Motor racing-Kubica wins Le Mans with Ferrari customer team
-Ferrari won the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the third year in a row on Sunday with Poland's Robert Kubica taking the chequered flag for the customer AF Corse team on a stirring afternoon at the Sarthe circuit.
The ex-Formula One driver's yellow 83 car, shared with Yifei Ye China's first winner and Britain's Phil Hanson, crossed the line after 387 laps in the 93rd edition of the French endurance race.
The number 6 Porsche Penske shared by France's Kevin Estre, Belgian Laurens Vanthoor and Australian Matt Campbell finished second and 14.084 seconds behind.
The red 51 factory Ferrari of 2023 winners Alessandro Pier Guidi, Antonio Giovinazzi and James Calado completed the podium with last year's winners Antonio Fuoco, Nicklas Nielsen and Miguel Molina fourth in the number 50 car.
"I finally managed to win it and in Hypercar," said Kubica of his fifth attempt, his first three in the second tier LMP2 category, to become Poland's first overall winner since Le Mans was first staged in 1923.
"Great job from everyone... it has not been a smooth one but we deserved it. We have been fast, only a few mistakes which we couldn't avoid but that's Le Mans.
"Happy for Ferrari: Three years in a row with three different crews, different cars. Congratulations to them, it's amazing."
Ye, who joined Hanson in riding the car into the pit lane, said winning was a dream come true.
"I have to pinch myself, I'm still dreaming," he said.
AF Corse were the first customer team to win Le Mans since ADT Champion Racing triumphed with an Audi R8 in 2005, giving Denmark's Tom Kristensen a record seventh win. The Dane would go on to win nine times in total.
Kubica's triumph came on the same weekend as the Canadian Grand Prix at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, scene of his only Formula One win with BMW Sauber in 2008 after a huge crash at the same track in 2007.
It also capped an astonishing racing redemption story for the 40-year-old whose Formula One career ended after a near-fatal rally crash in Italy in 2011 that partially severed his right forearm.
The race had started with Swiss tennis great Roger Federer waving the French flag to get the race underway on Saturday afternoon, with Porsche immediately seizing the lead from pole-sitters Cadillac.
Cadillac had swept the front row in Thursday's qualifying but any advantage was short-lived as Porsche Penske's Julien Andlauer slipstreamed into the lead from third on the grid before the first chicane on the opening lap.
Ferrari worked their way to the front and Fuoco took the lead in the third hour on the run from Mulsanne to Indianapolis with the three Ferraris running 1-2-3 at the quarter distance.
The BMW driven by Italy's MotoGP great Valentino Rossi had to retire in the LMGT3 category during the night.
The race featured 62 cars shared by 186 drivers from 34 countries, and was the fourth round of the World Endurance Championship .
Organisers put the total weekend attendance at more than 300,000 spectators.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hindu
6 hours ago
- The Hindu
F1 2025: Apologetic Antonelli given Silverstone grid drop for Verstappen incident in Austria
Mercedes rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli was given a three-place grid drop for the British Grand Prix after dumping Formula One champion Max Verstappen out of Red Bull's home race in Austria on Sunday. The 18-year-old Italian rookie lost control and collided with the four-time champion on the opening lap, after narrowly missing Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson, with neither able to continue. It was Verstappen's first retirement of the season and left him still third in the championship but now 61 points adrift of McLaren's Oscar Piastri after 11 of 24 rounds. Piastri finished second in a McLaren one-two with race winner Lando Norris. 'I braked hard because I was behind other cars, and in that moment I locked the rears. Then I just couldn't stop the car,' said Antonelli, who had taken his first career F1 podium in the previous round in Canada. 'The car was just taking speed and the crash was inevitable. I just feel super sorry to the team, and to Max of course, because obviously he was just a passenger.' Stewards ruled that Antonelli was fully at fault and also gave him two penalty points. At a circuit where he has won a record five times, Verstappen had started seventh on the grid, with Antonelli lining up ninth. ALSO READ | Lando Norris wins F1 Austrian Grand Prix 2025, closes gap to Oscar Piastri 'I'm out, I got hit like crazy,' Verstappen said over the team radio, with an additional expletive. 'It's just unlucky, like yesterday in qualifying,' he told Sky Sports television later. 'But overall, we didn't really have that great pace anyway this weekend, so a lot of learning for us on how we can hopefully do better next weekend. My mentality doesn't change. We've won a lot in the past. Sometimes you have to accept that you are not winning, and we just try to do the best that we can.' The retirement ended a run of 31 grands prix in the points for the Dutch driver, whose fans throng in their thousands to the Red Bull Ring but this time never got to see him race.
