Cadillac 1-2 after 12 hours of racing in Le Mans

Credit: Evan Roberts

The No.38 led a Cadillac 1-2 at the halfway mark of the 2026 24 Hours of Le Mans, with the No.8 Toyota giving chase in third after the trio duelled in the dark. The No.30 Duqiene led LMP2 and the No.33 Corvette led in LMGT3.

As it happened

If you missed the first six hours, catch up here.

The constant lead switches between the No.20 BMW, the No.38 Cadillac and the No.8 Toyota, all on different strategies continued into the darkness, as they each attempted to make the most of it.

Around the six and a half hour-mark an entertaining battle occured for 7th, as Antonio Felix da Costa in the No.35 Alpine was defending from James Calado in the No.51 Ferrari and Mike Conway in the No.7 Toyota, them all trying to navigate traffic as effectively as possible.

The on-track battle ended when Da Costa was the first to pit, but the strategic game was on, as both the Ferrari and the Toyota tried to overcut both the Alpine, with the Toyota trying to do a double one.

The Toyota was successful in its endeavors, ending up ahead of both cars after the pit-stop cycle ended.

Meanwhile what already was a miserable race for Peugeot, got worse, as the No.93 car got handed a drive-through penalty, for not respecting double yellow flags, a fate similar to that of the No.28 IDEC Sport LMP2 entry. A little bit later the No.24 Nielsen Racing LMP2 was also handed a penalty of 20 seconds added to their next pit-stop.

Up front, the No.8 Toyota on its offset strategy rapidly approached the leading No.20 BMW, with Sebastien Buemi trying to overtake Robin Frijns. The Dutchman got some much-needed help from the sister No.15 BMW, which after hitting trouble earlier on, was a lap down.

The two cars pitted together after 117 laps, with the Toyota getting a crucial jump on the BMW, by virtue of not changing tyres and driver, with Rene Rast taking over the No.20 car, with fresh tyres.

A scary moment occured just after the seven hour mark when the No.50 Ferrari was squeezed off the track approaching traffic, with Nicklas Nielsen thankfully avoiding losing control.

The No.15 BMW was also wheeled into the garage for repairs, its steering column appearing to have come loose, later returning to action five laps down on the leader.

In LMP2 the No.30 Duqiene car had almost a 90 second lead in class, dominating LMP2. That gap wouldn't last much longer though.

Seven hours and 39 minutes in the first safety car came in to effectively neutralize the race and start it anew, as the No.54 Vista AF Corse Ferrari of Francesco Castellacci was sat beached at turn 5, after an incident with an the No.88 Proton Competition Ford. This changed the whole race, as all leading cars pitted.

Credit: Evan Roberts

Meanwhile the leading LMGT3 car, the No.91 Manthey Porsche also pitted, due to a left-rear puncture, which caused some further damage, with the presence of the Safety Cars saving them from losing a ton of time and places.

After the safety car cycle ended, the No.8 Toyota with Buemi behind the wheel led, with the No.20 BMW of Rast in second, followed up by the two Hertz Jota Cadillac entries, the No.12 with Will Stevens in third and the No.38 driven by Earl Bamber in fourth, as the No.101 WTR Cadillac of Filipe Albuquerque rounded out the top five.

The No.50 Ferrari was fifth initially but was wheeled into the garage for repairs just as the safety car came in, falling out of any contention. They lost eight laps, and in terms of overall position, were effectively fifth in LMP2. They kept going, but they were out of any contention of a victory.

The No.343 Inter Europol Competition inherited the lead in LMP2, as the No.30 Duqueine also had some repair work done on it, falling down to fifth, while the No.27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin was leading the LMGT3 class.

At the front things were not going well for the No.20 BMW, with both Jota Cadillac cars going by just a couple of laps into the restart.

The two Alpines were running in seventh and eighth, the No.36 ahead of the No.35. Ferdinand Habsburg was quicker in the No.35 so the team told the two to swap positions. However, the didn't expect the No.83 Ferrari of Robert Kubica to take advantage of the swap, and move ahead of the No.36.

The No.8 Toyota was in the lead by almost 15 seconds in the hands of Brendan Hartley. But the New Zealander locked up and went wide at Mulsanne corner, and lost the entire gap. He re-joined just half a second ahead of Will Stevens in the No.12 Cadillac, who was running nose to tail with the sister No.38 driven by Earl Bamber.

That trio ebbed and flowed in the top three positions with gaps closing and growing all the time. With the No.38 leading the way ahead of the No.12 and the No.8 in third, the FCY came out for an incident for Enzo Trulli in the No.25 Algarve Pro LMP2.

He got lifted out of the gravel and got running again, but just minutes later the FCY was out again for the No.19 Genesis car which had stopped on the side of the track. Paul-Loup Chatin desperately tried to re-cycle the car, and did so after being pushed part way by marshalls. The green flags flew once again.

Just as the clock ticked over 12 hours, there was a set of pit stops underway, but the true order was the No.38 in the lead, ahead of the No.12, No.8 and No.20.