Ferrari dethrones Toyota in its return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans

LE MANS, France (AP) — Ferrari ended a 50-year absence from the Le Mans 24 Hours by dethroning Toyota on Sunday in the centennial edition of the world‘s most iconic motorsport race.

The Italian team had not competed at Le Mans since 1973, but returned to the Circuit de la Sarthe this year as part of a nine-category hypercar with hybrid technology.

The presence of the ‘hypercar’ obeyed a convergence of the rules that allowed the participation of cars from the IMSA series, from the United States, in Le Mans, in addition to creating a platform to show its technology for sports cars.

Ferrari had been working on its own show — two cars competing in world endurance racing — for several years as part of a plot strategy similar to the plot of “Ford v Ferrari,” the movie that focused on the behind the scenes and intrigue surrounding the car. Ford’s successful project in 1963 to end Ferrari’s reign at Le Mans.

The roles were reversed this time. Ferrari took on the role of taking down a giant: the Toyota Gazoo cars, winners of the last five editions of the race.

Toyota suffered a pre-race blow when organizers added extra weight to the dominant GR010s in a controversial adjustment aimed at balancing out the competition.

Ferrari, with its 499Ps, capitalized and swept the top positions in the standings and neutralized every challenge from Toyota. The chances of victory overnight when Kamui Kobayashi crashed and Ferrari were down two to one in favor.

The trio of Italians Alessandro Pier Guidi and Antonio Giovinazzi and British James Calado — with Formula One driver Charles Leclerc watching from the garage — took an easy victory. They held a solid lead even before reigning champion Ryō Hirakawa slammed on the brakes in his Toyota and rammed the wall with 1 hour and 44 minutes of racing to go.

It took three minutes to repair the car, which was insufficient time for Chip Ganassi Racing, the team that represented the United States at Le Mans by IMSA.