The 93rd 24 Hours of Le Mans brought Aston Martin back to Hypercar for the first time since 2011, while a privately run Ferrari won and a Cadillac started from pole.
The 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 93rd running of the race, held 14-15 June at the Circuit de la Sarthe. The privately entered No. 83 Ferrari 499P won, Aston Martin returned to the top class, and the Cadillac No. 12 started from pole.
The privately run No. 83 Ferrari 499P, entered by AF Corse, won the 93rd 24 Hours of Le Mans on 14-15 June 2025. Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye and Phil Hanson drove it to Ferrari's third straight victory at the race. Aston Martin was back in the top class with two Valkyries, and a Cadillac had taken pole.
What was the 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans?
The 2025 edition was the 93rd time the Automobile Club de l'Ouest has staged its endurance classic at the Circuit de la Sarthe. It ran over 14-15 June as round four of the World Endurance Championship, and the race itself has been held since 1923.
Two storylines stood out before the first lap. Aston Martin returned to the top class with two Valkyrie AMR-LMH cars for a full WEC campaign, its first Hypercar appearance at Le Mans since 2011. Mercedes-AMG came back after a long absence, the last time it had raced there being 1999, and it fielded three GT3 Evos in LMGT3.
A privately run Ferrari won, and an American Cadillac sat on pole for the first time in decades.
How was the field filled?
Sixty-two cars were given entries, and six more were placed on a reserve list. Thirty-six of the entries came from full-season WEC teams, split evenly between Hypercar and LMGT3 at eighteen apiece. The reserve order mattered, because the first reserve replaced the first withdrawal, whatever class the car came from.
Beyond the regulars, invitations went to three more Hypercars, seventeen LMP2 entries and six LMGT3 entries. Of the LMP2 places, nine were reserved for Pro crews and eight for Pro-Am crews, which carry a Bronze-rated driver.
Automatic places went to the champions of the European Le Mans Series, the Asian Le Mans Series LMP2 and LMGT3 classes, and the Bronze Cup in GT World Challenge Europe, along with the second-placed LMP2 finishers in the ELMS. IMSA contributed three entries of its own: a Hypercar place of its choosing, plus places for the winners of the Jim Trueman and Bob Akin awards.
Championship form going into the race
Going into the race, the No. 51 Ferrari crew of Pier Guidi, Giovinazzi and Calado topped the Hypercar drivers' standings on 75 points. Their stablemates in the No. 50 trailed by 18, and the winners' car, the privateer No. 83, was third on 39.
Ferrari had taken the opening three rounds: Qatar's 1812 km, then the six-hour events at Imola and Spa-Francorchamps. On the manufacturers' table Ferrari held 136 points to Toyota's 71. In LMGT3, the TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R (No. 33) had 44 points, four clear of Vista AF Corse's Ferrari 296 (No. 21). The Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F (No. 78) was third on 38.
Why did Michelle Gatting miss the race?
Michelle Gatting, a gold-rated driver in the No. 85 entry, a 911 GT3 R (992) run by Iron Dames, broke a foot during testing when the car came down on it at a driver change. That injury ruled her out of the race.
Sarah Bovy stepped in. She had four previous Le Mans starts behind her, but her driver rating had risen from Bronze to Silver, and she had stepped away from the 2025 WEC line-up after that upgrade.
What happened on the test day?
The mandatory test took place on 8 June in two sessions, running from 10:00 to 13:00 CEST and from 15:30 to 18:30 CEST. Robert Kubica led the first session in the No. 83 Ferrari at 3:27.010, and Brendon Hartley set 3:26.246 in the No. 8 Toyota during the second.
Hartley's afternoon time beat the best from the 2024 test day, which had been 3:26.9, set by Kevin Estre. James Calado's No. 51 Ferrari was 3:26.777 in that session, with Mick Schumacher's Alpine A424 in the top five. The LMP2 pace was set by Pietro Fittipaldi in the Pro No. 22 United Autosports Oreca 07 at 3:35.770, with the Pro-Am TDS No. 29 next at 3:36.225. In LMGT3, Jose Maria Lopez's Lexus was quickest in both sessions, first at 3:57.109 and then at 3:55.276.
The two Aston Martin Valkyries, Nos. 007 and 009, completed their first laps at Le Mans during that test. Track action was halted three times in the second session: a BMW was beached in the gravel with an oil leak, a Proton Competition car caused barrier damage at Indianapolis, and an Iron Lynx Mercedes ran into the gravel five minutes before the end.
How did practice go for the Hypercars?
Practice 1 on 11 June was led by Sebastien Bourdais in the No. 38 JOTA Cadillac at 3:25.148, even though the car had spun early on and later suffered carbon fibre damage. Antonio Fuoco had set 3:25.302 in the No. 50 Ferrari on its first flying lap, and that time finished second overall.
