overall at Le Mans, its 128 points sees the #12 opening up a significant 57 points advantage over the new second place car, the #99 Proton Competition Porsche.
The #83 AF Corse Ferrari drops to third, four points behind the Proton car after its costly Le Mans dnf with the #38 Hertz team Jota car closing in on third after taking double second place points in the category.
LMGT3
As for the new-for-2024 LMGT3 class, it’s even closer with the top three teams separated by a mere three points!
Manthey PureRXcing and Manthey EMA are both tied at the top of the standings with 75 points apiece and round two winners, Team WRT, have a total of 73 points. With manufacturers Aston Martin, BMW, Corvette, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Lexus, McLaren and Porsche – the future of GT3 racing in the WEC has never looked more promising!
A win, with double points, for the #91 Manthey EMA squad of Richard Lietz, Morris Schuring and Yasser Shahin has turned the LMGT3 class on its head, the 50 points gained sees the #91 emerge from the 24 Hours on equal points with their #91 Manthey PureRxcing stablemates Klaus Bahler, Joel Sour and Alex Malykhin.
The #92 came away from Le Mans with just 3 points, including the single point for being the highest placed full-season WEC car in Hyperpole.
The two 911 GT3Rs and their crews are therefore tied on 75 points piece coming into the second half of the season.
Just two points behind is the #31 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 of Augusto Farfus, Sean Gelael and Darren Leung, 36 points for a double scoring second place at Le Mans keeping them in the fight.
The top three have pulled away in the points from the chasing pack, the 3777 D’Station racing Aston Martin sits fourth but is 31 points back with the #85 Iron Dames Lamborghini and #55 Vista AF Corse Ferrari a further point astray.
Two teams who had very different Le Mans experience sit in 7th and 8th on equal points: The #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin ended its 2024 Le Mans on its roof at Indianapolis after a big off for Daniel Mancinelli, the #88 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 meanwhile took its first podium of the year, both cars and crews now sit on 37 points, just under half of the score of the Championship leaders.
