Toyota overcame a fierce challenge from BMW and Cadillac to take victory at the 2026 Le Mans 24 Hours, ending Ferrari’s three-year streak at Circuit de la Sarthe.
The No. 7 Toyota TR010 Hybrid driven by Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries finished just 10.913 seconds ahead of the No. 20 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Robin Frijns, Rene Rast and Sheldon van der Linde, marking first Toyota Le Mans 24h win since 2022.
Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa solidified a strong showing for the Japanese manufacturer by claiming the last step of the podium in the sister No. 8 entry.
The 94th edition of the French endurance classic delivered a thrilling contest under relentless heat and a night devoid of rain, setting the stage for a race long three-way showdown between Toyota, BMW and Cadillac.
The pole-winning No. 15 BMW led the race from green with Kevin Magnussen at the wheel, followed by the No. 12 Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac V-Series.R of Will Stevens which briefly got ahead at Dunlop Curve, albeit Magnussen reclaimed the top spot on the Mulsanne Straight.
Toyotas, meanwhile, executed a strategy masterclass by calling in both cars for early pitstops, a move that would sway the race to their favour.
Mike Conway pitted first on lap 7 followed by Sebastien Buemi a lap later, and when the other cars made their stops at the end of the opening hour, the No. 8 Toyota that had started 15th took the lead, while the No. 7 jumped from 14th to fifth.
However, the advantage held by the No. 8 Toyota faded away over the next four hours as the No. 20 BMW began to close the gap with Sheldon van der Linde at the wheel.
By the eighth hour the gap between the No. 20 and the No. 8 was down to a second as both cars pitted on the same lap, with BMW also appearing to have opted for shorter stints in a bid to catch Toyota.
However, moments later the race received its first major reset after Gianmarco Livorato in the No. 88 Proton Ford Mustang and Francesco Castellacci in the No. 54 AF Corse Ferrari made contact at Forest Esses just after the Goodyear Bridge.
Le Mans 24 hours 2026 Results: Full Hypercar, LMP2, LMGT3 classification
List of 24 Hours of Le Mans winners by year
The incident triggered a safety car which bunched the field but Buemi held onto the lead at the restart before handing the car over to Brendon Hartley, who maintained the top spot despite going off at the Mulsanne roundabout.
However, the error saw the No. 12 Cadillac of Will Stevens close up to the rear of the No. 8 Toyota and snatch the lead in the next round of pit stops on the 11th hour.
Jack Aitken followed through to take second in the sister No. 38 Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac V-Series.R as the race approached the half way mark, but disaster struck shortly after Sebastien Bourdais took over when the power steering failed.
Bourdais pushed the car back into the garage for repairs and lost 7 laps, dropping to dead last in the Hypercar field. The No. 38 rejoined the race with the same issue and eventually retired at 8am, 16 hours into the race.
The No. 12 continued to lead, but Louis Deletraz infringed a full course yellow and was handed a drive through penalty into hour 17, dropping to third as the No. 20 BMW of Sheldon van der Linde briefly assumed the race lead followed by Hartley’s No. 8 Toyota.
BMW lost the lead with just four hours remaining after Robin Frijns messed his pit stop entry, effectively pushing the two Toyotas to the front, with both Hartley and Nyck de Vries passing the No.12 Cadillac of Norman Nato.
However, a Full Course Yellow at the start of the 22nd hour shuffled the Hypercar pecking order, and the No. 7 Toyota now with Kamui Kobayashi leapfrogged Hartley who had just pitted the No. 8 Toyota.
Kobayashi held onto the lead all the way to the checkered flag to claim sixth Toyota Le Mans 24h win, while Van der Linde made a last-minute move past Buemi’s No. 8 at the Porsche Curves to slot the No. 20 BMW into second.
