The Toyota Gazoo Racing team ended Ferrari's three-year winning streak at the 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 13-14, 2026, staging a dramatic comeback from the back of the grid to claim victory. Both Portuguese drivers in the field — António Félix da Costa and Filipe Albuquerque — finished inside the top 10, though their paths to that result could hardly have been more different.
The 24 Hours of Le Mans is endurance racing's most prestigious event, often called the "Grand Prix of Endurance Racing." Held annually at Circuit de la Sarthe in France, the race tests both driver stamina and mechanical reliability over a full day and night of competition. For Portuguese motorsport fans, the strong showing by da Costa and Albuquerque underscores Portugal's growing presence in one of motorsport's most demanding disciplines.
Why This Matters:
• Portuguese drivers deliver at motorsport's highest level: Da Costa finished 6th for Alpine and Albuquerque 9th for Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing, securing top-10 finishes in endurance racing's most demanding event.
• Toyota reclaims dominance in motorsport's most prestigious event after starting 14th and 15th on the grid, breaking Ferrari's three-year grip on Le Mans.
• The result reshapes the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship standings ahead of the Brazilian round at Interlagos on July 12.
Unlikely Comeback Rewrites Le Mans Narrative
Few predicted a Toyota victory after both TR010 Hybrid entries qualified deep in the midfield. The #7 car, piloted by Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway, and Nick de Vries, worked through the field over 24 grueling hours to take the checkered flag. Their sister #8 entry — crewed by Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa, and Sébastien Buemi — secured third place, completing a strong manufacturer result.
The turnaround hinged on a bold strategic call within the first hour of racing, according to team sources. That early gamble, combined with consistent pace and mechanical reliability, allowed the Japanese manufacturer to leapfrog faster-qualifying rivals. The TR010 Hybrids maintained a solid rhythm throughout the race while avoiding the mechanical gremlins and driver errors that plagued competitors.
BMW M Team WRT delivered its best-ever result in the current Hypercar era, with the #20 M Hybrid V8 driven by René Rast, Robin Frijns, and Sheldon van der Linde finishing second after starting fourth. The German squad briefly led the race but ultimately crossed the line 10.9 seconds behind the winning Toyota. Cadillac Racing also held the lead at points, but its best finisher — the #12 Team Jota entry with Louis Delétraz, Norman Nato, and Will Stevens — could only manage fourth.
After three consecutive Le Mans victories, Ferrari relinquished its crown. The Italian marque's top finisher was the #51 499P shared by Alessandro Pier Guidi, Antonio Giovinazzi, and James Calado, which placed fifth.
Da Costa Delivers Solid Alpine Debut at Circuit de la Sarthe
António Félix da Costa made his Alpine Hypercar debut count with a sixth-place finish alongside Charles Milesi and Ferdinand Habsburg in the #35 A424. The trio started third on the grid following a strong Hyperpole qualifying session, and da Costa briefly led the race during his stint.
However, the French manufacturer's challenger lacked the ultimate pace to challenge for the podium. The Alpine team executed a clean, penalty-free race with flawless pit stops and no off-track excursions, but couldn't match the raw speed of Toyota, BMW, and Cadillac. In the final hour, da Costa and his co-drivers fought past one of the factory Ferrari entries in a tense battle for fifth, ultimately falling 7.8 seconds short of that position.
The Portuguese driver finished 2 minutes 30 seconds behind the winning Toyota, on the same lap as the victor — a respectable result given the competition. Da Costa emphasized post-race that the team "gave everything we had" in what he described as a perfect execution hampered only by competitive pace.
Albuquerque's Le Mans Hopes Dashed by Penalties
Filipe Albuquerque endured a frustrating run to ninth place in the #101 Cadillac V-Series.R for Wayne Taylor Racing, sharing the cockpit with brothers Ricky Taylor and Jordan Taylor. The American-Portuguese trio started fifth but quickly fell down the order due to four drive-through penalties for speeding infractions under Full Course Yellow and Slow Zone conditions.
Three of those penalties occurred during Albuquerque's morning stint, dropping the Cadillac a lap behind before the second safety car period. The car never fully recovered, progressively losing ground throughout the 24-hour marathon. Albuquerque spends the 2026 season competing primarily in the IMSA SportsCar Championship in the United States rather than the full WEC calendar, making this one-off Le Mans appearance significant. He had shown promise during the official Le Mans Test Day, posting the fastest time in the opening session.
Supporting Class Results
The Polish Inter Europol Competition squad swept the top two positions in the LMP2 category. The #43 Oreca-Gibson of Jakub Śmiechowski, Nick Yelloly, and Tom Dillmann took the win, finishing one lap ahead of teammates. The LMP2 battle nearly had a different outcome when the leading Duqueine Team car suffered a catastrophic brake failure with four hours remaining.
In the LMGT3 class, the #33 Corvette Z06 GT3.R of TF Sport, with Ben Keating, Jonny Edgar, and Nicky Catsburg took victory. Notably, Eduardo Barrichello — son of former Formula 1 driver Rubens Barrichello — helped the #23 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 from Heart of Racing Team secure the class podium.
Championship Implications
After three rounds of the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship, the winning Toyota #7 crew of Kobayashi, Conway, and de Vries leads the Hypercar drivers' standings with a four-point margin over BMW pilots Rast and Frijns. Van der Linde, who missed the Imola round, sits third, 10 points back. The Toyota #8 trio trails the leaders by 19 points in fourth.
Da Costa shares sixth place, 47 points off the championship lead, while Albuquerque does not feature in the season-long WEC standings due to his competing in IMSA, a North American sports car racing series that runs on a different schedule than the WEC.
In LMGT3, Edgar and Catsburg lead with a 22-point advantage over teammate Keating, who only joined for Le Mans.
The championship resumes at Interlagos in São Paulo, Brazil, for the 6 Hours of São Paulo on July 12, with five rounds remaining in the 2026 season. Subsequent stops include Austin, Texas (September 6), Fuji, Japan (September 27), and the season finale in Sakhir, Bahrain (November 7).
