We are wrapping up our 24 Hours of Le Mans previews with the LMGT3 class. Two-dozen entries are in the pro-am class that bring together nine manufacturers and 72 drivers from around the world. Including Hypercar and LMP2, 186 drivers will be competing in this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans.
A few drivers are going to be making their debut. A few drivers have famous last names. Some drivers we have seen for a number of years at Le Mans.
Who Won Last Year?
Manthey Racing won last year for Porsche with Richard Lietz, Marris Schuring and Yasser Shahin, and that lineup is not together for this year's race.
Lietz is still with Manthey, and he will be in the #92 Porsche but with Ryan Hardwick and Riccardo Pera as his co-drivers. Shahin has moved to Team WRT, which finished second to Manthey last year at Le Mans. Shahin will be in the #31 BMW with Augusto Farfus and Timur Boguslavskiy. Schuring does not have a ride at Le Mans this year.
The #90 Manthey Porsche has Klaus Bachler, Antares Au and Look Hartog as its drivers.
Proton Competition took third and fourth last year with its two Ford Mustangs. The #77 Ford will feature Ben Barker, Bernardo Sousa and Ben Tuck while Dennis Olsen, Stefano Gattuso and Gianmarco Levorato will drive the #88 Ford.
Who is Coming into Le Mans Hot?
The answer is nobody in the FIA World Endurance Championship.
Three races, three different winners, nine different cars have finished on the podium through three races, and only three cars have finished in the top five in multiple races this season. Your guess is as good as anybody. There is no clear favorite.
TF Sport leads the LMGT3 championship with 44 points as the #33 Corvette won at Qatar, but Jonny Edgar, Daniel Juncadella and Ben Keating were seventh and 13th in the next two races. AF Corse are four points back as the #21 Ferrari of François Hériau, Simon Mann and Alessio Rovera won at Spa-Francorchamps but retired from Imola while finishing fifth in Qatar.
The #92 Manthey Porsche won the Imola round, but it has finished 12th (Qatar) and seventh (Spa-Francorchamps) in the other races. However, Manthey went 1-2 in the 2024-25 Asian Le Mans Series. Au and Bachler won the championship while Hardwick, Lietz and Pera were second. If there is any reason why Manthey should be excited, it is Bachler is showing up to Le Mans while leading IMSA's GTD Pro championship and he has won twice this season.
Even in European Le Mans Series competition, there have been two winners from the first two races.
Iron Dames won at Barcelona, but then Sarah Bovy, Michelle Gatting and Célia Martín were seventh at Circuit Paul Ricard. They will drive the #85 Porsche On the flipside, AF Corse won in France with Custodio Toledo, Riccardo Agostini and Lilou Wadoux but they were ninth at Barcelona in the #150 Ferrari.
Is Anyone Heading to Le Mans Cold?
AWA Racing won the 24 Hours of Daytona in the GTD class, but since then Matt Bell and Orey Fidani have finished tenth or worse in the last three races. Bell and Fidani head to Le Mans to drive AWA's #13 Corvette with Lars Kern, who was also in the Daytona winner squad.
While United Autosports was second at Qatar with the #59 McLaren, the team has not finished better than seventh this season. Sébastien Baud, James Cottingham and Grégoire Saucy were 14th and 15th in the last two races in the #59 McLaren. Sean Gelael and Darren Leung were second last year at Le Mans in this class with Team WRT. This year, Gelael and Leung are heading to Le Mans coming off a retirement at Spa-Francorchamps with Marino Sato in the #95 McLaren.
Is Valentino Rossi Competing?
Yes. Rossi is in the #46 Team WRT BMW with Ahmad Al Harthy and Kelvin van der Linde. They were second at Imola. Van der Linde won the Bathurst 12 Hour earlier this year with his brother Sheldon, and with Augusto Farfus. Al Harthy was second in the GTE-Am class in 2023 driving an Aston Martin for TF Sport.
Last year, Rossi, Al Harthy and Maxime Martin retired after completing only 109 laps. The #46 BMW was second at Imola, but was ninth at Spa-Francorchamps last month.
Which Drivers are Getting Unexpected Opportunities?
Jack Hawksworth wasn't supposed to be at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but an injury to Ben Barnicoat keeps Barnicoat sidelined while Hawksworth will be at Le Mans in the #78 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus. He joins Finn Gehrsitz and Arnold Robin. The #78 Lexus has finished fourth, third and eighth this season. Hawksworth has finished second in three consecutive IMSA races in the GTD class.
