24 HOURS OF LE MANS 2023. The start of the 91st edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, that of the centenary of the legendary endurance race, will be given this Saturday at 4 p.m. The two Ferrari 499Ps, the fastest in practice, will set off ahead of all their rivals. Here is all the info you need to know.
[Updated June 10, 2023 at 6:50 a.m.] It is this Saturday afternoon that the 62 cars entered in the centenary edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans will set off on the legendary Sarthois circuit. Global star and four-time NBA champion, American basketball player LeBron James, a luxury guest, will start at 4 p.m. Who will succeed the Toyota winners, winners in the premier Hypercar category since 2018? The Porsches and the Ferraris are outsiders, while the Peugeots, back at Le Mans after a 12-year absence, will have a hard time competing.
We have known since Thursday evening the order in which all the participants of this 91st edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2023 will start. Ferrari will have the honor of starting in first position. Already the most efficient during the test day last Sunday, then during qualifying on Wednesday, the two prototypes of the Italian brand confirmed their superiority over one lap on Thursday evening during the Hyperpole which brought together during half an hour the eight fastest cars in qualifying in each category. The #50 499P, driven by Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Niklas Nielsen, set the fastest time, completing the 13.629 kilometers of the Le Mans circuit in just over 3 minutes and 22 seconds.
The Ferraris scored a nice double as the #51 499P of Alessandro Pier Guidi, Antonio Giovinazzi and James Calado, already second in qualifying the day before, took second place in the Hyperpole ahead of the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid defending champions Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Irakawa. The other Toyota, the n°7, had to settle for fifth position, also overtaken by the Porsche 963 of Frenchman Mathieu Jaminet.
1. Ferrari 499P n°50 – Fuoco/Molina/Nielsen2. Ferrari 499P n°51 – Calado/Giovinazzi/Pier Guidi3. Toyota GR010 Hybrid n°8 – Buemi/Hartley/Hirakawa4. Porsche 963 n°75 – Jaminet/Nasr/Tandyi5.Toyota GR010 Hybrid n°7 – Conway/Kobayashi/Lopez6. Cadillac V-Series.R n°2 – Bamber/Lynn/Westbrook7. Porsche 963 n°5 – Cameron/Christensen/Makowiecki8. Cadillac V-Series.R n°3 – Bourdais/Dixon/Van der Zende9. Porsche 963 n°6 – Estre/Lotterer/Vanthoor10. Peugeot 9X8 n°93 – Di Resta/Jensen/Vergne11. Peugeot 9X8 n°94 – Duval/Menezes/Müller12. Cadillac V-Series.R (Action Express) n°311 – Derani/Sims/Aitken13. Glickenhaus 007 n°708 – Dumas/Pla/Briscoe14. Glickenhaus 007 n°709 – Mailleux/Berthon/Gutiérrez15. Vanwall Vandervell 680 n°4 – Dillmann/Guerrieri/Vautier16. Porsche 963 n°38 – Da Costa/Stevens/Ye
The start of the 91st edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans will be given on Saturday June 10 at 4 p.m. French time. 2 p.m., 3 p.m., 4 p.m., it all depends on the year and other sporting events. Several times, the start of the 24 Hours of Le Mans had thus been postponed due to the concomitance with football, World Cup or Euro matches in particular. It won’t be this year, but the departure schedule in 2023 will be the same as in 1923, which is probably no coincidence. The checkered flag signifying the finish will therefore be lowered at 4 p.m. on Sunday 11 June. Note that for the 100th anniversary of the most famous endurance race, many events will take place throughout the week, including concerts (Zazie, Bob Sinclar, Mika, etc.) and a pyrotechnic and drone show on Saturday night.
This year, two TV channels will broadcast the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Eurosport, a broadcaster for many years, will broadcast in full via Eurosport channels 1 and 2 (as well as on the paid app Eurosport Player). The broadcast will take place at 3 p.m. on Saturday June 10, one hour before the start, for broadcast until Sunday, with a part reserved for the post-race. Eurosport is accessible by subscription.
The L’Equipe Channel will provide free retransmission. Available on TNT (channel 21) or via the internet (connected TV or internet box), La Chaîne L’Equipe will broadcast the pre-race, the start at 4 p.m. and many hours of the race.
62 teams of three drivers each are entered in the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans. Here is the complete list of entries (PDF document) by clicking here. Five-time defending champion, Toyota will once again be the huge favorite this year. For the centenary race, Peugeot and Ferrari sign their big comeback, after 50 years of absence for the brand with the prancing horse, and will be surrounded in particular by Porsche and Cadillac in the premier category.
The ranking of the 24 Hours of Le Mans is based on the number of laps covered between Saturday 4 p.m. and Sunday 4 p.m. There is a general classification but also a classification by categories. Three categories coexist: the Hypercars group together the favorites (Toyota, Glickenhaus, Porsche…), the LMP2 prototypes a little less powerful and the LMGTE am, the only GT category now. Note that a Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 will be the only competitor in the Innovative Cars category.
Hypercar category1. Toyota Gazoo Racing (Buemi, Hartley, Hirakama)2 Toyota Diesel Racing (Conway, Kobayashi, Lopez)3. Glickenhaus Racing (Briscoe, Mailleux, Westbrook)Category LMP21. Jota (Felix da Costa, Gonzalez, Stevens)2 Prema ORLEN Team (Kubica, Defender, Colombo)3. Jota (Aberdein, Jones, Rasmussen)LMGTE Category Pro1. Porsche GT Team (Bruni, Lietz, Makowiecki)2 AF Corse (Guidi, Straight, Serra)3 AF Corsica (Molina, Rigon, Fuoco)LMGTE category am1. TF Sports (Keating, Chaves, Sorensen)2. WeatherTech Racing (McNeil, Andlauer, Merrill)3. NorthWest AMR (Lana, Pittard, Thiim)
