24 H LE MANS 2024

Trumpeted to be even more epic than the centenary race, the 92nd edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans sold out in just 48 hours, several months before the race itself. In front of 329,000 delighted spectators (a record!) and stars such as Zinédine Zidane, who was entrusted with giving the start, it would be an understatement to say that it lived up to all its promises! A Dantesque spectacle thanks in particular to a premier category with twenty-three competitors pitting eight renowned major manufacturers against one another: Alpine, BMW, Cadillac, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Peugeot, Porsche and Toyota, all came to the Sarthe with legitimate ambitions to compete for the win. At the end of a hard-fought battle in which bad weather played a part, Ferrari managed to retain its title, its second victory on the bounce with the 499P, the eleventh in its history, thanks to the trio Antonio Fuoco/Miguel Molina/Nicklas Nielsen.

But it would be an insult to the other categories to reduce this event to the Hypercar class alone. United Autosports recaptured its former glory to offer itself a second success in LMP2 after that of 2020, while Porsche and its customer team Manthey EMA became the first winners of an LMGT3 category which has a bright future ahead of it, perfectly guided by Richard Lietz in a state of grace who secured another category victory on Le Mans turf.

Why is this edition destined to remain in the annals? How did Ferrari overcome its fierce opposition? All this information distilled in the 304 pages of this book, rich in more than 700 photos.