Le Mans 24 Hours Live Commentary and Updates
Minute-by-minute updates for the 2026 Le Mans 24 Hours
Live Text
That's me thinking of the old rules. The pits are closed under FCY these days, so the pitters could only take an emergency dump of fuel and have had to return for a full tank of gas.
We have our first full-course yellow of the race, and Sheldon van der Linde has brought the lead BMW in immediately to take advantage. The #12 Cadillac follows suit for a quick top-up of fuel.
Nice/lucky break for the #20 Bimmer there. Gets to pit under FCY pretty much on schedule. Will be interesting to see what the gap to the Toyota is.
Thanks Haydn. Yes, I’m here to take you through the next few hours.
Hands up who thought Toyota would be holding the upper hand at this stage? Well done if you did. Just to recap, the #20 BMW of Sheldon van der Linde leads at the moment, but the #8 Toyota should take over again once the next round of stops is complete.
It is our turn for a driver change, as Haydn Cobb is off for a breather and is handing over to Mark Paulson who is fresh and raring to go.
The #7 Toyota returns from the pits in 16th place, right behind both Aston Martins.
De Vries is warned he has a slow rear-left puncture on his #7 Toyota which the team is attempting to manage as the pressures aren't dropping but the team need to bring in the car earlier than scheduled. That'll be a knock to its chances.
The #50 Ferrari pits for the first time since that half-spin a few minutes ago and it doesn't appear to need a new set of tyres. Fuoco is currently running a mixed set of medium and hards,
On the track the #51 Ferrari is defending from the #101 Cadillac in a fight for fourth place.
Chatin jumps into the #19 Genesis with a fresh set of boots but the vibration issue appears to still be there in the car as he starts his out-lap.
The #19 Genesis driven by Jaminet is suffering with heavy vibrations - you can literally hear it through his voice over team radio - and a scheduled pitstop comes to his aid as he dives in hoping the team can solve the issue.
The leading #8 Toyota pits on schedule to hand over the lead to the #20 BMW but van der Linde is being caught by the #38 Cadillac with the gap down to under 9s. Aitken is rapid right now, perhaps looking for revenge after being cruelly denied pole position through no fault of his own on Thursday.
The #30 Duqueine pits from the LMP2 class lead to hand over the top spot to #43 Inter Europol Competition, giving that team a brief 1-2 with the #343 up to second place.
Fuoco has been given a warning for the clash with Verschoor earlier. It was arguably a racing incident, but given Fuoco suffered all of the punishment, it is probably fair that no greater punishment was dished out.
#8 Toyota Racing Toyota TR010 Hybrid: Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa
Photo by: Emanuele Clivati | AG Photo
Pier Guidi is giving good value over the team radio today, calling the Alpine so slow but too hard to overtake. The advice he is given by his Ferrari race engineer is to let the Toyota attack and open up an opportunity. Some 4D chess going on there. Milesi, in the #35 Alpine, is fending off De Vries in the #7 Toyota for fifth place from Pier Guidi who is stalking the pair.
Hartley's lead in the #8 Toyota is up to 30s over van der Linde in the #20 BMW. That's an impressive lead at this stage of the race. Meanwhile, the #38 and #12 Cadillac swap positions to put Aitken into third for the time being and ahead of Deletraz.
That is our first serious incident for one of the frontrunners - it has taken two-and-a-half hours to kick off - and has put the #50 Ferrari on the backfoot, but it could have been so much worse.
Somehow Verschoor managed to continue without any obvious damage or time lost. The Dutch driver moved aside to let De Vries in the #7 Toyota lap him but he had to turn to make the corner which closed the door on Fuoco and sent him into a half-spin.
Pier Guidi was right! Battling in traffic, Fuoco in the #50 Ferrari spins after contact with the leading LMP2 car, the #30 Duqueine driven by Verschoor, and that wrecks his tyres as he slides to a stop. Fuoco gets going again but it down in ninth having dropped behind the #51 Ferrari and #101 Cadillac.
Everyone in Hypercar has completed three stints now and changed tyres for the first time, the same for the majority of runners who started on the medium Michelin and those like the Jota Caddys that went to the grid on the hard. There's been much debate about whether quadruples will be possible on the new range of Michelin slicks - an improvement in endurance was one of Michelin's aims. Until the French tyre company has had a chance to have a look at the rubber after it comes off the cars during the race there will be no decision on whether the teams are allowed to do a quadruple. The consensus appears to be that quads — once de rigueur in LMP1 days — are unlikely in the first year of the new tyres.
