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 six hours to go in the 2026 24 Hours of Le Mans, as the #12 JOTA Cadillac survived a drive-through penalty to lead with a slimmed margin ahead of the #20 with the #7 leapfrogging the #8 Toyota after the latter underwent an unscheduled brake change.

As the sixteenth hour dawned, a battle raged for fifth as the #35 Alpine grew in pace as the conditions warmed, closing up to the back of the #51 Ferrari with the sister #36 in seventh, ahead of the #101.

The #38 was officially retired, after hours of attempted repairs, which allowed extra resources to go towards the #12 that currently controlled the race. It’s lead had diminished by a few seconds as the BMW #20 had a delay of its own – the pit crew releasing the jacks too early and losing valuable seconds.

Van Der Linde’s #20 soon closed up to the back of Brendan Hartley in the #8 before the #17 Genesis of Mathys Jaubert slowed to a halt at the Dunlop curves with seven and-a-half hours remaining, having ruptured the front suspension by striking a kerb, the car’s race over in an instant after a flawless first sixteen hours. A slow zone was the result.

Another slow zone for debris then came, as Brendan Hartley’s #8 Toyota and the #20 of Sheldon Van Der Linde battled for second the race-leading #12 received a drive through penalty for breaching the procedure, seeing the car drop back to third behind the Toyota/BMW pair now fighting for the overall lead.

Another drive through penalty was handed to the #101 for speeding under full course yellow, as with a couple of laps left to run wild, the #20 attempted an ambitious overcut strategy and pulled it off, running soft tyres to the rival #8’s mediums before a debris full course yellow came out. A 20 second advantage meant that Hartley was now 80sec down on the leaders.

Meanwhile Cadillac #12 was caught and passed by the #20, which retook the lead for the first time in hours. Then came the two Toyotas, #8, ahead of #7 with Ferraris #51, #83 and the two Alpines, #35 ahead of #36.

The gap between Van Der Linde and Louis Deletraz aboard the #12 was 20sec, with Brendan Hartley the next challenger in the #8, while the #19 Genesis pitted to replace a broken transponder.

An emergency brake repair was carried out at the next stop for the #8, losing it close to a minute with six hours to go, the #8 now the better part of a lap off the lead.

LMP2

Duqueine have restored their LMP2 lead, with a shallow 10sec gap over Nico Muller’s #343 and the #43 of Inter Europol, as while running fourth in class the #9 Proton suffered a front brake fire and further suspension damage right at the end of the seventeenth hour.

Richard Vershoor had opened the lead gap to over 90sec to the Inter Europol duo of #343 and #43, with Doriane Pin taking over the car at the next stop, as the #9 Proton and #29 Forestier by Panis Oreca 07 also pitting in.

The slow zone for the Genesis meant that as #43 had taken its stop earlier, it saved time by getting its full stop done under the slow zone conditions.

Another spinner then came, as the #28 IDEC Sport entry of Job Van Uitert spun at the final chicane, losing it valuable time, having already fallen to ninth.

The #43 meanwhile would be forced to return to pitlane with an unfastened door which needed re-attatching, and the race-leading #30 had to pit for emergency service under the most recent full course yellow. A congested pitlane meant when they came in a lap later to take their standard stop, they lost time getting the car in its box properly. That issue didn’t face the rival #43 of Inter Europol, who made their stop withouth issue and gained at least 20sec on Doriane Pin in the #30.

But then, more drama. as the #43 was then called back into its own box by race control for mandatory repairs, dropping it to third in class and fortuitously re-instating the #30 as race leaders with Doriane Pin at the wheel.

One more moment of drama came when Jonas Reid collected an advertising hoarding through the last sector of the lap, before it slowed to a half with a front brake fire and broken suspension.

LMGT3

With six hours to go, Corvette hold a commanding lead in the #33 of TF Sport having done their bronze driving time and with a gap of nearly two minutes heading into the last quarter of the race. Second is the pole sitter, Mattia Drudi in the #27 with Ayhancan Guven now up to third as Hadrien David pitted from third.

The gap at the head of the LMGT3 field was nearly two minutes, with the #33 of TF Sport still in pole position to take a class win with just over seven hours left, ahead of the #78 Lexus and Heart of Racing’s #23. Porsche were still fighting the good fight with the #91 up to fourth ahead of the sister #27 HoR Aston Martin.

With the bronze time done, and no other dramas in the class the LMGT3 lead and race was well in the hands of the TF Sport Corvette #33 of Nicky Catsburg, who would share driving duties with Johnny Edgar to the end of the race, their lead sitting at over two and-a-half minutes as Hadrien David led the battle for second ahead in the #78 Lexus, with Ayhancan Guven’s #91 Porsche in third.

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