Conway, de Vries and Kobayashi reclaim Le Mans glory for Toyota

10 years on from its heartbreaking last-gasp retirement from the lead after a titanic battle with Audi and Porsche, Toyota won the Le Mans 24 Hours in front of more than 350,000 fans in fine style, after another three-way showdown, this time against BMW and Cadillac.

The No. 7 TR010 HYBRID of Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Nyck de Vries delivered the landmark, emotional result. It's the brand's sixth win at the Le Mans 24 Hours, the first for its Hypercar badged as a TR010 and its first win since 2022, the year before the top class of the WEC exploded with the debut of the LMDh regulation set ahead of the centenary Le Mans in 2023.

Toyota’s triumph also meant that Ferrari’s win streak at Le Mans stopped at three, after a 24-hour sprint race in which the trio of 499Ps failed to feature in the fight for the podium spots.

The 94th edition of the French classic resembled the 93rd in many ways. It was a flat-out sprint with little interruption. Just two safety cars and a smattering of full course yellows and Slow Zones disrupted the action (last year’s race had only one safety car intervention). But again, that didn’t prevent a close finish, as the winning margin for the No. 7 crew was just 10.9s and the top seven cars all finished on the lead lap.

“We have waited so long for this victory,” Toyota No. 7 driver and team principal Kamui Kobayashi said. “We (the No. 7 crew) have a lot of seconds in Le Mans, now we have two wins! We had a very challenging week; we had a driveshaft sensor issue and a puncture; it was tough. We made it in the end, and everyone did a great job.”

BMW Team WRT’s Spa-winning No. 20 M Hybrid of Sheldon van der Linde, Rene Rast and Robin Frijns, who brought the car home, finished second, narrowly missing out on becoming the first LMDh-spec Hypercar to win the event.

To come so close to victory will sting, but BMW will leave La Sarthe with its head held high. The 2026 updates to the car worked a charm; WRT looks to be right at home in Hypercar, and the Bavarian marque can boast its first overall podium in the event since 1999, when it won overall with the V12 LMR.

“We have mixed emotions. On one hand, it’s a huge success for the project because previously we hadn’t finished without a technical issue; now we came close to winning the race. But on the other you want to win, and we came close and you don’t know if you will get the chance again,” said Rast.

Completing the podium was the No. 8 Toyota of Brendon Hartley, Sebastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa. It was a strong run for the trio, who for much of the race looked the more threatening crew from the winning marque before the second safety car brought the eventual winners, who started P14, into the fight. But losing time at two pit stops in the closing stages to change the brake drum mounting proved costly in a tight battle on a bone-dry track, where temperature and tire selection played a key role in the outcome.

“It was looking so good for car 8 for a long time, and Cadillac and BMW had their moments," Conway noted. "It was super tough, and until the last three hours we didn’t know what would happen. I think Nyck was hiding from everyone in his room for much of the final hour and I was pacing. But we got through it and did the job.”

Cadillac’s first car home, the No. 12 from Hertz Team JOTA, finished just off the podium in fourth, 32 seconds off the lead. Will Stevens, Norman Nato and stand-in Louis Deletraz did themselves proud, staying in the mix for most of the race. But after the V-Series.R – with its updated aero package – held an edge overnight when the team became the first to switch to the soft tire, before the pendulum swung the other way after sunrise.

Cadillac also lost JOTA’s sister car, the No. 38 V-Series.R, to a power steering problem while fighting for the lead at the halfway mark, reducing its strategic options in the closing stages.

With three hours to go, when the track temperature reached its peak of the race, the TR010s had that little bit extra to clinch the win and a double podium, with everyone back to running on the medium Michelin Pilot Sport Endurance compound. The No. 12 crew also lost out to an ill-timed FCY, which forced them to pit for an emergency service stop in the 20th hour.

While Toyota, BMW and Cadillac all played their part in the fight for a historic victory, five other brands fought hard for the best-of-the-rest label.

The reigning Hypercar world champions in the No. 51 Ferrari AF Corse 499P completed the top five, crossing the line just under two minutes off the lead. It wasn’t a total disaster for the Italian marque in its attempt to win the event for a fourth consecutive time, but it never had the speed to make an impact. Its No. 50 499P looked most likely to threaten the established order, but a fire extinguisher failure and ECO change led to its retirement after 284 laps. Was this simply a case of a BoP swing blunting its weaponry? Or does the 499P, after a year without a victory now, need an update to catch back up?

The No. 36 Alpine and defending winners in the No. 83 Ferrari were the final two cars to come home on the lead lap. There wasn’t much attrition in the top class, with just four cars withdrawn by the end of the race. In addition to the No. 38 Cadillac and No. 50 Ferrari failing to make it home, the No. 15 BMW was eliminated after early contact caused a puncture and an electrical issue that prevented a late return to life, and the No. 17 Genesis suffered a terminal suspension issue after 263 laps.

It was, however, a hugely impressive debut for the Genesis Magma Racing team on its first attempt at Le Mans with the GMR-001. Both cars had pace, and the No. 19, coming home after completing 372 laps of the circuit, bodes well for the future.

As for Aston Martin and Peugeot, it was a race to forget. Both brands lacked raw pace and could only hope for misfortune to rival cars to climb the standings. The best of the four cars in question was the No. 007 Valkyrie, which cruised home eighth, ahead of the WTR Cadillac, which turned heads throughout the week, ran close to the front early in the race, but ultimately faded after multiple penalties.

In the other classes, there was plenty of drama and action, ending in historic results for three teams.

