Aston Martin with best time on test day of the 24 Hours of Le Mans

The test day for the 2026 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans is over and, somewhat surprisingly, saw an Aston Martin Valkyrie at the head of the 62-car field. Tom Gamble lapped the 13.626-kilometre circuit in 3:26.293 minutes. "Overall, it's obviously a pretty successful day for us. We have already seen a good pace. Aston Martin was already strong in the morning session. It's great to be back at this wonderful race track. It's really fun to drive here. Let's see how the race goes next weekend," said Gamble, who shares an Aston Martin with Harry Tincknell and Ross Gunn.

Second place on the test day went to the Toyota TR010 Hybrid of Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa and Sébastien Buemi, just 0.108 seconds behind, with Hartley setting the fastest lap in the Japanese car. This Toyota had an incident on track towards the end of the morning's first session, but was able to resume the second session in good time.

The third brand in the top three on the test day was Cadillac. The V-Series.R of Norman Nato, Will Stevens and Louis Delétraz finished 0.560 seconds behind the Aston Martin. António Félix da Costa, Ferdinand Habsburg and Charles Milesi in the Alpine finished fourth, 0.645 seconds behind. Fifth place in the combined times of the test day went to the Cadillac of Filipe Albuquerque, Jordan Taylor and Ricky Taylor. However, the best time of 3:27.011 minutes set by this V-Series.R was already achieved in the first session in the morning. The top six was completed by the second Alpine of Jules Gounon, Frédéric Makowiecki and Victor Martin, who were 0.724 seconds behind with a time of 3:27.017 minutes.

It is also exciting to look at the balance in the hypercar field. All eight participating brands were able to place at least one car in the top eleven positions. In addition, all models were within just 0.915 seconds of each other. The best time in the LMP2 class went to the Oreca 07 of Paul Lafargue, Valerio Rinicella and Job van Uitert (IDEC Sport) with 3:35.344 minutes. In the LMGT3 class, the Ferrari 296 LMGT3 Evo of Vista AF Corse (Thomas Flohr/Francesco Castellacci/Davide Rigon) was unbeatable with a time of 3:56.646 minutes.

On Monday and Tuesday, things will initially be a little quieter again at Le Mans. The first free practice session will then start next Wednesday (10 June 2026) at 14:00.