MOTORSPORT
Damien Smith
RACING LINES
Ferrari’s first win of WEC season came in crown-jewel event
Nine cars finished on the lead lap in the92nd Le Mans 24 Hours. That’s a sure sign that the world’s greatest endurance race has never had it so good in terms of white-hot competition, in an era that’s already outstripping the Group Cgolden days of the 1980s. How Ferrari earned its second consecutive and 11th Le Mans win was only one example of the fine margins that defined destinies in a race disrupted through the night by a four-hour-plus safety car period caused by torrential rain. Not everything is great about this modern era, although arguing how they just use to press on regardless in the ‘good old days’ isn’t particularly helpful. Still, when they were eventually let off the leash, boy, the racing was a match for any previous era, in an epic that proved a worthy sequel to the unforgettable 100th-anniversary edition last year.