Le Mans Day 1 Race Report: Ferrari dominate, Mick Schumacher and Alpine retire

Ferrari have been the team to beat so far at the 2024 24h of Le Mans race as Robert Kubica leads for the #83 car.

12th to start the race, Kubica made quick progress up fifth as he benefited from his soft tyres.

After making the right decision when rain fell a couple of hours into the race, Kubica leapfrogged the leading #50 Ferrari and the #6 Porsche which started on pole.

The #50 then began to close in as pit stops and driver changes came into effect, however, the #83 managed to remain in the lead as heavy rain came six hours into the race.

Both factory Ferrari’s stayed out while Kubica and the #83 pitted for wets, which again proved to be the right call as he lapped the #51 which had been fifth before dropping to 13th.

Battling Ferrari for top spot was the #5 Porsche Penske car, which like the #83 car, made the right calls at the right time to move up the order.

Toyota were not shy in making progress either, as Brendon Hartley was able to claw back a lot of time on the leading trio.

Alpine suffered a disastrous opening few hours as the #35 reitred before Mick Schumacher was also out of the race just after the six-hour mark.

Despite early pace, Cadillac’s challenge faded as both full factory V-Series R machines went backwards.

In LMGT3, the highly-anticipated #46 BMW was a constant presence at the front before taking the lead after a few hours.

Valentino Rossi spent much of his first stint leading the way before handing back over to Maxime Martin, who made a mistake when getting back underway following the latest full course yellow when he spun round an LMP2 car.

As a result, Martin was under investigation for him part in the incident.

After big problems for the #20 BMW early on, the #15 was forced to retire when Dries Vanthoor suffered a big crash after contact with race leader Kubica.

As a result of the incident the safety car was deployed for the first time today.