Aston Martin has won the GTE double in the 24 hours of Le Mans on Sunday. The British brand took the victory in the French motorsport classic in both the GTE Pro and the GTE AM class.
As is often the case, the battle for the Le Mans victory in the GTE Pro class ended in a beautiful duel that remained exciting for a long time. The fight in the front this year was mainly between Aston Martin and Ferrari, in a race in which neither Porsches were actually involved for a moment.
Aston Martin vs Ferrari
James Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Daniel Serra were in the # 51 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo at the start as defending champions at Le Mans, but the trio eventually had to bow their heads to the Aston Martin with start number 97. Ferrari defended itself vigorously and was in the lead for a long time, but at dawn Aston Martin finally managed to make the difference.
Shortly before seven in the morning, Harry Tincknell managed to steer his Aston Martin past Serra’s Ferrari in the first Mulsanne chicane to take over the lead. It turned out to be the decisive action in the race, in which Ferrari still regularly returned to the top of the field but dropped back to second place after its pit stops.
Lynn, Tincknell and Martin take the victory
In the last hour, a fourth Safety Car situation gave Alex Lynn a two-minute lead, which the Briton managed to control all the way to the finish. Despite a less favorable timing of his last pit stop, Lynn was the first to cross the finish line with a one and a half minute lead, taking the victory in the GTE Pro class together with fellow countryman Tincknell and the Belgian Maxime Martin. It marked the second Le Mans victory for Aston Martin since its first GTE Pro win on the French circuit in 2017.
Second place in the GTE Pro class went to the # 51 Ferrari of Calado, Serra and Pier-Guidi. Marco Sorensen, Nicki Thiim and Richard Westbrook eventually made it a double podium in the # 95 car for Aston Martin with a third place.
TF Sport wins GTE AM
Just like in the Pro class, victory went to Aston Martin in the GTE AM class. Jonny Adam, Charlie Eastwood and Salih Yoluc took the victory on behalf of TF Sport in the Aston Martin with start number 90 with a lead of 49 seconds. Second place went to the Porsche of Matt Campbell, Riccardo Pera and Christian Ried. Third was the # 83 AF Corse Ferrari of Francois Perrodo, Emmanuel Collard and Nicklas Nielsen.
Ten Voorde just off the podium
Le Mans debutant Larry ten Voorde seemed on his way to a podium finish in the GTE AM class for a long time and even led for some time with the # 56 Porsche of Project 1. Multiple time penalties and the necessary loss of time in the final phase, however before that Ten Voorde – the brand new champion in the Porsche Supercup – finally finished fourth together with teammates Matteo Cairoli and Egilio Perfetti.
Jeroen Bleekemolen was quickly eliminated from the battle for the podium after an unfortunate collision by his teammate Felipe Frage, who could no longer avoid a spun LMP2 car and had to return to the pits with damage. Bleekemolen therefore had to settle for a fourteenth place in the GTE AM class. Le Mans debutant Max van Splunteren came two places earlier at the finish line.
