Cadillac one-two lead in the first practice session of the 24 Hours of Le Mans

The first free practice session for the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2026 finally got underway: the most important sports car race weekend of the year is now really picking up speed. All 62 participating cars took to the track in the three-hour session - and in the end, Cadillac was at the top of the standings.

With a time of 3:23.786 minutes, Earl Bamber, who shares a V-Series.R with Sébastien Bourdais and Jack Aitken, was unbeatable. The New Zealander completed the lap around an hour before the end of the session. "We mainly concentrated on race details such as tyres etc. Overall, the session went well and we are very happy with the condition of the car. It was mainly about fine-tuning and small optimisations," said team-mate Aitken. "It was also good that all the drivers were able to test the car and complete many laps without any major problems. Another session is done and now we are focussing on qualifying. We are aiming for another flawless session and want to build on what we have learnt."

Cadillac is generally considered to be the favourite in the Le Mans paddock for the 2026 edition of the great endurance classic. The race this weekend will have to show whether this is the case, but Cadillac's performance in the first free practice session was impressive. The V-Series.R of Filipe Albuquerque, Jordan Taylor and Ricky Taylor took second place in the session with a time of 3:25.348 minutes. The car of Norman Nato, Will Stevens and Louis Delétraz finished fourth with a time of 3:26.033 minutes.

Between the three Cadillacs was the BMW M Hybrid V8 of Robin Frijns, René Rast and Sheldon van der Linde with a time of 3:25.533 minutes. This is the winning car from the previous WEC race at Spa-Francorchamps. The top five was completed by the Alpine A424 of António Félix da Costa, Ferdinand Habsburg and Charles Milesi.

In the LMP2 class, the best time of 3:35.248 minutes went to the Oreca of Doriane Pin, Julien Andlauer and Richard Verschoor (Duqueine Team). In the LMGT3 category, the Lexus RC F LMGT3 of Tom van Rompuy, Hadrien David and Jack Hawksworth beat everyone with a time of 3:55.737 minutes. The action now continues at Le Mans in quick succession. Qualifying starts as early as 18:45.