Toyota secured its sixth victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans after a demanding, high-speed battle that pitted three Hypercar manufacturers against a quartet of leading runners, the four cars finishing the race within 32 seconds of each other.
Kamui Kobayashi steered the No. 7 Toyota TR010 Hybrid to a slender 10.913-second margin over the runner-up No. 20 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 driven by Robin Frijns, who denied the Japanese marque a 1-2 outcome.
The Dutch driver pulled off a bold outside maneuver around the No. 8 Toyota when passing Sebastien Buemi on Michelin tires worn to their limits, exiting the Porsche Curves with 47 minutes remaining in the race.
The leading trio then made their final pit stops two laps later, with Kobayashi and Frijns opting for energy-only fills, while Buemi took on fuel and four fresh tires.
Moments later, the No. 12 Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac V-Series.R, driven by Will Stevens, pitted and rejoined in fourth place ten minutes later, securing a double podium for Toyota.
It marked Toyota’s first Le Mans triumph since 2022, with Kobayashi and Mike Conway joining Nyck de Vries as two-time winners, while De Vries earned his first Le Mans victory on his third attempt in the top class.
The Japanese manufacturer had built an early strategic advantage when Buemi stopped after just nine laps in the opening hour, a strategy echoed by Conway, which allowed the pair to rise through the order by taking shorter energy fills from the back of the field in the 18-car Hypercar grid.
As the pit-stop strategy shuffled the order with the No. 20 BMW and the two JOTA Cadillacs trading the lead, a drive-through penalty for Ryo Hirakawa just after halfway for a Full Course Yellow infringement, coupled with multiple stops to repair a left-front brake drum mount after sunrise, cost the No. 8 Toyota its advantage over its sister car.
The Shell-liveried BMW and the No. 12 Cadillac held the edge until the second safety car period arrived, triggered by a heavy crash involving Ayhancan Guven in the No. 91 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo with just under six hours remaining. That incident erased Frijns’ 30-second lead over Norman Nato and a 45-second cushion over Kobayashi at that moment.
After the FCY restart with three hours to go, Brendon Hartley in the No. 8 Toyota briefly led after Nato was overtaken, but Nyck de Vries then passed the Kiwi about half an hour later to reclaim the top spot for good.
Frijns and his teammates, Sheldon van der Linde and Rene Rast, claimed the runner-up finish in No. 20 BMW, giving BMW its first overall Le Mans podium since the marque’s last win in 1999.
Buemi, Hartley and Hirakawa finished third, ahead of Stevens, Nato and Louis Deletraz, whose pace was notably reduced in the heat as the Dallara-based LMDh prototype struggled under the glare of the day.
Three-time defending race winners Ferrari AF Corse could not mount a challenge for a fourth consecutive title, with the No. 51 Ferrari 499P—driven by Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi—finishing fifth.
The car incurred a drive-through penalty in the fourth hour when Pier Guidi collided with the No. 9 Proton Competition Oreca 07 Gibson of Jonas Reid in the Dunlop Curve, though Ferrari escaped with little damage.
The Alpine A424 No. 35, piloted by Ferdinand Habsburg, Charles Milesi and Antonio Felix da Costa, finished sixth, marking the French manufacturer’s final planned Le Mans appearance in this form.
The Signatech-entered No. 36 was held up five hours from the end due to a brief stop in the garage, costing it nearly two laps when Fred Makowiecki was behind the wheel.
AF Corse’s satellite Ferrari, driven by 2025 race-winners Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye and Phil Hanson, slipped from fifth to seventh in the closing hours.
The No. 007 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Valkyrie, driven by Tom Gamble, Harry Tincknell and Ross Gunn, finished eighth, while the No. 009 entry with Alex Riberas suffered a late wishbone failure that dropped it to 14th place.
Wayne Taylor Racing’s Cadillac, which aspired to a top-five, was derailed by four drive-through penalties for FCY or Slow Zone speeding, including three during Filipe Albuquerque’s morning stint, leaving the No. 101 car a lap down before the second safety car period.
Albuquerque, together with Ricky and Jordan Taylor, were classified ninth in the final results.
The Peugeot 9X8s never looked like real contenders, finishing 11th and 12th, ahead of the No. 19 Genesis GMR-001 driven by Mathieu Jaminet, Dani Juncadella and Paul-Loup Chatin in thirteenth.
Despite a series of setbacks, including an early vibration and several brief on-track stoppages requiring system resets, Genesis managed to complete the race with the No. 13 car taking the chequered flag in 13th place.
The Korean manufacturer’s No. 17 entry, running just outside the top ten, retired with seven-and-a-half hours remaining after Mathys Jaubert suffered a right-front suspension failure and stranded the car on track.
It became the second Hypercar retirement of the race following power-steering issues that sidelined the No. 38 JOTA Cadillac just after halfway.
The No. 50 Ferrari retired during the race’s second safety car period when Miguel Molina stopped on track due to electrical gremlins after an eight-lap delay in the ninth hour because of a fire-extinguisher issue with Nicklas Nielsen at the wheel.
WRT’s sister No. 15 BMW—affected by a right-rear puncture for pole-sitter Dries Vanthoor after contact with the No. 3 DKR Engineering LMP2 entry of John Farano in Hour 6—also faced electrical problems and finished the race with 30 minutes to go.
