Marc Genet, Fernando Alonso and now… Miguel Molina wins Le Mans in a Ferrari!

“No one will beat us this year.” Michael Molinathird Spaniard to win 24 Hours of Le Mans after Mark Jean And Fernando Alonso, understood this clearly last year when a stone smashed the radiator of his Ferrari as he flew towards the historic victory of his sister car. This year it looked like he was going to escape too when #50 had to make an escape with one hour and 40 minutes left. unexpected stop… through a door that opened in the middle of the race!!

Nicklas Nielsen just replaced Miguel Molina at the last change of the race, in which red cars were the best in terms of performance…but they had a weakness: rain and, above all, the cold of the night. What This, of course, robbed them of a more comfortable victory. and, above all, less stressful. Because almost until the last minute the fate of these unforgettable 24 hours of Le Mans This was not fixed permanently.

The Dane who divides glory of victory with Molina and Italian Antonio Fuococlinging tooth and nail to the fate that seemed about to give them again, close the door tightly in face. The stop for fixing the door is out of sequence and at a very delicate moment, because theoretically I was going to force them to commit additional detention about the rest. And their advantage of just a couple of seconds was not enough to compensate for this deficit.

However, Nielsen made magicI didn’t make a single mistake and was able to Manage power and fuel to avoid the final surge it would be fatal. And at the same time put Enough speed that Pechito Lopez in Toyota #7 couldn’t catch up… in the middle of a downpour . The Argentine also contributed with a couple of driving errors that ultimately played a decisive role in the final victory. Actually, Toyota gave up less than 20 minutes before the end: “Bring the second one home” they asked the Argentinean.

The last two hours of the story

As if that weren’t enough, the 24 Hours of Le Mans 23 cars of the highest category (one of the largest participations in history), of which more than half have a real chance of winning, The weather, as expected, wanted to join the party..

Until the last two hours it became distorting factor: overnight water and cold “shrinked” Ferrari supremacy on a clean track where the 499Ps were by far the highest performing prototypes. This allowed the other three favorite manufacturers (Porsche, Toyota and Cadillac) kept their options until the end.

Besides, Car Safety Factor – which this year launched a new system, more similar to the Formula 1 system, aimed at regroup cars by category In turn, he helped in many ways to equalize things. Three periods that were divided between the hours 6 and 18 (one of them eternal four and a half hours early morning) allowed, two hours before the end, six cars (two Ferraris, two Toyotas, Palu’s #2 Cadillac and the championship-leading #6 Porsche) profits separated by just 36 seconds. Incredible, but it’s true.

But the party focused its attention on last two hours, again with water as the 63rd entrant. But when his presence was expected as a key… unimaginable Le Mans They started to appear.

Firstly, with mechanical problem in one of the Toyota No. 8 nutssecond at that time after #50, turned the situation around (and will finish it off later) Pier Guidi triggers Hartley’s reversal this buried variants of the most competitive Japanese prototype… as well as variants of #51, because it would have been authorized later for that.

Then it came the strangest episode in recent yearsthe one that was going to cost Miguel Molina’s Ferrari #50 a win has again lost more than a possible victory… through the door!! The right side of the 499P opened completely and Nielsen had no way to close it himself, so had to make an unscheduled stop. It seemed as if Le Mans had slammed the door on the Spaniard again… but this time it was about to open the door to glory… wide open.

Alex Palu also did great debut, but his Cadillac was not fast enough to fight the Ferrari. However they signed honorable seventh place Who knows, this will motivate the two-time IndyCar champion to try again.

Everyone is against it in LMGT3

Unfortunately, another category that we Spaniards had high hopes for was LM GT3, it has become extremely difficult. Especially for Dani Juncadellawho, from the very first performance, already knew what awaited him during his debut at Le Mans: the martyrdom of a Corvette, much inferior in performance to its other competitors.

Thus Aston Martin #27 by Alex Riberas This became the only good Spanish card. Team Americans The heart of racing They fought it, but they also had to struggle with circumstances…almost from the first minute.

Because at the first stop there is a problem with one of the nuts brought them out of their head positions. But they put on their overalls, and after rain during the night and a very long period of the safety car in the early morning, They returned to battle at dawn. However strong Mancinelli accident (which ended with Vantage overturning) shortly before arriving at 10:00 am.

The victory in the new category went to Porsche No. 91 from Sahin, Schüring and Lietzwhich confidently beat the twin BMW from one of the sensations of this publication: Valentino Rossi. It seemed that the Italian was destined to fight with the Porsche, and this continued until dawn… when Al-Harthi accident This left 300,000 fans without one of the main attractions of this episode.

IN LMP2 Oreca Gibson from Cool Racing Lorenzo Fluxa Throughout the race he did not receive the reward that he undoubtedly deserved. Consistently in the top 5reached the decisive point, having every opportunity, but sank due to the rain that lasted for the last two hours.

next World Endurance Championship event will be disputed within a month(July 15) at one of the new venues that the championship will visit: Sao Paulo.