BMW Finishes Second at 24 Hours of Le Mans

The most historic and significant sports car race in the world took place in France this past weekend, with the 24 Hours of Le Mans. BMW didn’t get a victory this year, but they had their first podium finish since 1999 when the V12 LMR won overall and further confirmed that they will be competitive in this year’s FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).

The BMW M Hybrid V8 prototypes that compete in the FIA WEC Hypercar class showed their pace in qualifying. The FIA WEC (Le Mans is part of the WEC championship) qualifying for Le Mans was really three sessions. All cars participate in the first session, but only the top 15 move on to the first Hyperpole session, and from there only the top 10 cars move on to the final Hyperpole session.

The pole for the #15 car was BMWs first at Le Mans. Left to right: Head of BMW M Motorsport Andreas Roos, drivers Raffaele Marciello, Dries Vanthoor and Kevin Magnussen, and BMW M Team WRT Principal Vincent Vosse.

Both BMW M Hybrid V8 cars (#15 and #20) made it through the first round into the first Hyperpole session, and both also made it into the final Hyperpole session for the top ten. In that final session, Dries Vanthoor put in an inspired set of laps in the #15 car that he shared with Raffaele Marciello and Kevin Magnussen to initially put the car second on the grid, just five-thousandths of a second behind the pole-sitting #38 Cadillac. The #15 inherited the pole when the Cadillac was given a penalty after qualifying for a pit lane violation before the final session.

The pole by the #15 car was the first overall pole for BMW at Le Mans. “I’m super happy to be on pole at Le Mans!,” said Vanthoor after qualifying. “This is such a great event and now being on pole here and giving everyone in the team what they deserve, is awesome. At the same time our goal is to win the race, so we need to keep it clean over 24 hours to be right there on Sunday.” Robin Frijns also had a strong run in the final session, qualifying fourth in the #20 M Hybrid V8 that he shared with René Rast and Sheldon van der Linde.

Both BMW M4 GT3 EVO entries in the race also made it into the final Hyperpole session, with the #32 car of Augusto Farfus, Darren Leung and Sean Gelael in fifth on the grid, and the #69 car of Anthony McIntosh, Parker Thompson and Dan Harper in sixth. The pole in the LMGT3 class went to the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin.

It was evident from the opening hours of the race that the #20 M Hybrid V8 was going to be the more competitive of the two BMW entries in Hypercar. Kevin Magnussen had a poor start in the #15 car that started from pole and lost positions right away. That car also then had a tire puncture while battling with another car in the sixth hour that set them back even further. BMW M Team WRT was forced to retire the #15 early due to an unspecified technical issue.

The #20 M Hybrid V8, on the other hand, was competitive from the start. That car was in the lead after three hours and was in the top three for most of the race as the cars cycled through pit stops. They were in first place with a 30-second gap to the second place Cadillac with six hours to go when a caution brought the cars closer together and erased the lead. The #20 car then lost the lead to the #7 Toyota and fell behind the #8 Toyota in the closing hours but Frijns fought back to second place which is where he finished the race, just 10.913 seconds behind the winning Toyota after 24 hours of racing. The top four cars in the Hypercar class were separated by just 32 seconds at the finish.

The second-place finish was a great result for BMW and put them in a strong position in the season-long championship. “That was one of the strongest races we have ever had as a team with the BMW M Hybrid V8,” said BMW M Team WRT Team Principal Vincent Vosse. “Absolutely flawless. No penalties, no bad pit stops – nothing. Congratulations to everyone in my team and at BMW M Motorsport! We are one unit, we are making progress, and we deserved this podium. I’m not disappointed at all that we didn’t win. Toyota deserved it – congratulations!”

Sheldon van der Linde (center) celebrates second place.

Promising results in the qualifying sessions didn’t translate to race success for the pair of M4 GT3 EVO cars in the LMGT3 class, which were also run by WRT. The two cars stayed within the top ten in the opening hours of the race but fell back as the race went on. The #32 car of Farfus, Leung and Gelael finished in the top ten in seventh in LMGT3, with the class win going to the #33 Corvette. “Our race was tough,” said Farfus. “We did everything right, had no technical problems, and nailed every pit stop. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t enough to fight for the podium. We simply didn’t have the pace. Still, it’s always a great honor to be on the grid here at Le Mans.” The #69 M4 GT3 EVO ultimately retired with gearbox issues and was classified in 19th at the finish.