24 Hours of Le Mans: Three brands battle for the lead in the evening

The 24 Hours of Le Mans continues to be extremely exciting. On Saturday evening, three favourites are increasingly crystallising. These are BMW, Cadillac and, surprisingly, Toyota. In terms of pace, BMW and Cadillac certainly look extremely strong. The M Hybrid V8 of Robin Frijns, René Rast and Sheldon van der Linde did most of the leading work, especially at the start of the race.

However, an emergency refuelling stop during a yellow period after around three and a half hours of racing meant that some time was lost. This allowed the Cadillac V-Series.R of Earl Bamber, Sébastien Bourdais and Jack Aitken to close the gap. Both cars are also battling with each other from time to time on the track. The second Jota-Cadillac driven by Norman Nato, Will Stevens and Louis Delétraz is lurking behind with a slight gap of respect.

Unimpressed by all this, Toyota is also regularly at the front. The TR010 Hybrid of Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa and Sébastien Buemi has cleverly gained track position thanks to an early refuelling stop. Thanks to the different tactics and depending on the stopping rhythm, the Toyota is also in the leading group. Nevertheless, Toyota always has to refuel earlier than the competition - which could backfire on them later in the race.

Ferrari is also coping better and better with Le Mans 2026. However, the 499P of James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi lost some time after Pier Guidi was handed a drive-through penalty (for colliding with an LMP2). Overall, it is now becoming apparent that Aston Martin and Peugeot are unlikely to have the pace to compete for overall victory. Both brands tend to be at the back of the field in the hypercar class.

This is the situation after just under five hours of racing