Toyota Defeats BMW, Cadillac in Hard-Fought 24H Le Mans

Photo: Julien Delfosse/DPPI

Toyota claimed its sixth 24 Hours of Le Mans victory in a hard-fought and fast-paced contest that came down a battle between three Hypercar manufacturers and the top four cars that were separated by just 32 seconds at the finish.

Kamui Kobayashi drove his No. 7 Toyota TR010 Hybrid to a narrow 10.913-second margin over the second-placed No. 20 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 of Robin Frijns, who denied a 1-2 finish for the Japanese automaker.

The Dutchman made a daring outside pass around the No. 8 Toyota of Sebastien Buemi, on triple-stinted Michelin tires, through the outside of the Porsche Curves with 47 minutes to go.

The top three cars then made their final stops two laps later, which saw energy-only fills for Kobayashi and Frijns, while fuel and four fresh tires for Buemi.

With the No. 12 Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac V-Series.R of Will Stevens pitting ten minutes later and re-emerging in fourth, it ensured a double podium result for Toyota.

It marked Toyota’s first Le Mans triumph since 2022, with Kobayashi and Mike Conway, who both became two-time winners, sharing the winning TR010 Hybrid with Nyck de Vries, who scored his maiden win in the French endurance classic in the Dutchman’s third attempt in the top class.

Both Toyotas held a strategic early race advantage when Buemi pitted after just nine laps in the opening hour, a similar strategy to Conway, and jump up the running order by needing a shorter energy fill after starting deep in the 18-car Hypercar field.

While shuffling through the pit stop sequences with the No. 20 BMW and both JOTA Cadillacs all splitting time out front, a drive-through penalty just past the halfway mark for Ryo Hirakawa, for a Full Course Yellow infringement, and multiple stops to repair the left-front brake drum mount just after sunrise, saw the No. 8 Toyota lose its advantage to the sister car.

The Shell-liveried BMW and No. 12 Cadillac held the upper hand until the race’s second safety car period, for a heavy crash by Ayhancan Guven in the No. 91 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo with just under six hours to go, erased Frijns’ 30-second lead over Norman Nato and a 45-second margin over third-placed Kobayashi at the time.

While Brendon Hartley in the No. 8 Toyota got around Nato for the lead following the resumption of a FCY with three hours to go, de Vries then passed the Kiwi, who was struggling in the car, some 30 minutes later for the lead.

Frijns shared the runner-up finishing No. 20 BMW with Sheldon van der Linde and Rene Rast, giving BMW its first overall podium at Le Mans since the German manufacturer’s last win in the race in 1999.

Buemi, Hartley and Hirakawa, meanwhile, were third, ahead of the Stevens, Nato and Louis Deletraz, whose overnight pace was notably reduced in the heat of the day in the Dallara-chassied LMDh-based prototype.

Three-time and defending race winners Ferrari AF Corse was unable to mount a challenge for a four-peat, with the No. 51 Ferrari 499P of reigning Hypercar world champions Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi finishing fifth.

It came despite 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. The Ferrari escaped any notable damage from the incident.

The No. 35 Alpine A424 of Ferdinand Habsburg, Charles Milesi and Antonio Felix da Costa was sixth, in the final planned Le Mans outing for the French manufacturer.

The Signatech-run squad’s No. 36 entry was delayed with five hours to go when it made a brief stop in the garage, which cost it at least nearly two laps when Fred Makowiecki was at the wheel.

AF Corse’s satellite Ferrari of 2025 race winners Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye and Phil Hanson dropped from fifth at the start of the final hour to end up seventh.

Tom Gamble, Harry Tincknell and Ross Gunn’s No. 007 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Valkyrie recorded an eighth place result, while a late-race wishbone failure for the Alex Riberas-driven No. 009 entry saw it drop down the running order to 14th.

Hopes of a top-five result for Wayne Taylor Racing’s Cadillac was dashed by four drive-through penalties for FCY or Slow Zone speeding infringements, including three alone during Filipe Albuquerque’s morning stint, which put the No. 101 car a lap down prior to the second safety car period.

Albuquerque and Ricky and Jordan Taylor were classified in ninth.

The pair of Peugeot 9X8s were never in contention, finishing outside of the points in 11th and 12th, ahead of the No. 19 Genesis GMR-001 of Mathieu Jamiunet, Dani Juncadella and Paul-Loup Chatin.

Despite having several setbacks, including an early race vibration and several brief stoppages on track that required system resets, it was the only Genesis to take the checkered flag in 13th.

The Korean manufacturer’s No. 17 entry, which was running just outside the top-ten, retired with seven-and-a-half hours to go when Mathys Jaubert suffered a right-front suspension failure and was stranded on track.

It came as the second Hypercar to drop out of the race, following power steering issues for the No. 38 JOTA Cadillac that struck the race-contending car just past halfway.

The No. 50 Ferrari retired during the race’s second safety car period when Miguel Molina stopped on track with electrical gremlins after being delayed by eight laps in the ninth hour with a fire extinguisher issue when Nicklas Nielsen was at the wheel.

WRT’s sister No. 15 BMW, which spent five laps in the garage after a right rear puncture for pole-sitter Dries Vanthoor following a clash with the No. 3 DKR Engineering LMP2 entry of John Farano in Hour 6, also battled electrical issues and called it quits with 30 minutes to go.

RESULTS: 24 Hours of Le Mans

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John