Hindustan Times
7 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Algeria sentences French football journalist to 7 years jail: RSF
Algeria's authorities have sentenced a prominent French sports journalist specialised in African football to seven years in prison for "glorifying terrorism", media rights campaigners RSF said Sunday, denouncing the verdict as "nonsensical". HT Image Christophe Gleizes, 36, who contributes to the So Foot magazine, was ordered by the court in Tizi Ouzou to be immediately incarcerated and will appeal the ruling on Monday, Reporters Without Borders said. "He has now been unjustly convicted and imprisoned for simply doing his job," said the group. Gleizes, who has co-authored a book about football in Africa, was arrested in May 2024 and then placed under judicial control and was unable to leave the country, RSF said. "Christophe Gleizes has been subjected to an absurd judicial control order for over a year," said Thibaut Bruttin, RSF's director general. "His seven-year sentence is nonsensical and demonstrates one thing: today, nothing escapes politics," he added. Gleizes travelled to the country and Tizi Ouzou to write about the local football club Jeunesse Sportive de Kabylie, named after Algeria's Kabylia region, home to the Berber Kabyle people. "We are in shock," his family said in a statement shared by RSF. "There is no justification for Christophe having to endure this ordeal. How can one justify punishing a journalist for practising his profession with integrity?" As well as "glorifying terrorism", he was convicted of "possessing publications for propaganda purposes harmful to national interests", RSF said. It said Gleizes had 2015 and 2017 been in touch with a Tizi Ouzou football figure prominent in the Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylie , designated a "terrorist" organisation by the Algerian authorities in 2021. "The first two interactions between Christophe Gleizes and this individual occurred well before this designation," it said adding he had also not concealed contacting the person again in 2024 as part of preparations for the report. "Imprisoned for doing his job!" said So Foot. "His loved ones and editorial team are in shock," it added. The jailing of Gleizes comes as a time of growing tension between Algeria and former colonial master France. Algeria arrested and jailed French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal in November on national security charges and has defied calls from President Emmanuel Macron for his release. Macron angered Algiers in July 2024 when he backed Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara, where Algeria backs the pro-independence Polisario Front. pr-sjw/jj This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
NDTV
7 hours ago
- NDTV
Lewis Hamilton Salutes Ferrari For 'Mega-Progress' With Updates
Lewis Hamilton saluted his Ferrari team on Sunday for the "mega progress" they made at the Austrian Grand Prix where he finished fourth behind Charles Leclerc. "That's mega-progress for us as a team today," said the seven-time champion. "Thanks to all the guys at the factory for the upgrades this weekend which looked only small on paper, but were massive for us in performance. "We're not a minute down on McLaren and that's positive and I am happy with it even if I am still struggling with the balance of the car in the race. "We keep working at it and we made progress this weekend and we found a problem with my brakes and that's positive too. So we are improving and everyone in the team is happier. "And we were much calmer and more methodical too so I am proud of them for that." Leclerc said: "We are working in the right direction and our upgrades helped us to close the gap. But it is still a significant gap to McLaren but we had a positive weekend overall and we maximised our potential." Ferraris success behind the two McLarens of race victor Lando Norris and championship leader Oscar Piastri enabled them to overtake Mercedes in the constructors title race and move up to second. There were smiles too at Sauber and Aston Martin after Gabriel Bortoleto and two-time champion Fernando Alonso respectively finished seventh and eighth. It was Brazilian Bortoleto's first points scoring finish in Formula One and his delight was shared by Alonso who held him off in the closing laps – because the Spaniard is also his manager. Alonso was the first to congratulate him with a hug after the race. "I am so happy for him," he said. "I know how much it means to score those first points."
