2025 Le Mans 24: Robert Kubica Wins It For Ferrari

LMP1 Hypercar Category

The world’s most iconic endurance race, the 24 Hours of Le Mans has been conquered once again by Ferrari. This is the third consecutive time that the prancing horse has won the race cementing the Italian brands domination. The 93rd edition of the French endurance race was won by the #83 499P which was driven by former F1-driver Robert Kubica. The 2008 Canada F1 GP winner also became the first Polish driver to win the endurance race. He was racing along with Yifei Ye who also became the first Chinese racer to do so. Phil Hanson was the third driver of the Ferrari satellite team, AF Corse, and the 299P was finished in a Giallo Modena.. 

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The factory car Ferrari 499P lead by another former-F1 driver from Haas, Antonio Giovinazzi took third place, with the sister car #50 driven by Antonio Fuoco finished fourth. Both the Ferraris were lead by the #6 Porsche Penske 963 driven by Kevin Estre, who finished the race in second. Estre displayed a valiant drive that saw him start from the back of the Hypercar field, but managed to finish just 15 seconds after Kubica’s winning #83 Ferrari. 

The pole sitting #12 and #38 Cadillac V-Series.R from Jota, which looked quite confident after locking the front grid at Hyperpole didn't quite find the race pace throughout the event. Coupled with several technical errors, the #12 Cadillac finished the race at P5, while the #38 V-Series.R where former F1-driver Jenson Button was one of the racers finished at P8. 

The Return Of V12

This year saw Aston Martin make a comeback to the grid with the 007 and 009 Valkyrie hypercars. Both with their massive 6.5-litre V12 engine was a delight among all fans, especially for its aggressive, high-pitch engine note. Although both didn’t finish in the top 10 ( they finished at P13 and P15, respectively), the team was happy that they finished 24 hours of racing without much glitch. 

(Also Read: Aston Martin Valkyrie LM Debuts As A Track-Only Customer Car)

LMP2 And GT3 Racing

The LMP2 category was won by Inter Europol’s #43 car driven by J. Schmiechowski, T. Dillmann, and N. Yelloly. The winning car was driven by Yelloly on-board who kept the race on its toes in the last minutes with #43 VDS Panis Racing car finishing second. 

Further down the line, in the LMGT3 category, the #92 Porsche of Manthey 1st Phorm took victory with R.Hadwick,  R. Pera, and R. Lietz in the car. In second place was the private team AF Corse Racing with the 296GT3 driven by F. Heriau, S. Mann, and A. Rovera.

MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi’s bid for a first Le Mans victory was looking in great shape at the start of the race but a power cut forced the Van der Linde BMW off the track. This led to a loss of several laps spending time in the pitlane to fix the car. Later when they resumed the race it had to be aborted. The former Yamaha racer displayed quite the repertoire behind the wheels of the M4 during the qualifying lap two days ago at Hyperpole 2. 

The next round of the World Endurance Championship will head to Brazil in Sao Paulo which will see 19 Hypercars and 18 LMGT3 cars race it out at Interlagos. There will be no LMP2 category in Brazil.