Le Mans Upset
Toyota's No. 7 Team Claims Le Mans 24-Hour Victory, Ending Ferrari's Three-Year Streak
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Toyota ended Ferrari's three-year winning streak at the Le Mans 24-hour race on Sunday, with the No. 7 car crossing the finish line at 4:00 PM local time to claim the team's sixth overall victory at La Sarthe, according to Associated Press. The winning trio of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, and Nyck de Vries took control of the race with six hours to go and never looked back.
BMW's No. 20 car finished second, with Robin Frijns executing a late pass through the Porsche Curves to secure the spot. Toyota's No. 8 car rounded out the podium in third. Ferrari, the defending champion, failed to make the podium at all, with its best car finishing fifth, according to GPblog.
Safety Car Restart Handed Toyota the Lead
The race's decisive moment came on Sunday morning. A Safety Car period bunched the field together with six hours remaining. When the green flag flew, Kamui Kobayashi seized the lead from the No. 8 Toyota and the chasing Cadillacs, according to Associated Press. Toyota then managed its energy — the car's hybrid power — more efficiently than any rival in the closing hours, per Sportscar365.
Kobayashi wore two hats all weekend. He drove the car and also served as team principal. Before the race, he said the team had "new intentions" to reclaim the title after a three-year drought, according to 24h-lemans.com. Conway, a British veteran, earned his second Le Mans title. De Vries, a former Formula 1 driver from the Netherlands, claimed his first.
Ferrari's Title Defense Collapsed Overnight
Ferrari arrived as a heavy favorite. The Italian team had won in 2023, 2024, and 2025. But Saturday night turned into a disaster. The No. 50 Ferrari suffered a fire extinguisher failure and an ECU — the car's main computer — problem. The team lost 29 minutes and 9 laps in the pits, according to RACER. Its title defense was effectively over before Sunday morning.
Media outlets described Ferrari's Sunday as "a day to forget in France," according to GPblog. The No. 51 Ferrari, the team's best-finishing car, crossed the line in fifth place. Ferrari had also dominated a marketing era tied to its wins. That era is now over, according to RacingNews365.
BMW's Best Le Mans Result Since 1999
BMW's second-place finish was the German brand's best result at Le Mans since it won outright in 1999 with the V12 LMR, according to Associated Press. Robin Frijns, René Rast, and Sheldon van der Linde shared the No. 20 car. Frijns made the race's boldest late move, passing the No. 8 Toyota through the Porsche Curves with just over an hour to go, per Sportscar365.
BMW's strong showing also reshuffled the FIA World Endurance Championship standings. BMW now leads manufacturers with 59 points. Toyota sits second with 52 points, and Ferrari has dropped to 42 points, according to Sportscar365. The battle for the season title is now a three-way fight heading into the second half of the year.
Toyota's Return Ends a Painful Three-Year Drought
Before Ferrari's run, Toyota had dominated Le Mans with five straight wins from 2018 to 2022. The three-year gap without a win was a painful stretch for the Japanese manufacturer. In 2026, Toyota ran the TR010 Hybrid — an update to its championship-winning GR010 platform — with a new look and new branding, according to Winnipeg Free Press.
The Conway–Kobayashi–de Vries lineup was in its third straight season together, according to GAZOO Racing. That stability paid off. "The level of competition is extremely high," Ferrari's head of endurance, Ferdinando Cannizzo, had warned before the race, per nhregister.com. He was right — just not in the way Ferrari had hoped.
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