Victory and more records for Michelin at Le Mans!
Michelin collected its 35th outright Le Mans 24 Hours success to establish a new record for the highest number of victories in the French classic by the same tire manufacturer. Its latest-generation Pilot Sport Endurance slicks, which contain 50% percent renewable or recycled materials, made an active contribution to what turned out to be a hugely entertaining race that saw Toyota, Cadillac and BMW scrap for the big prize all the way to the checkered flag.
The goal when designing Michelin's latest Pilot Sport Endurance tires was to take longevity to the next level without sacrificing either performance or consistency. And it was a case of mission accomplished at this year's Le Mans 24 Hours, a race that the French company has always cherished as an invaluable accelerator of innovation.
The new range's first experience of the French classic produced double, triple and even quadruple stints (more than 600km on a single set!) on its soft-, medium- or hard-compound versions. The mission of the firm's specialists was rewarded not only with the win, but also new Hypercar-era track (3m22.564s/#15 BMW) and race-lap (3m25.041s/#8 Toyota) records.
“This is a tremendous result for Michelin,” says Pierre Alves, the manager of Michelin Motorsport's endurance racing programs. “I am so proud of the all the hard work our development and track-side teams put in. Everyone played a big part in our new range's success.
“Not only were lap-times down compared with 2025, but we also succeeded in completing triple and quadruple stints with our different partners on a regular basis over the 24 hours. Our soft, medium and hard compounds were all used and proved that their respective operational windows are perfectly coherent. The teams had a real choice between two options at every stage of the race, depending on their respective strategies.
“So congratulations to this year's winning make and drivers, as well as to all those who helped to take our total score to 35 Le Mans wins. That's a proud record to hold.”
The 24-hour ordeal saw three manufacturers - BMW, Cadillac and Toyota – scrap furiously for the coveted trophy throughout. René Rast (#20 BMW) emerged in front from the start, while Toyota brought forward its two cars' first refueling stops to run an offset strategy. And all three Cadillacs showed strongly during the early stages.
At midnight, as Saturday tipped into Saturday, a Safety Car interruption put all the front-runners on near-identical pit-stop cycles, but the #38 Cadillac fell from contention shortly after the halfway point (4:10pm) with a power-steering issue.
That left three Hypercars setting the pace at the sharp end around the 13.626-kilometer circuit, namely the #12 Cadillac, #8 Toyota and #20 BMW. A quadruple stint on the same softs helped the #8 to ease ahead and the second of the weekend's two Safety Car periods enabled the #7 Toyota to close the gap and join the scrap.
With six hours to go, these four prototypes were blanketed by just eight seconds, setting up an extraordinary finale during which the drivers and teams' strategy-experts did everything in their power to clinch the laurels. Behind the winning #7 Toyota of Kobayashi/Conway/De Vries, the #20 BMW, #8 Toyota and #12 Cadillac were second, third and fourth.
Having won the last three editions, Ferrari had to settle for fifth and seventh with its #51 and #83 cars. The Scuderia's #50 challenger lost ground overnight and retired officially at sunrise. Sixth was the #35 Alpine and the French team concludes its current spell in its home race with both its A424s inside the top 10.
Aston Martin's best-placed runner (#007) was ninth, but the #009 Valkyrie suffered a suspension problem during the last hour. Genesis celebrated its Le Mans debut by getting its #19 over the line in 14th place, even though the #17 was eliminated by late suspension trouble after showing impressively in qualifying.
Peugeot wanted to mark the centenary of its first visit to the Le Mans 24 Hours with a strong result but fate was not kind to the French carmaker.
Next year's Le Mans 24 Hours – the 95th running – will take place on June 12-13, 2027.