Injuries to Claudio Schiavoni has led to a complete line change in the #60 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG. Andrew Gilbert, Lorcan Hanafin and Fran Rueda will take over the #60 Mercedes-AMG for Le Mans. All three drivers will be making their Le Mans debuts. Gilbert and Rueda are co-drivers in ELMS with Miguel Molina in the #74 Kessel Racing Ferrari. Hanafin drive the #63 Mercedes-AMG for Iron Lynx in ELMS, and he was second at Circuit Paul Ricard with co-drivers Martin Berry and Fabian Schiller.
Are There Any Sons with More Famous Fathers Competing?
Yes, there are two.
Eduardo Barrichello will make his Le Mans debut in the #10 Racing Spirit of Léman Aston Martin with Derek DeBoer and Valentin Hasse-Clot. Barrichello is competing in WEC for the first time after spending the last two seasons running in the Stock Car Brasil Series, and he was third in that championship last year. His father Rubens made only one Le Mans start. Rubens competed with Racing Team Nederland in 2017 with Jan Lammers and Frits van Eerd as co-drivers in the LMP2 class. They were 11th in class.
Eddie Cheever III is making his third Le Mans start. Cheever III ran in 2018 and 2019 with MR Racing. This year, Cheever III is driving the #193 Ziggo Sport - Tempesta Ferrari with Christ Froggatt and Jonathan Hu. They won the Bronze Cup championship last year in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup.
Who Has Not Been Mentioned?
Seven cars in LMGT3 class.
Heart of Racing Team has the #27 Aston Martin entered for Mattia Drudi, Ian James and Zacharie Robichon. Heart of Racing is coming off its best finish of fifth at Spa-Francorchamps.
Francesco Castellacci, Thomas Flohr and Davide Rigon are together for their third consecutive year at Le Mans in the #54 AF Corse Ferrari.
Kessel Racing is running Takeshi Kimura, Daniel Serra and Casper Stevenson in the #57 Ferrari. Serra has two Le Mans class victories, both in GTE-Pro. Kimura is back in a Ferrari after running an Akkodis ASP Team Lexus in 2024.
There are two other Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMGs entered. Martin Berry, Lin Hodenius and Maxime Martin are in the #61 Mercedes-AMG. Brenton Grove, Stephen Grove and Luca Stolz are entered in the #63 Mercedes-AMG.
TF Sport have a second Corvette entered. Rui Andrade, Charlie Eastwood and Tom van Rompuy will share the #81 Corvette.
José María López leads the #87 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus with Clemens Schmid and Razvan Umbrarescu as his co-drivers.
General Le Mans Facts to Keep in Mind
AF Corse also has at least one entry in each class, just like Proton Competition. AF Corse runs all three Ferrari 499Ps in Hypercar, it has the #183 Oreca entered in LMP2, and then its two entries in LMGT3. AF Corse has not won a GT class at Le Mans since it swept GTE Pro and GTE Am in 2021.
In ten Le Mans starts, Davide Rigon has yet to score a class victory. Francesco Castellacci has not won a class in nine Le Mans starts and Thomas Flohr is 0-for-8 at Le Mans.
In eight Le Mans starts, José María López, has finished on the overall podium six times.
Schedule
Sunday June 8 marks the Le Mans test day with two three-hour sessions, the first taking place at 4:00 a.m. ET and the second run at 9:30 a.m. ET.
Practice during race week will begin on Wednesday June 11. The first practice will be held at 11:00 a.m. ET and run for three hours. The first round of qualifying will take place at 12:45 p.m., beginning with the LMP2 and LMGT3 classes taking to the track to determine the Hyperpole participants. The first round of Hypercar qualifying will be held at 1:30 p.m. ET. Each session will be 30 minutes. Wednesday ends with night practice at 4:00 p.m. and running for two hours.
Another three-hour practice will run at 8:45 a.m. on Thursday June 12. Hyperpole qualifying will be run at 2:00 p.m. starting with LMGT3 and LMP2. Hypercar's Hyperpole session will run at 3:05 p.m. The final night practice will be a one-hour session held at 5:00 p.m.
The 15-minute warm-up session will be run at 6:00 a.m. ET on Saturday June 14 prior to the start of the 93rd 24 Hours of Le Mans at 10:00 p.m. ET.
