Race report
WEC 24 Hours of Le Mans
Le Mans 24h, H1: Toyota takes lead from 15th on the grid
Toyota undercut its way into the lead of the Le Mans 24 Hours, with Sebastien Buemi at the wheel
Ben Vinel
Edited: Jun 13, 2026, 4:40 PM
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#8 Toyota Racing Toyota TR010 Hybrid: Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa
Photo by: Rainier Ehrhardt
The #8 Toyota leads the 2026 Le Mans 24 Hours one hour into the race, despite starting from a lowly 15th position.
Kevin Magnussen’s polesitting #15 BMW collapsed to eighth in the first hour; the Dane lost out to Will Stevens’ #12 Cadillac before even the first corner of the race before Rene Rast passed them both in the sister #20 BMW, by the first chicane of the Mulsanne straight.
Nobody has matched the German’s pace in the first half an hour, as he created a gap of up to nine seconds to Stevens, while Magnussen repeatedly got overtaken.
But the Toyotas pitted earlier than their rivals and, surprisingly, the #8 car driven by Sebastien Buemi managed to narrowly emerge from the opening pitstop sequence in the lead.
Buemi doubled down and impressively pulled away, with Rast over seven seconds down at 5pm local time.
#20 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8: Robin Frijns, Rene Rast, Sheldon Van Der Linde
Photo by: Marc Fleury
Everyone else was even further adrift, as Ferdinand Habsburg (#35 Alpine) led a quartet including Earl Bamber (#38 Cadillac), Mike Conway (#7 Toyota) and Stevens (#12 Cadillac).
The factory Ferrari 499Ps driven by Antonio Giovinazzi and Nicklas Nielsen were involved in breathtaking, uncompromising wheel-to-wheel action on lap one, sometimes taking it as far as the run-off area but never making significant contact.
As of 5pm, the winning constructor from the last three years had its cars down in eighth, 10th and 16th.
In LMP2, lightning-quick polesetter Esteban Masson collapsed to sixth on lap one with the #29 Forester by Panis entry, with Job van Uitert taking the lead in the #28 car from IDEC Sport. The Frenchman fought back to second after the opening pitstop sequence. Julien Andlauer (#30 Duqueine Team) narrowly led Dane Cameron (#99 AO by TF) and Jack Doohan (#24 Nielsen Racing) in third.
The LMGT3 category saw polesitter Mattia Drudi maintain the #27 Aston Martin’s advantage, until it dropped behind the #78 Lexus from Akkodis ASP Team, driven by Jack Hawksworth, after the first round of pitstops.
The only incident from the first hour involved the #61 Iron Lynx-entered Mercedes as Martin Berry spun in Tertre Rouge, sustaining non-terminal damage.
Classification after Hour 1
Pos # Team Last lap Gap Pits 1 8 Toyota Racing 03:29.520 LEADER 1 2 20 BMW M Team WRT 03:30.428 +7.470 1 3 35 Alpine Endurance Team 03:32.725 +13.087 1 4 38 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA 03:32.602 +13.520 1 5 7 Toyota Racing 03:32.699 +13.763 1 6 12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA 03:32.945 +14.707 1 7 101 Cadillac WTR 03:33.971 +18.963 1 8 51 Ferrari AF Corse 03:33.082 +20.930 1 9 20 BMW M Team WRT 03:34.085 +21.095 1 10 50 Ferrari AF Corse 03:32.880 +24.524 1 11 009 Aston Martin Thor Team 03:32.209 +25.466 1 12 36 Alpine Endurance Team 03:30.940 +26.470 1 13 19 Genesis Magma Racing 03:31.704 +28.612 1 14 17 Genesis Magma Racing 03:31.613 +32.210 1 15 007 Aston Martin Thor Team 03:37.940 +37.977 1 16 83 AF Corse 03:33.022 +41.778 1 17 93 Peugeot TotalEnergies 03:33.056 +45.080 1 18 94 Peugeot TotalEnergies 03:33.935 +46.155 1 19 38 IDEC Sport 03:38.834 LEADER 1 20 29 Forester Racing by Panis 03:38.612 +4.169 1 21 30 Duqueine Team 03:39.814 +12.222 1 22 99 AO by TF 03:39.532 +14.808 1 23 24 Nielsen Racing 03:39.527 +15.486 1 24 43 Inter Europol Competition 03:39.629 +16.730 1 25 343 Inter Europol Competition 03:39.718 +19.762 1 26 9 Proton Competition 03:39.587 +21.408 1 27 37 CLX Motorsport 03:40.026 +27.607 1 28 26 Vector Sport 03:39.185 +37.122 1 29 4 Crowdstrike Racing by APR 03:43.304 +54.253 1 30 22 United Autosports 03:47.085 +56.257 1 31 14 TDS Racing 03:51.855 +1:05.120 1 32 183 AF Corse 03:47.502 +1:12.775 1 33 222 United Autosports 03:55.237 +1:51.153 1 34 3 DNR Engineering 03:50.953 +2:00.430 1 35 25 Algarve Pro Racing 03:46.470 +1LAP 1 36 48 RD Limited 03:41.987 +1LAP 1 37 44 Proton Competition 03:47.534 +1LAP 1 38 87 Akkodis ASP Team 03:58.785 LEADER 1 39 27 Heart of Racing Team 06:02.493 +17.429 1 40 87 Akkodis ASP Team 06:04.885 +18.682 1 41 32 Team WRT 04:03.900 +19.619 1 42 69 Team WRT 04:02.608 +20.147 1 43 74 Kessel Racing 04:06.523 +21.232 1 44 77 Proton Competition 04:00.202 +23.516 1 45 34 Racing Team Turkey by TF 04:00.995 +37.255 1 46 23 Manthey CK Engineering 04:04.043 +37.903 1 47 91 Manthey CK Engineering 03:59.635 +41.291 1 48 79 Iron Lynx 04:06.257 +59.263 1 49 33 TF Sport 04:02.993 +59.657 1 50 54 Vista AF Corse 06:05.216 +1:00.405 1 51 62 Team Qatar by Iron Lynx 04:03.069 +1:00.830 1 52 92 The Bend Manthey 04:05.474 +1:01.312 1 53 58 Garage 59 04:02.249 +1:02.195 1 54 59 Racing Spirit of Leman 04:05.359 +1:02.708 1 55 21 Vista AF Corse 04:01.752 +1:08.658 1 56 10 Garage 59 04:02.108 +1:11.094 1 57 150 Richard Mille AF Corse 04:02.598 +1:13.452 1 58 61 Iron Lynx 04:06.245 +1:14.585 1 59 13 Autosport 04:03.522 +1:28.442 1 60 88 Proton Competition 04:03.365 +1:28.757 1 61 2 TF Sport 04:03.435 +1:32.240 1 62 57 Kessel Racing 04:03.436 +1:41.295 1
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