2025 24 Hours of Le Mans: Robert Kubica lifts Ferrari, AF Corse to historic win

Ferrari has won the 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans after the No.83 customer AF Corse 499PP driven by Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye and Phil Hanson beat the No.6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963.

The Italian manufacturer came into the 93rd running of the iconic French endurance classic as favourite for victory, having dominated the World Endurance Championship so far in 2025 and been the winning make at Le Mans for the last two years.

Cadillac led the field away at the start of the 24-hour race on Saturday afternoon with the front row-locking Jota pair, though Porsche would steam into the lead in the opening 60 minutes.

Overnight and into Sunday morning, Ferrari assumed control of the race as it led a 1-2-3, though come hour 18 the marque would be embroiled in some team orders drama.

The No.83 AF Corse car - which started 13th - had been asked at various stages to move aside for the factory 499Ps during the race, with Robert Kubica complaining over the radio that the No.51 needed to let him through.

The point became moot after the pitstop phase in hour 18, with the No.51 - driven by Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi - able to build a buffer of around six seconds after its stop over the No.83.

The No.83 would eventually cycle its way into the lead, electing to continue on used tyres while the factory Ferraris took on new rubber inside hour 20 - which Yifei Ye used to pull away.

This put the No.83 into a controlling position at the front, with the lead standing at 33 seconds coming into the final hour with Kubica back behind the wheel.

After the final round of pitstops, the Kubica once again emerged in the lead in the No.83 with a gap of 12 seconds to the No.6 Porsche Penske Motorsport entry of Kevin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor and Matt Campbell splitting the Ferraris.

Estre pushed hard out of his last fuel stop having double-stinted his tyre to apply a little pressure to the No.83, but could ultimately do nothing to reel in the customer Ferrari.

One-time Formula 1 race winner Kubica kept his final laps clean to get to the chequered flag to complete Ferrari’s Le Mans hat-trick.

The No.83 becomes the first privateer Ferrari entry to win outright at Le Mans, while Kubica and Yifei Ye are Poland and China’s maiden victors at the famous race.

The No.6 Porsche came from last in the Hypercar field and brushed off an unscheduled stop late on Saturday night due to a slow puncture to get into a position to split the Ferraris in the closing stages.

Estre was helped in his quest to cement Porsche’s first podium of the 2025 WEC season when the No.50 Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen that followed him into the final pitstop ran off at the Porsche Curves in the last hour.

The factory Ferrari cars then swapped position on track, with the No.51 of Giovinazzi moving into third despite being struck by an engine issue in the last hour.

Ferrari elected to freeze the race for the No.51 and No.50 cars, with the former rounding out the podium behind the No.6 Porsche.

The polesitting No.12 Jota Cadillac of Will Stevens, Alex Lynn and Norman Nato completed the top five as the strong qualifying pace for the car never translated into the race.

The No.7 Toyota of Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Nyck de Vries was the Japanese marque’s top car at the chequered flag in sixth, after the No.8 car dropped out of the top five when its front left wheel came loose exiting the pits in Hour 20.

The No.8 of Sebastien Buemi, Ryo Hirakawa and Brendon Hartley lost seven laps to repairs and finished down in 18th.

The No.5 Porsche Penske Motorsport car of Mathieu Jaminet, Michael Cristensen and Julien Andlauer was seventh ahead of the No.38 Jota Cadillac of Earl Bamber, Jenson Button and Sebastien Bourdais.

The No.4 Porsche of Pascal Wehrlein, Felipe Nasr and Nick Tandy was ninth, with the No.35 Alpine driven by Charles Milesi, Paul-Loop Chatin and Ferdinand Habsburg rounding out the top 10.

Technical troubles knocked both WRT BMWs out of the running for points in the final hours.

Aston Martin got the No.009 Valkyrie to 13th in the brand's return to the top class with Alex Riberas, Marco Sorensen and Roman de Angelis.

Porsche wins in LMGT3, LMP2 victory decided in dramatic fashion

After the No.46 WRT BMW of Valentino Rossi, Sheldon van der Linde and Ahmad Al Harthy dropped out of the race overnight, the LMGT3 class came under the control of the Manthey team.

The No.92 Manthey Porsche never looked in trouble over the final hours as Ryan Hardwick, Riccardo Pera and Richard Lietz got the car to victory over the No.21 AF Vista Corse Ferrari of Simon Mann, Alessio Rovera and Francois Heriau.

It marks Lietz’s sixth class victory at Le Mans.

The podium in class was completed by the No.81 TF Sport Corvertte of Tom van Rompuy, Rui Andrade and Charlie Eastwood.

In LMP2, the No.43 Euro Interpol entry led for much of the contest, but almost had the win denied by a late drive-through penalty for pitlane speeding.

The Nick Yelloly, Tom Dillmann and Jakub Smiechowski car still came out on top after the No.48 VDS Panis Racing car that inherited the lead hit trouble in the final hour.

The No.48 was second in class ahead of the No.199 AO by TF entry.

Full results: 24 Hours of Le Mans