Porsche win Petit Le Mans, interrupted by record number of FCYs
The No.6 Porsche Penske Motorsport car of Laurens Vanthoor, Kevin Estre and Matt Campbell have won the 2026 Petit Le Mans, after a heavily interrupted race of attrition.
The title went the way of the No.31 Cadillac driver of Jack Aitken, despite that car ending up behind the wall for the finish, with a crash in the final laps of the race.
In LMP2 the No.04 Crowdstrike by APR car of Alex Quinn, George Kurtz and Toby Sowery won the race, and the overall championship after being set-back by an incident earlier on in the race. Quinn held off the No.43 Inter Europol, the championship decided by six tenths of a second.
In GTD Pro, the No.68 Car Blanche Aston Martin took it's first ever victory in the hands of Mattia Drudi, Marco Sorenson and Valentin Hasse Clot, but the championship went the way of the third placed No.1 Paul Miller BMW of Neil Verhagen and Connor De Phillippi.
In GTD, Phil Ellis, Russell Ward and Inde Dontje took victory, sealing the title for Ellis and Ward and the rest of the No.57 Winward Racing Mercedes crew.
As it happened
The first four hours of the race ended under a weather induced red flag. Thunder and lightning struck the area, but 30 minutes later we got back underway.
The No.60 Acura led the field to green after half an hour of stoppage, in wet conditions.
There was a incident between the No.1 Paul Miller BMW and the No.59 RLL McLaren. Nikita Johnson was spun around by the BMW, and recieved rear suspension damage, that took them out of the race. Dan Harper in the BMW was given a drive-through penalty for the incident.
Renger van der Zande in the No.93 Acura got into second place, past the No.7 Porsche. From there he went after Colin Braun in the sister car. He caught him and went for a move down the inside of turn 10, but van der Zande missed his braking point. He went off the road, taking his teammate with him.
The No.93 was given a drive-through for the incident, which came at a point where they wanted to pit for slicks. When they did come in for tyres, they changed drivers to IndyCar champion Alex Palou.
The Spainard exited the pits on cold tyres, going slowly through turn 2 as he tried to get some heat into the tyres. Kevin Magnussen came over the crest unsighted and went into the back of the Acura, getting airborne and heading straight on into the wall.
Magnussen's No.25 retired from the race there, and Palou's No.93 was given a further drive-through penalty for the incident.
During the subsequent FCY, Mathias Beche in the No.11 TDS Racing LMP2 lost a wheel halfway around the lap. His tyre wasn't properly fixed at the pit stop, and they lost the tyre.
The No.10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac led the field to green when we eventually got back going, with the No.31 Cadillac in second.
We went back to FCY conditions right after though, the No.16 Myers Riley Ford, No.66 Gradient Ford and the No.912 Manthey Porsche all had a coming together at the final corner. The Gradient car came to a stop on the pit exit eventually, causing the yellow.
The No.10 brought the field back to green again, before losing the lead to the No.31 in the next set of green flag pit stops.
There was further disaster for Acura, with Nick Yelloly finding himself in the wall exiting turn 5 in the No.93. He too was on an out lap, like teammate Palou, and simply lost the rear of the car on throttle. He went backwards into the wall, damaging the rear of the car.
Through the ensuing FCY stops, Porsche Penske Motorsport took the lead of the race with Laurin Heinrich in the No.7 car. Soon after we went back to green, his teammate Kevin Estre was flying in the No.6 sister car got past Jack Aitken in the No.31 Cadillac to make it a Porsche 1-2.
During that yellow though, there was a strange moment for Mike Rockenfeller in the GTD Pro leading No.64 Ford Mustang. He lost radio communication with the team, and ended up passing the Safety Car when he shouldn't having, unfairly gaining a lap on the rest of the GTD Pro field.
He realised his mistake though, so he stopped on the pit straight to allow the rest of the queue to catch back up. He then re-took his position at the lead of the pack. When we went back to green though, he couldn't find the pace and lost position to the No.911 and No.77 Porsches, as well as the No.4 Corvette.
Not long after, the No. 93 Acura lost control heading into Turn 12, hitting the wall before sliding into the runoff. A very unfortunate day for the MSR team after starting 1-2. Dixon and the No. 60 Acura currently run eighth.
Yelloly is out of the car and is being transported to the medical center. Thankfully, he appears to be okay and was able to walk to the medical car on his own. It is the end of the day for the No. 93 after three crashes throughout the race.