"Guys, if you race like this I think we're going to crash," Pier Guidi says over the radio, referring to a battle with the sister #50 Ferrari ahead of him. The two Prancing Horses are squabbling over seventh place.
The #20 BMW pits and Rast hops out after a solid first stint. In goes Van der Linde, plus fuel and fresh tyres, as Hartley darts by into the lead again, with the new advantage standing at 28.3s at the start of the South African's first flying lap.
The #8 Toyota is flying once again in clean air. Hartley sets a new fastest lap of 3m26.580s as those ahead pit to push the Kiwi up to fifth place. How big will his lead be when the #20 BMW pits next time around?
Giovinazzi is hassling Albuquerque for third place on track, stalking the #101 Cadillac down the Mulsanne straight, but loses ground in traffic into Indianapolis and that ends the battle momentarily for the #51 Ferrari.
The #92 Porsche is back on track but has lost four laps to the lead LMGT3 cars after its earlier mechanical problem which has been confirmed as a broken tie rod.
The #8 Toyota pits from the lead for the third time and Buemi has handed over the car to Hartley for a Saturday evening sprint in the sunshine.
Gray Newell suffers a spin in the #23 Aston Martin LMGT3 but largely gets away with it and continues. The biggest blow will be to his pride. In that class the #78 Lexus continues to lead from the #69 BMW and #87 Lexus.
In LMP2, the #29 IDEC Sport has also pitted to drop down the order and it puts Dillmann in the #43 Inter Europol Competition into the lead. Van Uitert has handed over to Lafargue.
The #7 Toyota pits for the third time in this race for a full service, as De Vries jumps into the car in place of Conway. That puts the car to the back of the Hypercar field but, as the first runner into the pits in this cycle, they will surge forward when the rest serve their stops.
Another quick one from Buemi, a 3m27s dead. That's less than half a second off the fastest race lap he set in late in his second stint. His fuel load is down, though. He's due a pitstop soon.
A glitchy timing screen is making things a little trickier to follow here, but we'll power through. We can say for certain the #8 Toyota continues to lead by almost 25s from the #20 BMW, with the #35 Alpine keeping a trio of Cadillacs at bay followed by #51 Ferrari, #7 Toyota and #50 Ferrari.
Buemi put in a 3m27s just now - early on during his third stint on a set of Michelin mediums - and is consistently lapping quicker than Rast. Toyota has a clear edge on tyre wear right now in the high temperatures of the afternoon. How that translates when the temperatures drop with the sun remains an unknown.
Your race leader as we approach the end of the second hour.
#8 Toyota Racing Toyota TR010 Hybrid: Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa
Photo by: Marc Fleury
Tincknell radios he has a rear-left puncture on the #007 Aston Martin but his car appears to be OK and after the team checks the sensors he is told to stay out. False alarm.
Conway in the #7 Toyota, lighter on fuel further through his stint, has reeled in the #51 Ferrari of Giovinazzi in the fight for seventh, but traffic means he loses some vital ground before getting on to the Mulsanne straight.
Buemi fell down the order after his stop, but he was still putting in the times without being bottled up in the Hypercar pack. He was reguarly in the 3m28s. That explains why he is now 20s up the road from Rast. When he stopped his advantage was around about 15s.
In LMGT3, Van Rompuy has taken over in the #78 Lexus and continues to lead, with a 2.1s advantage over Harper in the #69 BMW. Tuck is making good progress in the #77 Ford in third.
The #28 IDEC Sport with van Uitert continues to lead in LMP2 but has just a 1.4s gap over Andlauer in the #30 Duqueine, with Dillmann in the #43 Inter Europol Competition just 10s off the leader.
Buemi's lead is stabilising at 19s with Rast up to speed out of the pits. So, advantage Toyota after 95 minutes of this race completed.
The provisional leader, #20 BMW, pits and is joined in the pits by the #12 Cadillac, #101 Cadillac, #51 Ferrari and #83 Ferrari. So up goes the #8 Toyota into the lead once more. The sister #7 Toyota is making slower progress through the field with Conway currently eighth.
By: Autosport staff
