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Poland’s Robert Kubica sealed a deserved place in motor racing history as he took victory – alongside China’s Ye Yifei and Britain’s Philip Hanson – at the Le Mans 24 Hours. Hard fought with a relentless determination that has matched his refusal to be cowed after a life-threatening accident, his victory also secured an impressive third consecutive win for Ferrari at the 93rd edition of the vingt-quatre.
The victory after 387 laps for the No 83 privateer Ferrari 499P, run by the Scuderia’s works partner AF Corse, was the first overall win at Le Mans for drivers from Poland and China and will make Ye a household name in his home country, while for the 25-year-old Hanson it is a career high point in only his second run in the top, hypercar, category.
However, it was surely of greatest import to Kubica for whom it was an understandably emotional moment. The victory was a triumph for a driver who has fought tirelessly to continue his career after he was seriously injured in a crash at the Andora Rally in 2011, leading to the partial amputation of his forearm. It all but ended his burgeoning F1 career, when he was set to join Ferrari the following year.
However, he demonstrated immense fortitude, not least in returning to racing only a year later and now sealing a win in the greatest sportscar race of them all, putting in an exhausting five stints for more than three hours in the final phase of the race. Vindication for a driver Lewis Hamilton rated as one of the most talented he had raced.
It was clear that tired as he was, nothing could have stopped Kubica from closing out the race himself. “We deserve it. Happy for Ferrari. Three years in a row with three different crews, it is amazing,” he said. “I was not supposed to do five stints at the end of the race. It is three hours and something in the car but fortunately I was able to control everything with a cool head, no mistakes and managed to bring it home.”
Moreover it was achieved in an enormously competitive field at the Circuit de la Sarthe. The hypercar class at Le Mans is in absolutely rude health, with eight major manufacturers now competing and three more, including Ford and McLaren, likely to join by 2027. The intensity of the competition at the race was immense with the cars running at sprint race pace solidly, with only one safety car deployed and nothing in it at the sharp end.
At the close the No 83 took the flag by just 14 seconds from the second-placed No 6 Porsche of Kevin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor and Matt Campbell, with the Ferrari No 51 of Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi in third and the No 50 Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen fourth, all within 30 seconds of the lead after a full 24 hours.
Ferrari would doubtless have preferred one of their works cars to have taken the honours and that had looked the most likely result for some time but, regardless, it was a prancing horse that won, their car once more a formidable competitor. In race pace it was indomitable, consistently leading and holding down the top three slots for long periods for their third win since they returned to the top flight at Le Mans in 2023 after a 50-year hiatus. A remarkable achievement for the Scuderia who had previously last won at La Sarthe in their heyday when they took six victories in a row between 1960 and 1965.
Being Ferrari, there was of course drama too. Kubica and his colleagues had been aggrieved when Ferrari issued team orders in favour of the works cars in the mid-period of the race and doubtless felt some sense of justice when the race fell in their favour and they seized their chance.
With just under four hours remaining Pier Guidi had looked comfortable leading the three Ferraris, albeit with little to choose between them, when in a tiny but enormously costly misjudgement, he overcooked it into the chicane leading into the pit lane, clipped the kerb, spun and was left in the gravel. He was able to resume but the lead was gone and the No83 car took to the front.
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Yet the fight continued to the flag at unforgiving pace, the three Ferrari’s hunted down by the No 6 Porsche which as the race entered the final two hours was able to move up to second place.
Indeed the Porsche squad had thrown everything at the Ferraris. Having started at the very back of the hypercar field after being disqualified from qualifying for being underweight, a fired-up Estre launched an absolutely mammoth assault from the moment Roger Federer waved the tricolour to start the race on Saturday afternoon.
He was decisive and committed and in a field of 21 cars, featuring works entries from Toyota, Alpine, Peugeot, Cadillac, BMW and Aston Martin, had moved up to third by the end of the second hour and was in the mix from then on. Indeed the No6 did hold the lead at times as the race ebbed and flowed against Ferrari, who ultimately just had the edge.
The Porsche duly pushed to the last, the final moments impossibly tense as the minutes inexorably counted down but appropriately it was Kubica behind the wheel to see his team home with familiarly steely resolve.
In the LMP2 class the Inter Europol Competition Oreca of Tom Dillmann, Jakub Smiechowski and Nick Yelloly took the flag. The LMGT3 category was won by the Manthey Porsche of Richard Lietz, Riccardo Pera and Ryan Hardwick.
