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Straits Times
16-06-2025
- Automotive
- Straits Times
Robert Kubica wins ‘mental battle' to triumph at Le Mans
AF Corse driver Robert Kubica of Poland celebrating on the podium after winning the 93rd edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans race in Le Mans in France with a Ferrari 499P on June 15. PHOTO: EPA-EFE – Former Formula One driver Robert Kubica has long since tackled the demons of a near-fatal accident 14 years ago, but his June 15 victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans is arguably his greatest achievement yet. The 40-year-old Pole roared to victory in his bright yellow 'privateer' Ferrari to give the Italian marque a third consecutive win in the most famous endurance race in the world. In a thrilling 93rd edition of the race, which saw the top four separated by just over 20 seconds going into the final 15 minutes, Kubica and his AF Corse co-drivers Philip Hanson and Ye Yifei finished just 14.084sec ahead of a Porsche driven by Kevin Estre, Matt Campbell and Laurens Vanthoor. In so doing they knocked the two factory Ferraris, who started the race as favourites, into third and fourth. 'It's been a long 24 hours but an enjoyable one. Grazie mille, grazie a tutti ('Thank you very much, thank you everyone' in Italian),' said Kubica over the team radio as he took the chequered flag. He was one of F1's brightest prospects when he won the 2008 Canada Grand Prix but a harrowing accident in a rally in Andorra in 2011 almost cost him his life. Trapped upside down in his car before being freed and whisked to hospital, Kubica suffered several serious injuries and had to partially amputate his right forearm. 'What happened was very unfortunate, but I was very lucky,' he said on June 15. 'It took me quite a few years, not only to recover physically but also mentally. 'What happened, happened and I have to accept it. One of the worst periods of my life was when my mind wouldn't accept the fact that my arm was failing.' He returned to racing cars, however, winning the WRC2 championship and taking part in sports car races. In 2017, he moved back into Formula One, testing for Renault before racing for Williams in 2019. But his June 15 win, which made him the first Pole ever to win Le Mans, tops any of his other achievements behind the wheel. 'It was quite difficult to live with, but I'm happy to have achieved my personal goals,' he said. 'The best thing I've achieved in my life – it's nothing to do with racing – it's more the battle I won with my mind.' Both of Kubica's co-drivers were also first-time winners with Ye the first Chinese driver to triumph. 'I'm at a loss for words,' said the 25-year-old Ye, who arrived in Le Mans at the age of 14 on an exchange programme to try and become a professional driver. 'It's going to take me some time to realise everything that's happened today. Right now, I feel like I'm dreaming. Maybe in two seconds I'll wake up and none of this will exist.' AFP Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Japan Today
15-06-2025
- Automotive
- Japan Today
Ferrari wins 24 Hours of Le Mans for third year in a row
AF Corse car (starting no. 83) a Ferrari 499P with Robert Kubica of Poland, Yifei Ye of China and Phil Hanson of Great Britain races during the 24-hour Le Mans endurance race, Sunday June 15, 2025 in Le Mans, western France. (AP Photo/Jeremias Gonzalez) auto racing Ferrari won the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the third year running Sunday but a late surge from Porsche Penske Motorsport denied the Italian manufacturer a podium sweep. The No. 83 Ferrari 499P crew of Robert Kubica, Ye Yifei and Philip Hanson took the win as Ferrari won for the 12th time in the 102nd edition of the storied race. Their bright-yellow car, privately entered by the AF Corse team, got the better of Porsche and the two official factory-entered Ferraris. The Penske-operated No. 6 Porsche 963 of Kévin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor and Matt Campbell surged late in the race to finish second ahead of the two other Ferraris. For Kubica and Ye, it was redemption after their car — then with Robert Shwartzman as third driver — was a strong contender to win last year's race before a crash, a penalty and finally a race-ending mechanical failure. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
France 24
15-06-2025
- Automotive
- France 24
Ferrari wins the 24 Hours of Le Mans for third year running
