With just one hour to go of the 2026 24 Hours of Le Mans, Toyota Racing is running 1-2 as it seeks its first victory since 2022.
Kamui Kobayashi leads in the #7 TR010 Hybrid, having taken over the car from Nyck de Vries at what is scheduled to be the car’s penultimate pit stop. De Vries gave the #7 crew a brief scare, exceeding track limits on pit entry, but only received warning after skipping across the pit entry chicane.
Sebastien Buemi has moved up to second in the #8 Toyota, 18 seconds behind Kobayashi, and also on older tyres than the sister car.
Buemi jumped the #20 BMW in the pits at the penultimate round of stops, with BMW M Team WRT electing to swap out Sheldon van der Linde for Robin Frijns, and also take on new Michelin rubber.
The Dutchman has gradually caught Buemi, and is now under aonesecond behind the Swiss racer. The #12 Cadillac is fourth, with Will Stevens 45 seconds off the lead, whilst the #83 AF Corse Ferrari is currently fifth, its hopes of back-to-back victories now appearing unlikely.
Notably, both the #8 Toyota and #20 BMW are struggling with their brakes, with 363 laps of racing having taken their toll.
The #009 Aston Martin is currently in the garage, after Alex Riberas limped to the pits, with smoke exiting the rear of his Valkyrie.
In LMP2, the top three cars are covered by less than eight seconds.
Tom Dillmann leads aboard the #43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA, six seconds ahead of Esteban Masson’s #29 Forestier Racing by Panis ORECA, with the #343 Inter Europol ORECA of Nico Müller in third.
Müller ended the most recent round of pit stops in the lead, but was passed by Dillmann on his out lap, with Masson also finding his way through at Mulsanne just before the end of the hour.
Laurin Heinrich simply needs to bring the #4 CrowdStrike Racing by APR ORECA home to secure LMP2 Pro/Am honours, with the German over one and a half laps up on the #183 AF Corse ORECA of Mathieu Vaxiviere.
And in LMGT3, the #33 TF Sport Corvette has reestablished its advantage, with Jonny Edgar 29 seconds ahead of the #78 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus of Jack Hawksworth.
At the start of the past hour, the #78 Lexus passed the #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin for second position, with Hadrien David making a move on Jonny Adam. The #23 Aston Martin, now with Edoardo Barrichello behind the wheel, is now running in third.
The #24 Nielsen Racing ORECA LMP2, #58 Garage 59 McLaren LMGT3 and #88 Proton Competition Ford LMGT3 have all made visits to the garage in the past hour, although of them only the Nielsen car is yet to return to the circuit.
