Richard Lietz made history after he claimed the first victory for the class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with teammates Yasser Shahin and Morris Schuring.
The fourth round of the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship was the first time where nine manufacturers fought for GT honours in one of the world’s most prestigious sporting events.
Over the course of the race, the 92nd Le Mans picked its victims and many of this category’s contenders fell down to retirement because of misfortunate circumstances, but there were those who persevered onwards to the checkered flag.
Ahead of lights out, there five different manufacturers starting in the top-five as the fight continued throughout the gruelling race, albeit quietly yet fiercely at times.
Only three of the 23 LMGT3 cars featured their Bronze-rated drivers taking the role to take the start, which proved especially challenging to them as they were not only surrounded by highly eager professionals, but were also under pressure to make the most of any opportunities and defend their positions.
This meant that Ben Barker (#77 Proton Competition) quickly took third place from the #92 Manthey PureRxing Porsche 911 in what was the highest-qualified Ford Mustang GT3, though the #77 was unfortunately not so by the end.
Meanwhile pole-sitter Inception Racing and their #70 McLaren 720S conducted a strong start in the hands of Frederic Schandorff who began to build his lead during the early hours.
After the first stints, many teams then began to put their Bronze-rated drivers with them – and Silver-rated drivers – each required to carry out a minimum of six hours of driving.
After just 32 minutes, there were already 85 overtakes which further proved the close racing and overtaking in which the Circuit de la Sarthe has provoked over the last century.
The track was greasy and therefore in low-grip conditions for the drivers, which made those most experienced in GT3 machinery able to adapt their driving style to the conditions.
During the opening hours, the #70 and #77 fought both in the pit lane and on the circuit as the McLaren fended off the Ford.
Soon enough, the other #44 Proton Ford joined into the fight in P4 with Dennis Olsen driving.
Rain played a major part of this year’s Le Mans, and it began during the second hour over the majority of the circuit – from the Porsche Curves to Indianapolis.
The first retirement was the #54 AF Corse of Thomas Flohr, who made contact with Matthew Rao’s #47 Cool Racing Oreca 07 thus awarded a drive-through, when he lost his Ferrari 296 into the Dunlop Chicane entry.
With drivers choosing between grooved or slick tyres for the intermittent and changing track conditions, the lead fight changed once again but putting the #46 Team WRT BMW M4 with credit to Maxime Martin and Ahmed Al Harthy’s work.
The #77’s effort was halted after front suspension issues which put them into a prolonged garage repair before going back out, although the #77 and #88 continued a bright, strong charge for the Ford Mustang’s Le Mans debut right to the closing stages.
Further disaster hit, also in the seventh racing hour, when the #70 pole-sitter poured coolant steam which may not have ruled their race-finishing chances, but more so on their charge for converting their pole position to a potential first win for the McLaren’s first time at Le Mans in 26 years.
MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi made his much anticipated Le Mans 24 Hours debut having driven at last year’s Road to Le Mans support event.
Much later on, during a full course yellow (FCY), Martin incurred contact with Ben Hanley’s #23 United Autosports Oreca 07 in the middle of the Corvette Curves.
Unfortunately, with the difficult results from the Hypercar efforts, the #46 would later find itself out after the car snapped on Al Harthy on the top of Dunlop hill, which prompted him to make front-end contact with the left-side wall and got stuck in the gravel.
Heavy rain over the course of the night and into the early hours of the morning kept the on-track action down at a minimum with good reason in the interests of safety, even if it was 4.5 hours-long.
This gave many teams the opportunity to conduct front or all-round brake changes with La Sarthe stressing the brake components with heavy breaking zones, as the place in which disk brakes were debuted and innovated by Mercedes in 1952.
On the next day, on the safety car restart, a gripping battle took shape with the top-three of the #87 Akkodis ASP with Jack Hawksworth, followed closely behind by Richard Lietz’ #91 Porsche and the sole-running of the #31 BMW WRT of Sean Gelael which kept the Bavarian make’s winning hopes alive.
The other way McLaren have been represented is by multi-championship winning sportscar outfit United Autosports who were venturing into new ground this year with LMGT3 machinery, along with their outgoing prototype efforts.
Marino Sato (#59 McLaren) ran P2 and fended off Michelle Gatting’s #85 Iron Dames Lamborghini, meanwhile the other #59 McLaren of Gregoire Saucy kept the pair company just behind.
TF Sport, who are debuting the new Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R, had electrical troubles with the #81 though showcased perseverance.
Before it went back out with Rui Andrade driving, the team replaced components in battery and terminals focusing on the power control unit.
The final hours saw the gaps between the LMGT3 front-runners spread out, with the #91 crew having asserted great form with Porsche machinery.
Within the final 30-minutes, with the eyes all on whether Ferrari can take a consecutive overall win, GR Racing’s Daniel Serra encountered issues, likely electrical with no visible bodywork, mechanical damage or fluid leak from their #86 Ferrari 296.
Due to the #86 parked up on the right in a safe place at Dunlop hill, a yellow flag was declared for the incident.
By the end, the #91 Manthey EMA Porsche crew took a consecutive WEC victory in the hands of Richard Lietz, Yasser Shahin, and Morris Schuring with 286 laps completed.
With the Qatar 1812 and the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, plus Le Mans, Manthey has claimed three LMGT3 wins boosting the #91 crew’s championship efforts significantly with already 35 points in the lead before this prestigious French classic.
Second place went to the #31 Team WRT BMW M4 crew of Darren Leung, Sean Gelael, and Augusto Farfus, as the final podium place was claimed by the #88 Proton Competition Ford Mustang crew of Giorgio Roda, Mikkel Pedersen and Dennis Olsen.
Furthermore, the Ford Mustang also finished fifth on their Le Mans debut as the #44 entrant claimed the position with driver John Hartshorne, Ben Tuck and Christopher Mies.
The Iron Dames rounded out the top-five finishers in their #85 Lamborghini Huracan and drivers Sarah Bovy, Michelle Gatting and Rahel Frey.
Six retirements took place in the 23-car category: #54 AF Corse, #46 WRT, #66 JMW Motorsport, #27 Heart of Racing, and the two McLarens from United Autosports (#95 and #59).