Darkness had fallen over the circuit, and the race had quickly become more chaotic under the lights. The No. 34 Ferrari went onto the grass after being blocked by the No. 21 Ferrari. He then lost control, spinning back across the track and into the gravel before hitting the wall on the other side of the circuit.
Lorenzo Patrese is okay and was able to walk to the medical car on his own. The pits will remain closed during this yellow. The No. 21 took the lead of GTD into that corner.
Fuoco received a hefty penalty for his actions, with the stewards handing him a 60-second stop-and-hold. The penalty requires Fuoco to enter the pit lane and come to a complete stop in his pit box, where the car must remain stationary for 60 seconds before the team can begin any work.
Trouble for JDC-Miller as the No. 10 Porsche of Tijmen van der Helm has gone hard into the wall at Turn 10.
Van der Helm was attempting to make his way past two GT cars on the back straight when he ended up on the grass. From there, he lost control and spun across the track, narrowly missing the gravel before making heavy contact with the wall.
The yellows after that put the No.23 Aston Martin Valkyrie of Ross Gunn in the lead of the race and he led the way on the green flag. It wasn't a very long green flag though, as soon after the FCY re-appeared.
In LMP2 it was a three way fight for the win and the championship. The No.99 led the No.04 and the No.43. The No.43 Inter Europol of Tom Dillmann misjudged his braking on the restart and tapped the rear of the No.04 ahead. The No.43 was given a drive-through for the incident.
The Crowdstrike car had rear damage and was forced to pit for repairs, potentially ruining their championship challenge. But they were helped by a yellow that came out when they came in, for the No.2 United Autosports car stuck in the gravel.
They made contact with the sister No.22 United Autosports at turn 10, and spun off into the gravel.
The next yellow wasn't too far away either. Felipe Nasr in the No.7 car went for a gap between the sister No.6 and a GTD Porsche, but the gap was closing and he clipped the GT.
That spun Nasr round at high speed, and put him into the wall. He got airborne on the pit straight and came to a rest eventually in the gravel trap on the outside of turn 1. Nasr was thankfully okay after the huge incident.
Another yellow quickly followed the next green flag. Two separate incidents occurred, firstly with the No.4 Corvette off in the gravel. Catsburg got the car moving again, but their championship challenge wasn't helped.
The No.99 AO Racing LMP2 also ended up in the gravel, two championship contenders having major issues at the same time, in two completely separate events.
Back at the front, the No.24 BMW led us away to green flag racing with just over an hour remaining. Laurens Vanthoor behind him had pace, getting past Earl Bamber in the No.31 Cadillac in the last green flag period. He caught van der Linde in the BMW too, and got the move done at the final corner to take the lead.
We had a round of green flag pit stops, where Vanthoor took two fresh tyres. When he came back out on the cold tyres, Earl Bamber was ready to strike. He had jumped the BMW, and got the move done on Vanthoor to give the No.31 Cadillac the lead of the race.
But Vanthoor didn't go down without a fight, coming back on the next lap to re-take the lead. Their battling allowed van der Linde in the BMW to catch up, who utilised traffic to get past Bamber too.
With 40 minutes to go, Phil Ellis was on the back of Lilou Wadoux in the battle for the lead in GTD. Ellis' Mercedes had the grunt and the brakes down to turn 10 and managed to make it stick around the outside to put the No.57 into first.
The races' final yellow came with around 15 minutes left. The No.31 Cadillac went off after being tagged by the No.23 Aston Martin Valkyrie. Bamber got the car back to the pits but they went behind the wall, without any time left to get back out. The Valkyrie was given a drive-through.
With eight minutes to go, the No.3 Corvette threatened to end the race under yellow, but they got back moving despite the spin at turn 10.
In the dying laps of the GTD Pro race, the No.911 Porsche of Preining muscled his way past King in the No.77 Porsche.
In the end it was close in all four classes, with some running out of fuel and some just making it on fumes.
The No.6 Porsche held on, despite a close moment exiting turn 1 on the penultimate lap where Vanthoor was almost fully sideways.
The No.04 won the race and the title in LMP2 by just 0.6s, from seventh overall. In GTD Pro the Car Blanche Aston Martin won for the first time, while the No.57 Winward Mercedes crew took honours in GTD.
Comments