Another consistent performance earned Inter Europol its third Le Mans LMP2 win in four years. Jakob Ebrey/Getty Images

Inter Europol Competition captured a third LMP2 win in four years in fine style, with a 1-2 finish headed up by its No. 43 crew of Tom Dillmann, Kuba Smiechowski and Nick Yelloly, who won last year’s race and went back-to-back.

The category was hotly contested, with a number of cars rising to the top as driver and tire strategies (including multiple teams completing five consecutive stints on a single set of Goodyears) differed. But perhaps the biggest moment came in the 21st hour, when the Duqueine Team ORECA retired from second with a brake failure.

The R-ace GP-run French team controlled large portions of the race, and with Doriane Pin and Porsche ace Julien Andlauer strapped in, was rapid. But any hope of a breakthrough result vanished as the end drew near, leaving the door open for Inter Europol to add to its fairytale run since 2023.

Yet again the Panis Racing team came closest to beating Inter Europol to the flag. Unlike last year, though, when a suspension failure cost it victory with time expiring, this time an early error for Louis Rousset cost the team dear. Remarkably though, after falling a lap down, Esteban Masson and Oliver Gray were faultless in clawing their way back into contention. Their efforts weren’t quite enough though, and they were forced to settle for a podium finish.

Off the podium was the Vector Sport ORECA, the surprise package of the race. On another weekend, Gary Holland and his hard-working crew could have left with silverware. The No. 37 CLX Motorsport 07, driven by three 19-year-olds (Theodor Jensen, Adrien Closmenil and Ian Aguilera) who combined to form the youngest trio in the event’s history, claimed an incredible fifth on their debuts.

LMP2 Pro/Am was dominated by Crowdstrike by APR, which can now claim a Rolex 24 and Le Mans 24 win in the same year. By staying out of harm’s way, Laurin Heinrich, George Kurtz and Alex Quinn won by more than a lap.

It was far from a thrilling race in the second LMP2 category, but that shouldn’t detract from what was another enormously impressive result for the Algarve Pro Racing team, run by the husband-and-wife duo Sam and Stewart Cox, who continue to rack up major LMP2 honours in the big endurance races year on year.

The podium in the category was completed by the No. 183 AF Corse entry, which suffered multiple delays through spins. The No. 99 AO by TF, "Rockie The Pegasus" ORECA charmed fans and fought hard to nab a podium with its line-up of Dane Cameron, PJ Hyett and late-addition James Allen.

Jonny Edgar, Nicky Catsburg and Ben Keating mastered what tire supplier Goodyear claims was the most relentless Le Mans of the LMGT3 era. DPPI photo

In LMGT3, TF Sport wrote another chapter in Corvette Racing history, winning LMGT3 with its No. 33 Z06 LMGT3.R in what Goodyear claims was the most relentless Le Mans of the LMGT3 era, as the fastest 100-lap average pace recorded by an LMGT3 car was 1.2 seconds per lap quicker than in last year’s race.

The car was driven masterfully by Jonny Edgar, Nicky Catsburg and Texas iron man Ben Keating on his return to racing just nine weeks after shattering his elbow in a biking incident. The team's strategy of burning through Keating's six hours of minimum drive time in the opening eight hours proved a masterstroke in a tight battle with Lexus and Aston Martin.

"What an historic day for General Motors and Corvette Racing at the 24 Hours of Le Mans,” said Mark Reuss, president of General Motors. “To earn Corvette Racing’s 10th class victory at Le Mans is a tremendous achievement for our motorsports, design and engineering teams. Huge congratulations to drivers Nicky Catsburg, Jonny Edgar and Ben Keating, and our partners TF Sport. You have earned your place in the history books! It's an incredibly proud moment for all of us and it shows that, working as one team, GM can beat the best in the world."

Many cars featured in the top five as the pit cycles came and went. But when it shook out, it became clearer that the No. 33 Corvette was the car to beat. What looked like a potential repeat of the 2017 edition with Aston Martin chasing the leading Corvette in the closing stages didn’t materialize, and the No. 33 finished 20 seconds clear of the field, having previously built a 90-second gap before the second safety car.

Akkodis ASP’s No. 78 Lexus took a hard-earned second place. There were question marks hanging over the RC F LMGT3’s ability to deliver a standout result at the Circuit de la Sarthe in its final year before the Toyota GR GT3 era begins for the program in 2027, but the ASP unit managed to run consistently and fast all race.

The Heart of Racing team took pole on Thursday, but ultimately came home with a podium finish with the No. 23 in third in Aston Martin partner Prodrive’s 25th consecutive Le Mans start. The No. 27 sister car, which took pole, was fast and may have won had it survived, but ultimately succumbed to a gearbox issue, eliminating any chance of a double podium.

Akkodis’ sister Lexus, the No. 87, took fourth, with the No. 21 Vista AF Corse 296 the first Ferrari GT3 car across the line in fifth.

As for the other brands, it was a torrid race for Mercedes-AMG, with both of Iron Lynx’s WEC cars retiring. Manthey also failed to make it three LMGT3 wins in a row for Porsche at Le Mans; the No. 91 crashed out after a steering failure, and the No. 92 Bend-branded car crossed the line 13th after an early trip to the garage. The Fords, McLarens and BMWs also struggled to find a way into the fight, lacking outright pace and opportunities to take advantage of restarts.

The 94th running of the Le Mans 24 Hours is in the books; the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo is up next for the World Endurance Championship on July 12.

PROVISIONAL RESULTS