ToyotaTeam·Toyota reclaimed the top step at the 24 Hours of Le MansCompetition·24 Hours of Le Mans as its No 7 prototype won the 94th running of the race, with Nick De VriesPlayer·Nick De Vries, Kamui KobayashiPlayer·Kamui Kobayashi and Mike ConwayPlayer·Mike Conway steering the Japanese manufacturer back to the top after four years without victory. The result ended FerrariTeam·Ferrari’s run of three consecutive Le Mans wins and restored ToyotaTeam·Toyota’s position at the centre of endurance racing’s biggest stage.
The winning No 7 ToyotaTeam·Toyota crossed the line with a 11-second advantage, while the sister No 8 car of Brendon HartleyPlayer·Brendon Hartley, Rio HirakawaPlayer·Rio Hirakawa and Sebastien BuemiPlayer·Sebastien Buemi completed the team effort by finishing third. BMWTeam·BMW took second through its No 20 entry driven by Robin FrijnsPlayer·Robin Frijns, Rene RastPlayer·Rene Rast and Sheldon van der LindePlayer·Sheldon van der Linde, marking the Bavarian marque’s best result since returning to Le Mans in 2024.
ToyotaTeam·Toyota’s success was built on patience, strategy and resilience through a race that stayed open well into the final hours. The team chose a different pit strategy for both cars just 30 minutes after the start, a move that quickly changed the shape of the contest. The No 8 car, which began the race 15th, surged to the front after the first round of stops, while the No 7 climbed into the top 10 and stayed in contention.
The race then turned on a series of interruptions and shifting pit cycles. During the night, the No 8 fought for the lead despite Hartley’s off-track moment and a penalty for a full-course yellow infringement. By Sunday morning, that car had lost time with a front-left brake problem, opening the door for the No 7 to move ahead, albeit by only a narrow margin before a safety car period reshuffled the order again.
BMWTeam·BMW briefly inherited the lead after the restart, ahead of the CadillacTeam·Cadillac No 12 of Norman NatoPlayer·Norman Nato, Will StevensPlayer·Will Stevens and Louis DeletrazPlayer·Louis Deletraz, before the No 7 ToyotaTeam·Toyota responded with cleaner pace and better timing in the pits. Another full-course yellow after an incident involving an LMP2 prototype compressed the field once more, but ToyotaTeam·Toyota managed the pressure better than its rivals. When the race resumed, the No 7 had built the decisive gap.
For ToyotaTeam·Toyota, the victory carried added weight beyond the numbers. It was the brand’s sixth Le Mans win in the Hypercar era and its first since 2022, while Conway and Kobayashi each claimed a second victory at the event. De Vries, meanwhile, took his first outright Le Mans triumph, completing a line-up that delivered when the race demanded precision most.
FerrariTeam·Ferrari, by contrast, endured a difficult end to a dominant spell. Its No 51 car of Alessandro Pier GuidiPlayer·Alessandro Pier Guidi, James CaladoPlayer·James Calado and Antonio GiovinazziPlayer·Antonio Giovinazzi finished sixth, while the No 50 entry retired on Sunday morning from 15th. The defending champions from 2025, Ye Yifei, Robert Kubica and Phil Hanson, were seventh for FerrariTeam·Ferrari AF CorseTeam·AF Corse. CadillacTeam·Cadillac’s No 38 car also dropped out early on Sunday after a steering failure, underlining how quickly Le Mans can punish even the strongest challengers.
The #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid Hypercar at the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps in 2026. PsnewZ/IMAGO
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