The 86th 24 Hours of Le Mans () was an 24-hour automobile endurance race for Le Mans Prototype and Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance cars entered by teams of three drivers each held from 16 to 17 June 2018 at the Circuit de la Sarthe, close to Le Mans, France. It was the 86th running of the event, as organised by the automotive group, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO), since . The race was the second round of the 2018–19 FIA World Endurance Championship, with 36 of the race's 60 entries contesting the series. Approximately 256,900 people attended the race. A test day was held two weeks prior to the race on 3 June.

A Toyota TS050 Hybrid car shared by Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Fernando Alonso began from pole position after Nakajima recorded the fastest lap time in the third qualifying session. It and the sister Toyota of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María López exchanged the lead for most of the first half of the race until Buemi took a one-minute stop-and-go penalty for speeding in a slow zone that was enforced for an accident during the night. Alonso and Nakajima retook the lead from their teammates in the 16th hour and maintained it for the rest of the race to win. It was Alonso, Buemi and Nakajima's first Le Mans win and Toyota's first in its 20th try. The sister Toyota of Conway, Kobayashi and López finished two laps behind in second, and a Rebellion R13 vehicle driven by Thomas Laurent, Gustavo Menezes and Mathias Beche completed the podium in third.

The Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class was led for 360 consecutive laps by the G-Drive Racing Oreca 07 car of Roman Rusinov, Andrea Pizzitola and Jean-Éric Vergne and was the first team to finish the race. It was later disqualified for running an illegal refuelling component and G-Drive lost an appeal. The class victory was taken by the Signatech Alpine team of Nicolas Lapierre, Pierre Thiriet and André Negrão. A Graff-SO24 team of Vincent Capillaire, Jonathan Hirschi and Tristan Gommendy was second and a United Autosports Ligier JS P217 car driven by Hugo de Sadeleer, Will Owen and Juan Pablo Montoya finished third. On its 70th anniversary Porsche won both of the Le Mans Grand Touring Professional (LMGTE) categories with Michael Christensen, Kévin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor's No. 92 car ahead of the No. 91 911 RSR car of Richard Lietz, Gianmaria Bruni and Frédéric Makowiecki in Le Mans Grand Touring Professional (LMGTE Pro) and Dempsey-Proton's trio of Matt Campbell, Christian Ried and Julien Andlauer winning in Le Mans Grand Touring Amateur (LMGTE Am).

The result increased Alonso, Buemi and Nakajima's lead in the LMP Drivers' Championship to 20 points over their teammates Conway, Kobayashi and López. Beche, Laurent and Menezes retained third place and Lapierre, Thiriet and Negrão's victory in LMP2 moved them to fourth. In the GTE Drivers' Championship Christensen and Estre took the lead from Billy Johnson, Stefan Mücke and Olivier Pla. Toyota further extended their lead over Rebellion Racing in the LMP1 Teams' Championship to 27 points as Porsche went further ahead of Ford in the GTE Manufacturers' Championship with six races remaining in the season.

Background

The dates for the 2018 24 Hours of Le Mans were confirmed at a meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council in its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland on 19 June 2017. It was the 86th edition of the event, and the second of eight automobile endurance races of the 2018–19 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).

Before the race Toyota drivers Fernando Alonso, Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima led the LMP Drivers' Championship with 26 points, eight ahead of their teammates Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María López and a further three in front of Mathias Beche, Thomas Laurent and Gustavo Menezes of the Rebellion team. The ByKolles trio of Tom Dillmann, Dominik Kraihamer and Oliver Webb were fourth with 12 points and SMP Racing's Mikhail Aleshin and Vitaly Petrov were fifth with 10 points. In the GTE Drivers' Championship Billy Johnson, Stefan Mücke and Olivier Pla of Ford Chip Ganassi Racing led with 25 points, ahead of the Porsche duo of Michael Christensen and Kévin Estre in second and AF Corse's Davide Rigon and Sam Bird third. Toyota (26 points) led the LMP1 Teams' Championship by 11 points over Rebellion in second. The ByKolles team was a further three points behind in third as Porsche led Ford by four points in the GTE Manufacturers' Championship.

Circuit changes After the 2017 24 Hours of Le Mans, modifications were made to the Porsche Curves section of the Circuit de la Sarthe to increase safety. Barriers on the inside of the final right-hand corner were dismantled and relocated further away from the circuit, allowing for the construction of paved run-off area and escape roads. This same alteration had been done on the barriers outside the corner in 2017. This modification re-profiled the corner slightly, shortening the lap distance by . The ACO also constructed a new starting line gantry further up the main straight to increase the capacity for cars at the start of the race. The finish line and all timing beacons remained at the previous starting line at the exit of the Ford Chicane.

Entries Automatic entries

Automatic entry invitations were earned by teams that won their class in the 2017 24 Hours of Le Mans. Invitations were also sent to teams who had won championships in the European Le Mans Series (ELMS), Asian Le Mans Series (ALMS), and the Michelin GT3 Le Mans Cup. The second-place finisher in the 2017 ELMS Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance (LMGTE) championship earned an automatic invitation as well. Finally, the ACO choose two participants from the IMSA SportsCar Championship (IMSA) to be automatic entries regardless of their performance or category. As invitations were granted to teams, they were allowed to change their cars from the previous year to the next but not their category. The LMGTE class invitations from the European and ALMS were allowed to choose between the Pro and Am categories. ELMS' Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) champion was required to field an entry in Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) while the 2017–18 ALMS LMP3 champion could choose between LMP2 or LMGTE Amateur (LMGTE Am). The 2017 Michelin Le Mans Cup LMP3 champion did not receive an automatic entry and the Grand Touring 3 (GT3) champion was limited to the LMGTE Am category.

