24h Le Mans
The race begins long before the flag drops. At the 24 Hours of Le Mans, numbers tell a story. Behind every lap time, every distance covered, every statistic, there’s a heartbeat, a sensation, a destiny. Read on for our hand-picked statistics that reveal the soul of the race.
The 94th 24 Hours of Le Mans will start at 16:00 today, Saturday 13 June 2026. Thirteen, six, twenty-six. Ring a bell? It’s the length of the circuit! 13.626 km. Just remember today’s date and you’ll remember the length of the circuit.
A lap time. The new Hypercar lap record set by Dries Vanthoor in the #15 BMW M Hybrid V8 – BMW M Team WRT. He bettered Jack Aitken’s 3:22.742, set last year at the wheel of the Cadillac. From now on, to be in pole position, you need to be faster than 3:23. But let’s not forget that race pace is different. The fastest lap in the race was recorded by Sébastien Bourdais last year: 3:26.063. Le Mans requires mastery of the hottest lap, and the longest day.
Some drivers commit the whole circuit to memory, like learning to play a piece of music. Mattia Drudi, for example. For the second year running, he claimed the LMGT3 Hyperpole for Aston Martin, handing the British make its 71st World Endurance Championship pole position since the series began in 2012. Aston Martin becomes the first make to take five Hyperpoles since LMGT3 began in 2024. Drudi joins the select circle of drivers who have won at least two pole positions in the class, with Sarah Bovy, Eduardo Barrichello and Finn Gehrsitz.
Nine is the number of Le Mans winners at the wheel of a Ferrari. The winning crews of the last three races haven’t budged. La Scuderia believes in consistency. Toyota aren’t far behind, with five. Nyck de Vries is the only driver who has yet to win Le Mans. There are former winners in the other teams too: Earl Bamber at Cadillac, Loïc Duval at Peugeot, André Lotterer at Genesis. And then there are the teams whose members have yet to taste victory at Le Mans: Alpine, Aston Martin and BMW. At Le Mans experience is an advantage. But it’s no guarantee.
It’s been ten years since Porsche won with the #2 919 Hybrid in the hands of Romain Dumas, Marc Lieb and Neel Jani. The most heartbreaking win in the history of the race. In the lead in his penultimate lap, Kazuki Nakajima (who shared the #5 Toyota TS050 with Anthony Davidson and Sébastien Buemi) was on the brink of the first triumph for Toyota. It was not to be. His car suffered a power failure on the Mulsanne Straight.
France is the most widely-represented nation on the grid: 13 teams and 31 drivers. Eleven Hypercar and 13 LMP2 drivers are French. However, LMGT3 is a British affair (12 drivers).
Great Britain ranks second after France, with 11 teams and 30 drivers in the race, ahead of Italy (8 teams, 16 drivers).
The average age of the youngest crew on the grid: Oreca 07-Gibson #37 Cool Racing – Adrien Clomesnil / Ian Aguilera / Theodor Jensen. 19 years 2 months and 18 days to be precise.
This is Romain Dumas’s 24th 24 Hours of Le Mans, a record for a driver still racing. The two-time winner (2010 with Audi and 2016 with Porsche) is at the wheel of the #48 fielded by his own team RD Limited. He shares driving duties with Tristan Vautier and Fred Poordad. 24 hours. 24th time. A sign of fate?
Forty drivers are participating for the first time. There are 23 rookies in LMGT3, 16 in LMP2 and Victor Martins in Hypercar. None will ever forget their first time on the Mulsanne Straight at night.
44 cars are shod with Goodyear tyres this year. The manufacturer is the sole supplier in LMP2 and LMPGT3. Michelin is the Hypercar supplier, chasing a 29th win in a row. The first triumph of the series dates back to 1998 and the 911 GT1 driven by Allan McNish, Laurent Aïello and Stéphane Ortelli.
47 years, three months and six days separate the youngest from the eldest driver of the 94th edition. The youngest driver, Ian Aguilera (CLX Motorsport #37), is aged 19 years, 2 months and 18 days. This is his first 24 Hours of Le Mans. He is one of several young rookies in the Le Mans new wave. Meanwhile, Canadian driver John Farano (DKR Engineering #3) was born 66 years, five months and 24 days ago. This is his second Le Mans. Separated by age, they are united in the joy of racing in La Sarthe. Le Mans doesn’t care how old you are, just how committed.
Is the total number of former winners, including 19 overall winners on the 2026 grid:
It is interesting to note that two of these former winners achieved the feat with two different manufacturers: Brendon Hartley (Porsche then Toyota) and Romain Dumas (Audi then Porsche). Romain Dumas could notch up a third win with a third constructor, Oreca, but the LMP2s are not contenders for overall victory. The same goes for José María López. The former winner with Toyota is with Lexus in LMGT3 this year. However, André Lotterer (#17 Genesis GMR-001-Hypercar) could claim a fourth win after his Audi exploits. If Earl Bamber wins with Cadillac, it would be his second victory with a different manufacturer (following his victory with Porsche).
Seventy-five years ago, in 1951, a modest German car took the start at Le Mans for the first time. The Porsche 356 SL in the hands of Auguste Veuillet and Edmond Mouche finished 20th overall and first in class. A discrete performance, but the class win was the beginning of a beautiful relationship between Porsche and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Porsche totals 19 victories overall (between 1970 and 2017), an all-time record.
Jules Gounon is the only driver to have clocked over 350 kph this week. He hit 350.7 kph with the Alpine A424 #35 Alpine Endurance Team. It’s one of the highest speeds recorded at Le Mans since 2007, the Audi v Peugeot era. The open-cockpit R10s and the 908s blasted along at 351 kph. Since then, Stoffel Vandoorne was the only driver to break the 350 kph barrier, hitting 350.1 with the BR1 in 2019. Back in 1993, the Porsche 962Cs attained a lofty 360 kph in the practice sessions, and the Jaguar XJR-12 353 kph in the 1990 race.
Nearly 2,000 marshals ensure track safety. There are also 71 Scorpion drivers and 19 first responders, making a total of 2,053 volunteers around the circuit. A whopping 22 nationalities are represented among the 319 marshals from outside France.
