The Grand Prix of Endurance is back, the City of Le Mans preparing to become motorsport’s ultimate battleground for the 95th time. Having defeated the defacto Kings of Le Mans and banished Porsche to the USA, Ferrari seek a fourth consecutive crown for the first time since 1964. Yet with the field having closed the performance gap and arriving hungrier than ever, it will be no easy task for the Scuderia – but it never has. Who will emerge from the Porsche curves at 4.00pm on Sunday? It’s time for the oldest endurance test of them all to begin… 

Hypercar

With 10 hours to go in the 2026 24 Hours of Le Mans, Cadillac still lead with the #12 JOTA run entry after the #38 re-entered the garage and the #101 faded from the lead battle as the morning arose, the lone BMW #20 of Robin Frijns still staying hot on Norman Nato’s tail as Toyota and Ferrari take up the next spots as the top eleven cars remain on the lead lap as Sunday rolls on.

Drama arrived early as with the #101 Cadillac and Toyota #8 receiving a drive through penalties for yellow flag infringements, it was the #38 of Jota who pulled into the pits without warning, slipping out of contention altogether with a blown brake pedal. The #94 also pitted to replace its rear bodywork, now up to fifteenth in class despite running without virtually any trouble.

Meanwhile, Ferrari were up to fifth and sixth with the #51 leading #83 asToyota were promoted to third with the #8, just behind it the sister #7 car in fourth. The Genesis pair had survived their earlier scare and were now running dependably in eleventh and twelfth, #17 ahead of #19 with both cars a lap down.

Up front though the #20 had closed up to the remaining #12 JOTA Cadillac of Norman Nato ahead of the pitstops, the lead gap now down to under 6sec with both Toyotas also within 65sec of the leading Cadillac, and then the Ferraris that were both now inside 90sec of the overall lead.

With the #12 and #20 running on identical strategy they ran at the head of the field ahead of the #8 while Mike Conway’s #7 ran sixth behind Charles Milesi in the #35 and Jordan Taylor’s #101 in fourth.

For the second time the #19 Genesis was scarily close to a retirement, coming to a stop just before Tetre Rouge with Daniel Juncadella having to power cycle the car to get it going again, losing out to the #009 Aston Martin and dropping to thirteenth.

Meanwhile the #007 Aston had moved up to challenge the Alpine duo, sitting ninth and running inside the top ten for the first time in a couple of hours, as the #19 Genesis lost considerable time during its pit stop, remaining stationary in the box for just over a minute.

#38 also re-entered the garage with Sebastian Bourdais leaving the car while mechanics attempted to fix the power steering failure that had flared up again as the #101 now found itself hounded by the recovering #83, now thoroughly in the fight for overall honours for the second year in a row.

LMP2

With the morning having arrived, the LMP2 lead battle slimmed to three cars as Bijoy Garg still led the class and Pro/Am subclass, the sister #43 sandwiching the #30 Duqueine of Julien Andlaer, sitting just 13sec back from the class lead as the class quietened down on the drama.

Bijoy Garg continued running at the head of the LMP2 field in his #343 of Inter Europol ahead of Doriane Pin’s #30 with Tom Dillmann’s sister #43 defending race winner in third ahead of the Vector Sport #26 and Proton #9 with only those runners on the lead lap. The #29 of Forestier Racing by Panis also ran well in the top five as dawn broke.

With Mathieu Vaxiviere behind the former race-leading #183, he spun the Pro/Am Oreca 07 at the Dunlop Chicane, dropping them to fourteenth in class.

LMGT3

With 10 hours left, the #33 of TF Sport holds a 30sec lead over the two Heart of Racing #27 and Dennis Marschall’s Kessel Racing #74, with the sister Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo running strongly in fourth ahead of Ben Green’s #2 Corvette.

Kessel Racing took over the lead of the race, with Dennis Marschall holding on until its pit stop with both Aston Martins taking over the lead, #27 ahead of #23 with 20sec separating the two, and Nicky Catsburg’s #33 TF Sport Corvette right on the heels and in the hunt for second place.

Further back, the as yet untroubled #77 Ford would also be brought into the garage just past half distance with broken tie rods, dropping two laps down and now running second last of the entire field, all hope of a good result all but over.

Both Lexuses continued running in tandem, with the #78 ahead of 87 in fifth and sixth before moving back up to second and third just before the pitstops behind Catsburg’s Corvette, as the top nine still stood on the lead lap past half distance.

Meanwhile the BMW pairing of #32 and #69 had fallen to fourteenth and fifteenth respectively, with the Lexus pairing slowly drifting apart from one another, as the lone Corvette in the top ten, #33, still led the class after a storming drive through the night.

A battlepack of Ferraris then formed. with the #150 leading Conrad Laursen’s #57 and Dustin Blattner’s #74 Kessel Ferrari all jostling for sixth place with Guiliano Alesi’s #62 up into a solid fifth position.

image credit: T GOUREAU, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons