On Saturday 13 June 2026, at four in the afternoon, sixty-two cars set off on the Circuit de la Sarthe. Twenty-four hours later the number 7 Toyota crossed the line 10.913 seconds ahead of the number 20 BMW, after 381 laps and more than 5,190 kilometres. A whole day of racing, decided by eleven seconds.

That is the clearest way to explain how the 24 Hours of Le Mans works: the winner is not whoever is fastest over one lap, but whoever covers the most ground in a day, without breaking down, without making mistakes, rotating three drivers in the same car while cars from different classes race on track at the same time. Here you will find the essential rules, the classes and how the 2026 edition went.

What the 24 Hours of Le Mans is

It is the most celebrated endurance race, organised by the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO), founded in 1906, since the very first edition on 26 and 27 May 1923. It is held on the Circuit de la Sarthe, a 13.626-kilometre track that combines a permanent circuit with roads normally open to traffic, including the long Hunaudières straight, known abroad as the Mulsanne Straight. Today it is the main round of the World Endurance Championship (WEC) and part of the so-called Triple Crown of Motorsport, in its most common definition together with the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix and the Indianapolis 500.

How you win: distance counts, not time

The rule is simple: when the 24 hours are up, the car that has completed the most laps wins. In 2026 the winning Toyota completed 381, equal to 5,190.33 kilometres at an average of 215.8 km/h. The distance record still belongs to the 2010 Audi R15+ TDI, with 5,410.713 kilometres. Speed matters, of course, but so do fuel consumption, tyre wear, mechanical reliability and traffic management: a fast car that spends twenty minutes in the garage for a repair has almost always lost the race.

The three classes on track

Three categories of cars race together on the same track, each with its own classification. In 2026 the grid counted 62 cars.

• Hypercar (18 cars in 2026): the top class, the one that fights for overall victory. It accepts two technical regulations, LMH and LMDh, and a Balance of Performance system to make different cars competitive. In 2026 there were eight manufacturers: Alpine, Aston Martin, BMW, Cadillac, Ferrari, Genesis, on its debut, Peugeot and Toyota.
• LMP2 (19 cars): identical prototypes, the Oreca 07 with a Gibson engine. It is no longer part of the World Championship: at Le Mans it races outside the championship, with teams selected by the organiser, and each crew must include at least one driver rated Silver or Bronze.
• LMGT3 (25 cars): cars derived from GT3, meaning from production sports cars, with crews that must include at least one Bronze driver and a second Bronze or Silver driver.

The speed differences between the classes are part of the race: whoever drives a Hypercar spends the race passing slower cars, and every overtake is a risk. We explained in a separate article why Le Mans cars are different.

Three drivers, one car

Each car is entrusted to a crew of three drivers who swap over in the pits. The regulations set precise limits: no driver may drive for more than 4 hours in any 6-hour period, and in LMP2 and LMGT3 the Silver and Bronze drivers must also spend at least 6 and no more than 14 hours at the wheel in total. Drivers are rated in four categories, from Platinum to Bronze, according to experience and results: Bronze drivers are not allowed in Hypercar, while in LMGT3 a Bronze driver is mandatory. That is how, at Le Mans, in LMGT3 a professional driver can share the car with an enthusiast who does something else entirely for a living.

The start, the night and the pits

For decades the race began with the famous “Le Mans start”: drivers ran across the track to cars parked at an angle. In 1969 Jacky Ickx walked across instead, in protest against a start that pushed drivers to set off without fastening their belts, and he still won. Since 1971 the start has been a rolling one. Then come the night, the drop in temperature, the fatigue: pit stops for fuel, tyres and driver changes run into the dozens, and each one can gain or lose precious seconds.

How the 2026 edition went

The 94th edition was won by the number 7 Toyota TR010 Hybrid of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries, ahead of the number 20 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Robin Frijns, René Rast and Sheldon van der Linde and the other Toyota, the number 8. It is Toyota’s sixth win at Le Mans, its first since 2022, and it ended the run of Ferrari, which had won the three previous editions. For BMW it is the best result since its overall win in 1999. In LMP2 the winner was the number 43 Inter Europol Competition car of Tom Dillmann, Jakub Śmiechowski and Nick Yelloly; in LMGT3 the number 33 TF Sport Corvette Z06 of Ben Keating, Jonny Edgar and Nicky Catsburg. There were 350,105 spectators in the grandstands and across the circuit, a record.

Why Le Mans matters to brands

A 24-hour race is also a week of events, with an audience that lives at the circuit for days, and a testing ground for manufacturers, who bring to Le Mans technologies destined for road cars. For component suppliers it is one of the toughest tests there is: in 2026 Michelin celebrated its 35th win, its 29th in a row. For a brand that wants to speak to manufacturers, suppliers and car enthusiasts, the World Endurance Championship offers opportunities that are hard to find elsewhere, starting with hospitality and business-to-business relationships. We cover this on our page about WEC sponsorship and in our article on B2B visibility in motorsport.