#83 Ferrari AF Corse claim Le Mans 24 Hours 2025 Victory - Le Mans 2025 race report
- DIVEBOMB Motorsport
- Jun 16
- 8 min read
Written by Owen Bradley and Benjamin Crundwell
Robert Kubica drove the No.83 Ferrari AF Corse across the line on Sunday afternoon to record a historic victory at the 93rd edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, also recording Ferrari's third consecutive victory since 2023, and making sure that all three Ferrari Hypercar entries have now won the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Elsewhere through the field in all classes, there are stories of triumph, heartbreak, comeback glory and disappointment. Join us in breaking down the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2025.
As the clock hit 16:00 in France, the green flag fell, starting 24 hours of nail-biting action at the Circuit de la Sarthe in Le Mans. The No.12 JOTA Cadillac led the field into turn one, the sister No.38 JOTA Cadillac starting alongside, unable to get past in the opening few corners.
Unfortunately for the No.38 Cadillac, they would get overtaken by the No.5 Porsche Penske of Julian Andlauer in the Dunlop chicane, with the Porsche then snatching the lead from the No.12 JOTA Cadillac down the Mulsanne straight. After lap one, Porsche led the way as Cadillac continued to slip down the order.
In LMGT3, The No.46 Team WRT BMW, had managed to make a phenomenal start, immediately climbing from third to second place on the run to the first corner, overtaking the No.21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari, and then pushing forward to challenge the No.27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin.
Meanwhile in LMP2, the No.29 TDS Racing held their pole position and led the race early on, with everyone in the field maintaining a relatively calm and collected race start, a trait that would continue for most of the race, which only saw it's first Safety Car around 11 hours into the race.
The No.5 Porsche Penske of Andlauer maintained their lead over the JOTA Cadillac's and continued to open a gap of two seconds by the end of the first lap. Meanwhile, the No.6 Porsche Penske in the hands of Kevin Estre, had made an exceptional start in the first three laps of the race, Estre managing to overtake a plethora of cars, going from 21st to 14th place inside just a small handful of laps, and chasing the Top 10.
Despite losing the lead, the Cadillacs still had pace, especially the No.311 driven by jack Aitken who quickly made his way by both BMW's in the battle for the Top 5 positions. The No.15 BMW had started well initially, but both the No.15 and the No.20 BMW's eventually found themselves going backwards slowly.
After just 20 minutes, the No.007 Aston Martin was pulled into the pits for a slow puncture. Harry Tincknell re-emerged on track a long way behind the Hypercar field, and was in fact even behind the LMP2 field too.
In the first 30 minutes, Kevin Estre had overtaken every car up to eighth place. At the same point in the race the special Porsche entry, the No.4, had worked its way up to fourth place, challenging the No.38 Cadillac for third place. The No.5 Porsche maintained their lead by seven seconds.
Sheldon Van Der Linde in the No.46 Team WRT BMW, after initially showing early signs of strong pace, dropped back from second to fourth place, and came under threat from the No.81 TF Sport Corvette. Meanwhile, the No.27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin opened their lead over the LMGT3 field, ensuring that the cars behind were cut off from the slipstream down the long straights of Le Mans.
The first collision came just before the first hour was up. The No.22 United Autosports LMP2 car hit the No.193 Ferrari LMGT3, spinning both cars around. Elsewhere in the other classes, the lead had changed in the LMP2 class, as the No.43 Inter Europol squad took the lead. A similar event occurred in LMGT3, as the No.78 Akkodis Lexus made a move on the No.27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin for the lead of their class.
At the end of the first hour, the No.93 Peugeot hit the wall in the Porsche Curves. The French car was able to continue driving, except with no engine cover. The mechanics had plenty of work to make a quick fix so they could get back to the race, which they did manage to do.
There was some conflict in the LMP2 class at the Ford Chicanes, as the No.29 TDS Racing team had to take avoiding action as the No.37 CLX Pure Racing car tried to make an overtake. Both cars went into the run off, lucky to have not crashed as the pair continued on.
After the first hour of the race and the first pit stops were out of the way, the race seemed to settle down, as drivers opted to keep things clean and keep racing, rather than risk any dangerous overtakes. That was except for Kevin Estre in the No.6 Porsche Penske, who managed to climb through to fifth place after just one hour of racing.
As everyone in the field came in for their first pit stops at the end of the first hour, the field began splitting themselves in terms of strategy and especially with fuel loads.
The order after one hour stood like so: Hypercar
1st No.5 Porsche
2nd No.12 Cadillac
3rd No.38 Cadillac
4th No.50 Ferrari
5th No.6 Porsche
LMP2
1st No.48 Inter Europol
2nd No.28 IDEC Sport
3rd No.16 RLR M Sport
4th No.11 Proton Competition
5th No.48 VDS Panis Racing
LMGT3
1st No.78 Lexus
2nd No.46 BMW
3rd No.10 Aston Martin
4th No.77 Ford
5th No.27 Aston Martin
The No.50 Ferrari in the hands of Nicklas Nielsen, then began fighting for the podium places, quickly getting past the No.38 JOTA Cadillac and immediately setting sights on the No.12 JOTA Cadillac for second place. The pair made their second pit stop together, and emerged back out onto the track nose to tail, with the JOTA Cadillac narrowly ahead of the Ferrari.
