Le Mans 24h, H8: Safety car blows race wide open

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The safety car has blown the 2026 Le Mans 24 Hours wide open, with no fewer than 14 cars gathered in the lead after the eighth hour of racing.

Up until now, the race had turned into a four-way battle between the #8 Toyota, the #20 BMW, and the #12 and #38 Cadillac, whose driver Earl Bamber has set the fastest lap of the race so far.

On-track battles featured Jack Aitken (#38 Cadillac) overtaking Sheldon van der Linde (#20 BMW) at the Ford Chicane, while Robin Frijns (#20 BMW) only just held off Sebastien Buemi (#8 Toyota) later on.

Buemi had a slight edge over his rivals when, at 11:38pm, the GT3 cars of Francesco Castellacci (Ferrari #54) and Giammarco Levorato (Ford Mustang #88) collided, with the former stuck in the gravel.

Race control brought out the safety car, meaning all 14 cars on the lead lap will soon be reunited behind it. That’s all hypercars but the #009 Aston Martin, both Peugeots – the #93 got a drive-through for a yellow-flag infringement – and most notably the polesitting #15 BMW, which has been having somewhat of a nightmare race.

Kevin Magnussen displayed poor pace in the race’s opening stint, and polesetter Dries Vanthoor went on to clip the #3 DKR Engineering LMP2 car in the Porsche curves shortly before 10pm, damaging his right-rear bodywork and ending up with a delaminated tyre. The #15 machine is therefore four laps down by now, and most likely ruled out of victory or podium contention.

In the LMP2 category, the #30 Duqueine entry driven by Andlauer-Pin-Verschoor now leads the #343 Inter Europol machine (de Gerus-Garg-Mueller) and the #26 Vector car (Cullen-Fittipaldi-Lomko), with the polesitting #29 entry from Forestier Racing by Panis down to seventh.

In GT3, the pecking order remains very tight, as the polesitting #27 Aston Martin (Drudi-James-Robichon) is closely followed by the #74 Ferrari from Kessel Racing, the #21 Ferrari entered by AF Corse, the #77 Ford from Proton Competition and Akkodis ASP’s #87 Lexus.

Classification after Hour 8​

1	8	HC	Toyota Racing	TOY	LEADER	11
2	20	HC	BMW M Team WRT	BMW	+2:17.750	11
3	12	HC	Cadillac Hertz Team Jota	CAD	+2:19.797	12
4	38	HC	Cadillac Hertz Team Jota	CAD	+2:22.089	11
5	51	HC	Ferrari AF Corse	FER	+4:03.001	10
6	101	HC	Cadillac WTR	CAD	+4:06.842	11
7	50	HC	Ferrari AF Corse	FER	+4:08.024	11
8	7	HC	Toyota Racing	TOY	+4:10.126	10
9	83	HC	AF Corse	FER	+4:11.630	11
10	19	HC	Genesis Magma Racing	GEN	+4:12.607	10
11	17	HC	Genesis Magma Racing	GEN	+7:03.135	10
12	007	HC	Aston Martin Thor Team	AST	+7:07.427	11
13	36	HC	Alpine Endurance Team	ALP	+7:12.103	11
14	35	HC	Alpine Endurance Team	ALP	+7:13.653	11
15	009	HC	Aston Martin Thor Team	AST	-1 L	10
16	94	HC	Peugeot TotalEnergies	PEU	+4.505	11
17	93	HC	Peugeot TotalEnergies	PEU	-2 L	10
18	40	HC	BMW M Team WRT	BMW	-4 L	10
19	30	LMP2	Duqueine Team	ORE	-6 L	10
20	343	LMP2	Inter Europol Competition	ORE	-7 L	10
21	26	LMP2	Vector Sport	ORE	+6.024	10
22	43	LMP2	Inter Europol Competition	ORE	+3:02.761	11
23	9	LMP2	Proton Competition	ORE	+3:06.040	11
24	37	LMP2	CLX Motorsport	ORE	-8 L	10
25	13	LMP2	Forester Racing by Panis	ORE	+4.230	11
26	24	LMP2	Nielsen Racing	ORE	+2:15.432	11
27	14	LMP2	TDS Racing	ORE	+2:16.523	11
28	11	LMP2	IDEC Sport	ORE	+2:17.610	12
29	99	LMP2	AO by TF	ORE	+2:20.832	11
30	22	LMP2	United Autosports	ORE	+2:21.626	11
31	4	LMP2	Crowdstrike Racing by APR	ORE	+6:58.030	10
32	25	LMP2	Algarve Pro Racing	ORE	-9 L	10
33	183	LMP2	AF Corse	ORE	-10 L	11
34	3	LMP2	—	ORE	+5:33.957	11
35	44	LMP2	Proton Competition	ORE	+5:43.170	11
36	222	LMP2	RD Limited	ORE	-12 L	11
37	27	GT3	United Autosports	ORE	-16 L	11
38	74	GT3	Heart of Racing Team	AST	+1.345	11
39	21	GT3	Kessel Racing	FER	+2.465	11
40	77	GT3	Vista AF Corse	FOR	+3.311	11
41	87	GT3	Proton Competition / Akkodis ASP Team	LEX	+9.797	11

P # Cat Team Ch Gap PS

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