Ex-F1 driver Kubica wins iconic Le Mans 24 hours

Kubica won one Formula 1 race before suffering serious injury

Former Formula 1 driver Robert Kubica took victory at the Le Mans 24 Hours with a privately entered Ferrari.

The number 83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P, also driven by China's Yifei Ye and Britain's Phil Hanson, took the chequered flag 14.084 seconds ahead of the number six Porsche 963 of France Kevin Estre.

Pole Kubica, once considered one of the world's best F1 drivers as part of a group of young drivers which included Lewis Hamilton, won the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix for BMW-Sauber.

But three years later, as an established F1 driver for Renault, Kubica suffered life-changing injuries in a rallying crash which left him with a partially severed right arm and multiple fractures.

He returned to F1 with Williams in 2019 as team-mate to George Russell, scoring one point that season, and then drove two races for Alfa Romeo in 2021.

At Le Mans, the works number 51 Ferrari 499P driven by Antonio Giovinazzi took third place, with the sister 50 car driven by Antonio Fuoco fourth.

Both factory Ferraris, who had been competing for the victory until the final hour, were nursing problems in the final stages.

It is the third victory in a row at Le Mans for the 499P, which won in the top class for the first time in 50 years in 2023 - the 100th anniversary of the famous race.

Kubica, 40, who drove a long final stint, said over team radio: "It's been a long 24 hours but an enjoyable one - grazie mille, grazie a tutti."

"Winning Le Mans is special," he added later to TNT Sports. "It's been a demanding week - we made everything possible. We kept our heads down when we had to push, and when not we took care of the tyres.

"I'm happy for myself, my team-mates, AF Corse and Ferrari winning three times in row. A better scenario, we could not have."

The sell-out race, which sees around 300,000 fans gather in north-west France, was a soporific event in 2025, with fewer incidents and accidents between the 62 cars which began the race than usual.

The Cadillacs of Hertz Team Jota, who achieved a front-row lockout in qualifying, finished fifth and eighth - the latter 38 car including 2009 Formula 1 world champion Jenson Button as one of the drivers.

Aston Martin returned to the endurance top class this year

V12 rings out again at Le Mans

Sportscars have seen a big resurgence in popularity since the introduction of the 'hypercar' class in 2021, with many top car manufacturers returning to the grid to benefit from more open designs, controlled by the 'balance of performance' rule.

Ferrari, Peugeot, Alpine, Cadillac, Porsche, Aston Martin and BMW have all retuned in recent years, joining Toyota.

Hyundai will join the hypercar class next year - under the Genesis brand - with hypercars from Ford and McLaren arriving in 2027.

In a largely uneventful race, one of the most exciting prospects was the return of Aston Martin in the top hypercar class, with the 007 and 009 Valkyrie.

The V12 6.5 litre machines have wowed fans with their aggressive, high-pitched engine note and bodywork design reminiscent of sportscars in its 1970s heyday.

The lowly finishing position was largely expected by the team, who were happy to see both cars come home after 24 hours of racing.

Aston Martin's drivers included highly rated British drivers Harry Tincknell, Tom Gamble and Ross Gunn.

Between the sound of the Valkyrie and the Cadillac V Series R's muscle-car grunt, the hypercar class is proving popular beyond the famous event at Le Mans, with more tickets being sold at the other seven events as part of the World Endurance Championship season.

In the lower protoype LMP2 class, Inter Europol's 43 car took victory, with Britain's W Series winner Jamie Chadwick retiring the Idec Sport 18 car earlier in the race.

The LMGT3 class was won by the Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche 911 GT3, with Richard Leitz of Austria crossing the line.

The next round of the World Endurance Championship is the Six Hours of Sao Paulo in 13 July.

Analysis

BBC F1 correspondent Andrew Benson

Robert Kubica's victory at Le Mans is a remarkable coda to the career of a remarkable man.

His horrific rally crash in 2011 curtailed a career that would have seen him at Ferrari as team-mate to Fernando Alonso in 2012, and for a long time looked to have ended it.

But after countless operations, he finally returned to F1 in 2019, with Williams.

To make it back to the top level of the sport was a triumph of resolve and determination, but there was no fairytale.

Kubica's arm is severely compromised. His right hand has only partial movement and the arm extremely limited functionality.

Although he can grasp a steering wheel with his right hand, it is doing little more than resting on the rim. In F1, he needed both gear-change paddles on the left-hand side of the wheel because he could not even use his right fingers to operate one.

He was effectively driving one-handed so it was hardly a surprise that he was not on the pace of team-mate George Russell, who was having his rookie season.

Kubica's return to F1 effectively came to an end with the 2019 season, notwithstanding a brief cameo for Alfa Romeo in 2021, the sport recognising that he was no longer the driver he was, even if he never quite acknowledged that publicly.

Since then, he has found success in other categories, and the Le Mans victory is a remarkable story of redemption, not least through details such as the fact that he drove 166 of the 387 laps completed by his car, for which he was one of three drivers.

He is modest and self-effacing, so will downplay his achievement. But that should not stop it being recognised for what it is - a testament to the strength of character of an extraordinary man.