Ferrari won the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the third year running Sunday but a late surge from Porsche Penske Motorsport denied the Italian manufacturer a podium sweep. The No. 83 Ferrari 499P crew of Robert Kubica, Ye Yifei and Philip Hanson took the win as Ferrari won for the 12th time in the 93rd edition of the storied race, which began 102 years ago. Their bright-yellow car, privately entered by the AF Corse team, got the better of Porsche and the two official factory-entered Ferraris. Kubica took the checkered flag after a marathon spell at the wheel Sunday afternoon to make sure of the win. 'It has been a long 24 hours,' Kubica said to his team over the radio and thanked them in Italian. 'Enjoy.' The Penske-operated No. 6 Porsche 963 of Kévin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor and Matt Campbell surged late in the race to finish second ahead of the two other Ferraris, 14 seconds behind the winner. For Kubica and Ye, it was redemption after their car – then with Robert Shwartzman as third driver – was a strong contender to win last year's race before a crash, a penalty and finally a race-ending mechanical failure. It's a career highlight for 40-year-old Polish driver Kubica, whose promising Formula 1 career was interrupted in 2011 when a crash while competing in a rally left him with severe injuries. Kubica is the first driver from Poland to win Le Mans outright, and Ye is the first from China to achieve that feat. 'It's a great story that we finally put a perfect ending with Robert,' Ye told broadcasters. 'It looks easier from the outside than it is in the car. It's just unbelievable.' Ferrari was off the pace in qualifying, with the two factory cars 7th and 11th on the grid and the eventual winner 13th. But once tennis great Roger Federer waved the starting flag Saturday, Ferrari's pace over long race runs soon became clear. After a close fight with Toyota in last year's race, this time Ferrari often seemed in near-total control. Early Sunday morning, it was on target for the first top-class podium sweep by one manufacturer since 2012. Ferrari didn't have it all its own way in the final hours, though. Alessandro Pier Guidi spun in the No. 51 car on his way into the pits, losing the lead, while the resurgent No. 6 Porsche piled on the pressure. Le Mans is as much a test of drivers' resilience as it is the cars' reliability. Both held up well in an unusually calm race that avoided much of the usual nighttime drama with few significant crashes and just one safety-car period. Polish team Inter Europol Competition won the LMP2 class and Manthey won the GT3 class in a Porsche 911.
Hindustan Times
14-06-2025
- Automotive
- Hindustan Times
Motor racing-Ferrari 1-2-3 at quarter distance of Le Mans 24 Hours
-Defending champions Ferrari filled the podium places after a quarter distance of the 24 Hours of Le Mans on Saturday as the 93rd edition of the endurance race headed into the night at the Sarthe circuit. The number 83 AF Corse car of Robert Kubica, Yifei Yi and Philip Hanson led the number 50 factory Ferrari 499P crewed by last year's winners Antonio Fuoco, Nicklas Nielsen and Miguel Molina. The number 51 entry of 2023 winners Alessandro Pier Guidi, Antonio Giovinazzi and James Calado were third with the number six Porsche Penske fourth. Swiss tennis great Roger Federer had waved the French flag to get the race underway, 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 then worked their way to the front and Fuoco took the lead in the third hour on the run from Mulsanne to Indianapolis. The race at the Sarthe circuit in north-west France features 62 cars shared by 186 drivers from 34 countries and is the fourth round of the World Endurance Championship, with 21 hypercars in the battle for overall victory. Organisers have put the total weekend attendance at more than 300,000 spectators. Ferrari will be able to keep the trophy at their Maranello factory if the works team completes a hat-trick on Sunday. After a French air force flypast, retired 20-times Grand Slam winner Federer waved the flag to release the field in a rolling start for a race through the night and into the dawn.
New York Times
13-06-2025
- Automotive
- New York Times
The 24 Hours of Le Mans Is Long. So Are the Preparations.
Ferrari is the team to beat in the F.I.A. World Endurance Championship. It has won all three rounds in 2025 and is heading to the 24 Hours of Le Mans seeking to add to the team's victories in 2023 and 2024. The race itself takes a day, but the preparation for it takes a year. 'We started to work for Le Mans the day after the last one,' Antonello Coletta, global head of endurance and Corse Clienti at Ferrari, said in an interview in May. Understanding failures, and applying remedies, is a priority. 'Even though the results of the last two [Le Mans] were brilliant for us, the best learning case we can have is to understand where we can improve, where we can do better, not just on the car side but also on the operations side,' said Ferdinando Cannizzo, head of endurance racecars. 'We list all this stuff and for each of the points we have a countermeasure and actions. Sometimes it's a meeting, sometimes it's months of work.' Three Ferrari 499Ps are in the race: the No. 50, the No. 51 and the No. 83. In 2024, the No. 50 overcame a door problem and rain late in the race to win Le Mans, but its margin of victory over Toyota Gazoo Racing was just 14.2 seconds. 'Normally when you win you are not the best, but you are the best between all the other competitors that made more errors than you,' Coletta said. 'The best is who made less errors than others. On each occasion [in 2023 and 2024] we had problems, and we needed to understand why we had a mistake, a failure, or an error or [an error in] strategy. We won the first three races [of 2025] but after each race we analyzed some errors that we made in each of them.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