The ACO announced its initial list of automatic entries on 5 February 2018. The Porsche LMP Team did not continue in the WEC after the 2017 season while the FIST-Team AAI squad opted to concentrate on their GT3 entries. The JDC-Miller Motorsports team, which was invited via driver Misha Goikhberg winning the Jim Trueman Award as "the top sportsman" in the Daytona Prototype International (DPi) category of the 2017 IMSA, told ACO officials on 9 February that it would forgo its automatic invitation due to financial trouble concerning its entry.

+Automatic entries for the 2018 24 Hours of Le Mans Reason invited LMP1 LMP2 LMGTE Pro LMGTE Am 1st in the 24 Hours of Le Mans Porsche LMP Team Jackie Chan DC Racing Aston Martin Racing JMW Motorsport 1st in the European Le Mans Series (LMP2 and LMGTE) G-Drive Racing JMW Motorsport 2nd in the European Le Mans Series (LMGTE) TF Sport 1st in the European Le Mans Series (LMP3) United Autosports IMSA SportsCar Championship at-large entries JDC-Miller Motorsports Keating Motorsport 1st in the Asian Le Mans Series (LMP2 and GT) Jackie Chan DC Racing X Jota FIST-Team AAI 1st in the Asian Le Mans Series (LMP3) 2nd in the Asian Le Mans Series (GT) FIST-Team AAI 1st in the Michelin Le Mans Cup (GT3) Ebimotors

Entry list

In conjunction with the announcement of entries for the 2018–19 FIA World Endurance Championship and the 2018 European Le Mans Series, the ACO announced the full 60 car entry list, plus nine reserves during a press conference at the Rétromobile Show in Paris on 9 February. In addition to the 36 guaranteed entries from the WEC, 13 came from the ELMS, seven from IMSA, three from the ALMS and a single one-off entry only competing at Le Mans. The field was split evenly with 30 cars in each of the combined LMP and LMGTE categories.

Garage 56 The ACO intended to continue the Garage 56 concept, started in 2012. Garage 56 allows a 56th entry to test new technologies at the race. Panoz and Green4U Technologies announced during the 2017 24 Hours of Le Mans weekend they intended to enter its Green4U Panoz Racing GT-EV car in the 2018 race. The all-wheel drive car intended to utilise two electric motors on each of its axles with a swappable battery lasting between within a tandem style LMP body. On 8 February, the ACO confirmed the Garage 56 concept would not be continued for 2018 due to a lack of feasible options.

Reserves Nine reserves were initially nominated by the ACO, limited to the LMP2 (six cars) and LMGTE Am (three cars) categories. ARC Bratislava announced the termination of its ELMS LMP2 programme on 11 February after its Ligier JS P217 car was placed eighth in the reserves list and leaving the team unlikely to be promoted to the race entry. Six days later, IDEC Sport withdrew its reserve JS P217 entry so that the team could concentrate on improving the performance of its entered No. 28 car. By the test day, two reserves remained on the list after five of the seven entries withdrew: KCMG's Dallara P217 entry and a Racing Engineering Oreca 07 car.

Pre-race balance of performance changes

The FIA Endurance Committee altered the equivalence of technology in the LMP classes and the balance of performance in the LMGTE categories to try and create parity within them. All non-hybrid LMP vehicles had their fuel flow of petrol per hour reduced from to . The Toyota TS050 Hybrid cars had no performance alterations.

For the LMGTE categories the Aston Martin Vantage GTE vehicles received an extra of weight and a minor reduction in turbocharger boost pressure as The BMW M8 GTE had of weight added and a reduction of power to lower their performances. The Porsche 911 RSR received a reduction in performance with a smaller air restrictor on the intake of its engine, the Ferrari 488 GTE vehicles had an extra of weight added to it and the Ford GT was made heavier and an increase in turbocharger boost pressure. In the LMGTE Am class the Aston Martin and Porsche vehicles had their top speeds lowered with a smaller air restrictor and the Ferrari had its turbocharger boost pressure reduced.

Testing

A test day was held on 3 June and required all race entrants to participate in eight hours of track time divided into two sessions. Toyota led the morning session with a 3:21.468 lap from Alonso's No. 8 TS050 car. The fastest non-hybrid car was Laurent in the No. 3 Rebellion R13 vehicle, ahead of Conway's Toyota, the sister Rebellion team of Bruno Senna, and the No. 17 SMP BR Engineering BR1 car driven by Stéphane Sarrazin. Oreca vehicles led the LMP2 category with seven cars at the top of the timing charts, with the No. 26 G-Drive entry driven by the team's reserve driver Alexandre Imperatori seven-tenths of a second ahead of the No. 48 IDEC Sport car of Paul-Loup Chatin. Ford took the first four positions in the LMGTE Pro class, the No. 67 car of Andy Priaulx leading Mücke's No. 66 entry with a 3:53.008 lap. Late in the session, the No. 95 Aston Martin of Marco Sørensen and Harrison Newey's No. 35 SMP Dallara vehicle made contact in traffic between Mulsanne and Indianapolis corners, causing Sørensen to crash heavily against a barrier beside the circuit and prematurely end the session with 51 minutes to go. Sørensen was unhurt; he was transported to the circuit's medical centre for a precautionary check before being released and Aston Martin switched to a spare chassis. The Clearwater Racing Ferrari car was fastest in the LMGTE Am category with a lap of 3:58.967 from driver Keita Sawa.