Two red flags interrupted that opening session. Stephen Grove crashed the No. 63 Iron Lynx Mercedes at the Dunlop Chicane, and a second stoppage came ten minutes later for debris. In LMP2 the Pro-Am RLR Oreca 07 of Patrick Pilet led at 3:36.888.
Practice 2 ran that evening and lasted two hours. Robert Kubica set an early 3:25.101 in the No. 83, but the time was deleted for pit lane speeding, which handed the top spot to the No. 8 Toyota at 3:26.156. Yifei Ye placed the No. 83 third with 3:26.680. Dane Cameron set the LMP2 pace at 3:37.515 for AO by TF, and Lexus claimed the top two LMGT3 times, led by Lopez at 3:55.422.
Practice 3 was run on 12 June, with Mathieu Jaminet fastest in Hypercar in the No. 5 Porsche 963 at 3:24.717. One red flag stopped the session for barrier repairs after two LMP2 crashes, one at the Porsche Curves and one at the first Mulsanne chicane. Mathias Beche led LMP2 for TDS at 3:36.827, and Zacharie Robichon was quickest in LMGT3 at 3:55.897.
The final practice ran at night after Hyperpole. Ferrari took a 1-2 with Kubica fastest at 3:26.523 in the No. 83, and the No. 50 nearly a second behind. Esteban Masson set the top LMP2 time at 3:38.302 for VDS, and Lopez was fastest in LMGT3 at 3:55.057. Three cars retired from that session, including the No. 63 Iron Lynx Mercedes, which failed after a single lap.
Who took pole and what happened in qualifying?
The No. 12 JOTA Cadillac took pole after posting the fastest lap in the Hyperpole shootout. Alex Lynn had set the quickest time of the first Hypercar qualifying session at 3:22.847, four-hundredths ahead of Dries Vanthoor in the No. 15 BMW M Hybrid V8.
Initial qualifying ran for 30 minutes in each class, and the joint LMP2 and LMGT3 session was cut short by two red flags. The fastest fifteen Hypercars and fastest twelve LMP2 and LMGT3 cars moved on to Hyperpole on 12 June.
The No. 6 Porsche 963 had originally been fourth on the grid, ahead of the No. 38 Cadillac, but it failed the weight check and went to the back. That let the No. 009 Aston Martin Valkyrie, originally 16th, reach Hyperpole. The No. 007 was among the Hypercars knocked out in qualifying.
Toyota's No. 7 qualified 16th, with Nyck de Vries 2.215 seconds slower than pole and 1.074 seconds slower than the sister No. 8. De Vries blamed a tyre lock-up while braking for a yellow flag behind an Alpine at the Porsche Curves.
How did the night rules affect Iron Lynx?
Iron Lynx's No. 63 Mercedes-AMG GT3 had missed the night practice, so none of its three drivers had completed the five laps of night running that were required. The team could race only if its fastest driver, Luca Stolz, started, and Stephen Grove could not drive between 22:00 and 06:00.
The damage from that first-practice crash had already forced a replacement chassis, and the car then failed one lap into the final practice, adding to a weekend that had been hard from the start.
Fastest times by session
| Session | Date | Car and driver | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Test day, session one | 8 June 2025 | No. 83 Ferrari 499P, Kubica | 3:27.010 |
| Test day, session two | 8 June 2025 | No. 8 Toyota GR010, Hartley | 3:26.246 |
| Practice 1 | 11 June 2025 | No. 38 JOTA Cadillac V-Series.R, Bourdais | 3:25.148 |
| Practice 2 | 11 June 2025 | No. 8 Toyota GR010, after a deletion | 3:26.156 |
| Practice 3 | 12 June 2025 | No. 5 Porsche 963, Jaminet | 3:24.717 |
| Final practice | 12 June 2025 | No. 83 Ferrari 499P, Kubica | 3:26.523 |
| Qualifying | 11 June 2025 | No. 12 JOTA Cadillac V-Series.R, Lynn | 3:22.847 |
Who won the 2025 race?
The No. 83 car, run by AF Corse with Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye and Phil Hanson at the wheel, took the chequered flag first. It was the third consecutive Le Mans victory for Ferrari, and the car was run by AF Corse rather than by Ferrari's factory team.
The LMP2 class went to Inter Europol's No. 43 Oreca 07, crewed by Nick Yelloly, Jakub Smiechowski and Tom Dillmann, the team's second class win in three years. The LMGT3 class was taken by the Manthey No. 92 Porsche, with Richard Lietz, Ryan Hardwick and Riccardo Pera at the wheel, which made it a consecutive class win.
Why did the Cadillac pole matter?
Starting from pole in Hertz Team Jota's No. 12 Cadillac, with Will Stevens, Alex Lynn and Norman Nato sharing the car, was the first time an American car had started from the front since 1967. The car had set the quickest time in Hyperpole to earn it.
Pole position did not decide the race, however. The No. 83 Ferrari, which had been fastest in the final practice, was the car that finished first in the end.
.jpg){kind=link}