Toyota has scored its first Le Mans win since 2022 after beating BMW in the 2026 edition
The No.7 Toyota Racing car of Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Nyck de Vries prevailed in a tense battle in the final stretch to win the 2026 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Toyota had to fight back from both of its cars qualifying in 14th and 15th in Hyperpole on Thursday evening, as well as persevering with an offset fuel strategy in the opening hours to get into the victory hunt. Both the No.8 car of Sebastien Buemi, Ryo Hirakawa and Brendon Hartley and the No.7 - which started 14th - served stints leading the 94th running of the iconic French enduro.after the No.91 Manthey Porsche crashed heavily at the first chicane.
This tightened up the top four, with the No.20 BMW and the No.12 Jota Cadillac taking turns leading alongside the No.8 Toyota. The No.7 car eventually cycled into the lead in hour 22, though there was friction between the two Toyotas after the No.8 failed to follow team instructions to swap positions. The No.7 car would see out the hour in the lead and completed the penultimate hour of running in first place, too.
The car came out leading the field after the final cycle of pit stops had taken place, with Kobayashi enjoying a 21s advantage. This was steadily chipped away by the No.20 BMW of Robin Frijns, Sheldon van der Linde and Rene Rast over the final hour, but to no avail. The No.7 car took the chequered flag for Toyota’s first Le Mans victory since 2022, with the No.8 completing the podium to make it two TR010 Hybrid’s on the podium.
The No.20 BMW was second, while the polesitting No.15 car of Kevin Magnussen, Raffele Marciello and Dries Vanthoor retired in the final hour after mechanical issues kept it in the pits for a long time. The No.12 Jota Cadillac of Will Stevens, Alex Lynn and Norman Nato came up 11s short of a podium in a disappointing end to the event for the American brand.
The No.12 spent the entirety of the race in the podium battle, while the No.38 Jota car of Earl Bamber, Sebastien Bourdais and Jack Aitken was also in the hunt before technical issues took it out early on Sunday morning. Ferrari’s run of three successive victories was ended in disappointing fashion, with its leading car 2m22s off the win in fifth. That honour went to the No.51 car of Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calada and Antonio Giovinazzi.
The No.50 car retired in Hour 19 with a technical issue. The No.35 Alpine of Ferdinand Habsburg, Charles Milesi and Antonio Felix da Costa was sixth ahead of the AF Corse No.83 car of Yifei Ye, Phil Hanson and Robert Kubica that won last year. The LMP2 battle was won by the Inter Europol squad, with the No.43 car beating the sister No.343 challenger by 12.9s. The No.29 Panis Racing car was third.
The long-time-leading No.30 Duqueine car dropped out of the race while fighting for the win in the final hours.
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