Toyota reclaim Le Mans crown to end Ferrari streakImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Toyota won their sixth Le Mans titleByMatt Warwick, BBC Sport Senior Journalist and Andy Gray, BBC Sport NI JournalistPublished23 minutes agoToyota survived a late battle with BMW and Cadillac to win the Le Mans 24 Hours and end Ferrari’s recent domination of the famous race.Former Formula 1 driver Kamui Kobayashi held on to cross the line in the number seven Toyota TR010, 10.9 seconds ahead of the Netherlands’ Robin Frijns in the BMW M Hybrid V8, with Switzerland’s Sebastien Buemi a further 9.5 seconds back in the number eight Toyota.Britain’s Mike Conway and Dutchman Nyck de Vries completed the three-driver line-up with Kobayashi for the number seven Toyota, with 42-year-old Conway claiming his second victory at Le Mans for the Japanese team. Ex-F1 racer Will Stevens ended the race 11.9 seconds behind Buemi in fourth after earlier promise in the morning session, just missing out on the podium in the American Cadillac V-Series R car run by the British Hertz Team Jota.Ferrari’s three 499Ps have ruled the legendary event, which takes place at Circuit de la Sarthe in north west France, by winning the past three events since returning to the sport in 2023 – but they had a ragged race. The number 51 which includes Briton James Calado finished more than two minutes behind the winners, with last year’s winner, the number 83 driven by Poland’s ex-F1 driver Robert Kubica, further down in seventh. Both the number 50 – which retired – and 51 Ferraris had early contact with cars further down the field, in a race in which the hypercar class’ controversial ‘balance of performance’ limiting measurement was mentioned by some drivers after teams including Ferrari struggled to keep pace.Toyota brought a minor upgrade to their car – along with rebranding for 2026 – and it appeared to help as the team claimed their sixth Le Mans victory.Porsche have the most victories in Le Mans’ top class with 19.Toyota are the only marque who had stayed through leaner times in sportscars, last winning Le Mans between 2018-2022 against far fewer competitors.”Finally we bring in a new car and that’s made it happen,” mentioned Japanese driver Kobayashi.”Mr Toyoda-san [Toyota chairman Akio Toyoda] has been supporting big time – finally we’re back on top.”Image gallerySkip image gallery
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Image source, Getty Images
Image caption, Record Tour de France stage winner Mark Cavendish was the honorary race starter on Saturday afternoon
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Slide 1 of 5, Mark Cavendish start the Le Mans 24 hours, Record Tour de France stage winner Mark Cavendish was the honorary race starter on Saturday afternoon
