AF Corse's yellow Ferrari 499P #83 was among the main protagonists of the 92nd edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, fighting for a long time in the leading positions before an unfortunate electrical blackout forced the crew consisting of Robert Kubica, Robert Shwartzman and Yifei Ye to retire.
Starting from the sixth row of the grid, the Italian team, soon managed to move into the leading positions, grabbing the top-5 in lap 1 after gaining as many as seven positions. The #83 499P then took the lead on lap 29, holding it on and off for a total of 83 laps.
Once darkness fell, however, contact with a lapped car caused the team to make up for a 30" stop-and-go, which caused it to slip to seventh place. The AF Corse crew thus found itself having to recover again during the course of the night, making the most of the difficult weather conditions to return to the virtual podium at first light in the morning.
At the end of the 20th hour of the race, however, an electrical blackout forced the team to bring the car into the pit box to try to fix the problem. However, after an analysis of the data, AF Corse technicians had to declare a forfeit, withdrawing the Ferrari 499P from the race.
It was certainly a bitter ending, which does not do justice to the splendid performance put on the track by AF Corse, which in its debut as a private team in the Hypercar class contended for victory with the official teams until four from the end of the race.
The next round of the FIA World Endurance Championship is scheduled for the weekend of July 14 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.