Eventually, Nielsen was able to get past the No.38 JOTA Cadillac after some LMGT3 traffic affected the Cadillac's run down the Mulsanne straight. Nielsen put the No.50 Ferrari in a net 2nd position, and began chasing down the leading No.5 Porsche. However, this proved to be a difficult task, as the No.5 Porsche of Andlauer instead opened the lead gap to around eight seconds.
A 20-second penalty would be given to the No.36 Alpine of Mick Schumacher for speeding in the pit lane, a penalty that did end up ruining the race for the French manufacturer, as Jules Gounon took over and the team found themselves in 17th place. Not the start to their home race that Alpine would have wanted. Unfortunately for Alpine, they never quite seemed to find the traction throughout the race to make much progress.
Later on in the race, whilst the field was split by pit stop strategies, the No.51 Ferrari of Antonio Giovinazzi scrapped for 9th on the road, and a net podium position. Giovinazzi battled hard against both the No.12 and No.38 JOTA Cadillac's, with the No.20 BMW also looking to get in on the action down the Mulsanne straight. Eventually, Giovinazzi found a way through on the Cadillac's, with Earl Bamber furiously shouting on the team radio that the No.12 should have let the No.38 JOTA Cadillac through earlier. The team would eventually swap the pair of them.
Suddenly, after following in the slipstream for a large period of time, the No.50 Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco managed to dive up the inside of the No.5 Porsche Penske being driven by Mathieu Jaminet. The No.50 Ferrari subsequently led the way, as the other Ferrari's began to make steady progress through to the front of the field.
With the Hypercar field stabilised for a few hours, and the battle in LMGT3 still raging on between the No.46 Team WRT BMW of Valentino Rossi and the No.92 Manthey Porsche of Rob Lietz, the LMP2 class was being completely dominated by the No.48 VDS Panis Racing machine, driven by Franck Perera.
The No.50 Ferrari was leading the sister No.51 Ferrari as darkness began to surround the circuit, however the No.51 Ferrari was in for a big surprise, as the team received a 20-second stop and go penalty for speeding in the pit lane. This dropped them from second place, all the way to ninth.
With the race settling in under relatively clean conditions for nearly half the race, the night time stints began, and the night time also claimed many victims.
Sheldon Van Der Linde, by this point leading the LMGT3 class aboard the Valentino Rossi No.46 Team WRT BMW, had an electronic issue which left the car beached in the gravel at the Porsche curves. It was utter despair and heartbreak for the No.46 BMW crew, who suffered the exact same fate from the lead of the race just 12 months ago.
The lead of the LMGT3 class would be picked up by the No.92 Manthey Porsche, who stamped their authority over the rest of the GT field, opening up a huge lead which fluctuated to around one minute at times. The reigning LMGT3 WEC Champions subsequently went on to take victory.
The incident with the No.46 WRT BMW LMGT3 did bring out a Full Course Yellow, and just as this news hit, the No.50 Ferrari team were given a 5-second penalty to be added to their next stop for track limits. However, shortly after the green flag was waved, the entire field was put behind the Safety Car, due to the No.24 United Autosports LMP2 car slamming into a barrier at Tertre Rouge at high speed.
The No.6 Porsche would subsequently lead for a number of hours ahead of the No.83 Ferrari AF Corse squad, who had come back through the field steadily, capitalising on others' penalties and the Safety Car period.
As daylight broke around the circuit, the running order was very similar as they were during the night, with Ferrari still leading the way in Hypercar, and the No.48 VDS Panis Racing team dominating the LMP2 class, with the No.92 Manthey Porsche controlling LMGT3.
During the final few hours, the No.6 Porsche Penske car found some lap time and didn't change tyres on one stint so that they could save time in the pit stops and subsequently jump the No.50 Ferrari for 3rd place on the road. In the meantime, the No.83 Ferrari AF Corse of Robert Kubica and the No.51 Ferrari of Antonio Giovinazzi were duelling one another strategically, with the chasing No.51 Ferrari looking to make time up by adding more and less fuel at each pit stop phase, pushing flat out. The two Ex-F1 drivers were ready to put it all on the line.
However, after the penultimate pit stop of the race, the No.51 and the No.50 Ferrari's both experienced major car problems, which allowed the No.6 Porsche Penske of Kevin Estre to open a steady lead, and this also allowed the No.83 Ferrari AF Corse to cruise to an untroubled victory.
Robert Kubica, 14 years on from his infamous rally accident which cut his Ferrari F1 dreams down, won the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the No.83 Ferrari squad, alongside co-drivers Yifei Ye and Phil Hanson.
After a late race penalty almost cost them the win, the No.43 Inter Europol squad did come through to win the LMP2 class, beating out the No.48 VDS Panis Racing squad, who had a problem with the car in the last half hour of the race. Finally, the No.92 Manthey Porsche team came across the line to claim an extraordinary victory in the LMGT3 class, remaining relatively unchallenged after the No.46 WRT BMW retired just under halfway through.
Stay with us here at DIVEBOMB Motorsport for a full breakdown of the biggest storylines from the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2025, and the overall Sportscar season in WEC, IMSA, the GT World Challenge and NLS.
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