Astoundingly, the Le Mans 24 Hours had never featured more than two cars on the lead lap at the race finish before 2024. That record was blown, comprehensively, out of the water this time around with nine cars, from four different manufacturers, and five different teams, making the finish on the same lap.
Ferrari, Toyota, Porsche and Cadillac all had spells in the overall lead, in all eight different cars (all three Ferraris, both Toyotas, the #5 and #6 Porsches and the #2 Cadillac) led the race at least once
There were 15 non finishers, plus the #20 BMW Hypercar that was not a classified finisher. The #20 did tough re-emerge from the garage for a four lap run at the very end of the race.
The early exit from the race from the #54 Vista AF Corse Ferrari in LMGT3 meant that Davide Rigon was the only driver of the 186 entered in the race that failed to complete a single lap.
Ferrari’s 11th overall win also means the famed Italian marque has now scored 40 overall and class wins at Le Mans. Porsche’s LMGT3 victory is their 111th class victory, including 19 overall wins.
Oreca stretch their winning streak in LMP2 to ten consecutive victories for their chassis, a streak that started in 2015 with KCMG and their Oreca 05 Nissan.
All three 2024 overall winners are first time victors at Le Mans, Miguel Molina the third ever Spanish winner ( after Marc Gene and Fernando Alonso, Nicklas Nielsen also the third winner from his nation, Denmark after (John Nielsen and some bloke called Kristensen). Antonio Fuoco meanwhile is the 14th race-winning Italian driver (his 2023 race-winning colleagues Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi were numbers 12 and 13 in that order!)
The now double Le Mans winning Ferrari 499P means that you have to go back to 2011 to find a car that has only won once, the TDI, non-hybrid version of the Audi R18!
Whilst not on the ultimate pace, both Lamborghini hypercars, both Peugeots, and, impressively, the Isotta Fraschini all finished the race. That sees Lamborghini and Isotta Fraschini start their Le Mans top class careers with 100% finishing records.
The Isotta meanwhile, when the (invisible for Manufacturer points) privateer Hypercars and Le Mans only invitees were stripped out, came just one position short of a pair of World Championship points.
Toyota scored a podium finish for the seventh consecutive year at Le Mans
In LMP2, United Autosports claimed a second Le Mans win in the Gibson-powered era matching the record of Jota (including their win under the Jackie Chan DC Racing banner in 2017) and Signatech Alpine.
Oliver Jarvis scored his second LMP2 win (after a class win and second overall with Jackie Chan DC Racing in 2017). Bijoy Garg and Nolan Siegel meanwhile take class wins on their respective debuts.
Inter Europol scored their second consecutive podium finish after their win last year. IDEC Sport scored their first Le Mans podium finish in eight appearances.
LMP2 Pro-Am went to AF Corse the Italian superteam scoring two wins alongside the overall victory for the factory Ferrari.
AO by TF scored a second place on the team’s debut, coupled with that of bronze driver PJ Hyett and Silver Alex Quinn.
DKR Engineering meanwhile kept up a remarkable run of consistency, three consecutive third places in LMP2 Pro-Am!
Both Francis Perrodo and Nico Varrone became two-time class winners, both with their first wins coming in GTE AM (Perrodo in 2021, Varrone with back-to-back class wins). Ben Barnicoat scored a first class win at Le Mans.
In LMGT3 Manthey EMA added the first win in the class at Le Mans to the renowned German team’s wins in GTE Pro.
Richard Lietz scored a fifth Le Mans class win with team-mates Morris Schuring and Yasser Shahin scoring class wins on their debuts.
The #31 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 scored the best finish by a BMW at Le Mans since the marques overall win 25 years ago.
The #88 Proton Mustang scored a podium finish on the debut of the Mustang GT3 at Le Mans, the first Ford Mustang to compete at Le Mans since the Saleen Mustangs of 1997.
The invitational #44 Mustang finished a fine fourth with a crew that included the debuting Chris Mies and be Tuck and the oldest driver in the race, John Hartshorne.
