Ex-F1 driver victorious as 'wrong' Ferrari wins 2025 Le Mans 24 Hours

Robert Kubica guided the #83 customer Ferrari 499 home to scoop overall victory at the Le Mans 24 Hours, alongside Phil Hanson and Yifei Ye.

Although the #83 entry uses the same Hypercar model as the works entries of the #50 and #51, which had race in each of the previous two years.

The AF Corse machine driven by 2008 Canadian GP winner Kubica is a customer entry, but on Sunday morning, he requested to be let by the #51 works car driven by Antonio Giovinazzi, feeling he had more pace and had previously helped other cars earlier in the race. 

Kubica assumed control of the race, stopping for the final time in the last hour for four new tyres and a top up of fuel as he then cycled back into the lead once the #51 pitted itself for the final time, inside the final half an hour.

The #6 Porsche Penske with Kevin Estre gave a valiant chase after starting from the back of the Hypercar field, and finished a shade under 15 seconds behind Kubica's winning #83 machine. 

It is Ferrari's 12th overall victory at Le Mans, taking it one behind Audi, with Porsche holding the record with 19 overall wins. 

Kubica becomes the first Polish driver to win overall, with Ye also the first Chinese racer to do so. Hanson is the 35th Briton to win overall, and first since James Calado in the #51 in 2023.

Third overall went to the #51 machine, whilst the defending race winners of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina, and Nicklas Nielsen in the #50 Ferrari fell away on Sunday morning to finish fourth, being told to hold position behind the #51. 

The pole-sitting #12 Cadillac was fifth, as Toyota's best result was sixth with #7 car of Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway, and Nyck de Vries. 

2009 F1 champion Jenson Button's #38 Cadillac was eighth, with Mick Schumacher's #36 Alpine in 12th. 

Report continues below. 

LMP2 and LMGT3

In LMP2, there was a late penalty which changed the dynamics of the race, as the leading #43 machine was handed a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane. 

With Nick Yelloly on board, he re-joined within striking distance of the new leader, the #43 VDS Racing entry, setting up a sprint to the finish. 

However, a mistake allowed the #43 to retain the lead as the #48 then fell away with a problem. 

In LMGT3, the #92 Manthey machine claimed class honours, comfortably ahead of the #21 Vista AF Ferrari.

During the night, the #46 WRT entry of Valentino Rossi was a contender for class honours, but it suffered a power loss at the Porsche Curves, leading to it beaching in the gravel and eventual retirement.