The 24 Hours of Le Mans: Hour-by-hour guide

In mid-June each year, around the halfway point in the World Endurance Championship calendar, more than 50 cars line up to go wheel-to-wheel for a long, arduous, 24-hour marathon. This is Le Mans – and it’s the most prestigious endurance race in the world.

This year will feature Hertz Team JOTA in two Cadillac V-Series.R hypercars. The drivers behind the wheel? Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn, Sébastien Bourdais, Norman Nato, Will Stevens and, notably, former F1 star Jenson Button.

If you're tuning in, we've got an hour-by-hour guide on what to expect. From the swooping of the French tricolor at 4pm Saturday (local time – 10am EDT), to the triumphant checkered flag on 4pm Sunday.

What time does Le Mans start?

The race is the big spectacle - but the build-up starts a few days before. Practice sessions and qualifying take place in the days leading up to the main event, on Wednesday and Thursday. Friday is a rest day, before the action starts again on the weekend.

Wednesday, June 11th

- 2pm-5pm (8am-11am EDT): Free practice 1. An opportunity for drivers to get used to the track and teams to tweak the car set-up.

- 10pm-12am (4pm-6pm EDT): Free practice 2. Night-time circuit practice for the drivers.

Thursday, June 12th

- 2.45pm-5.45pm (8.45am-11.45am EDT): Free practice. The last daytime practice session and the last chance to make any final changes to the car.

- 11pm-12am (5pm-6pm EDT): Free practice. Another nighttime practice session for drivers to get used to the darker track conditions they’ll be racing in through Saturday night and into Sunday.

Friday, June 13th

- A rest day for the drivers and teams, but an opportunity for the thousands of visitors, spectators and those camping nearby to enjoy the many events held in and around the circuit. This includes the Porsche sprint challenge, drivers parade, various villages and a concert at night.

Saturday, June 14th

- 12pm-12:15pm (6am-6:15am EDT): Race warm-up.

- 1.35pm-2.35pm (7.35am-8.35am EDT): Gridwalk. Fans get access to the track for an hour before the race starts, giving them an opportunity to meet the drivers.

- 3.25pm-3.50pm (9.25am-9.50am EDT): Departure Ceremony – the official start ceremony.

- 4pm (10am EDT): RACE START.

Sunday, June 15th

- 4pm (10am EDT): RACE FINISH.

- 4.10pm (10.10am EDT): Podium

Saturday, June 15, 2025: The race starts

The 24 Hours of Le Mans starts at 4pm (10am EDT) on the Saturday with the swoop of a French tricolor flag – this year’s celebrity given the honor is tennis legend Roger Federer. It’s a rolling start, so the cars will do one lap, warming up their tires, before the safety car pulls into the pits. From there, it’s a cacophony of noise as more than 50 cars launch out of the final chicane and down the start/finish straight.

The epic 24-hour-long endurance contest officially begins.

Celebrities aren't just there for waving the flag, either. Hollywood actors Michael Fassbender and Patrick Dempsey have raced here before, as well as other international stars like Fabian Barthez – former goalkeeper for the French national soccer team.

2023 FIA World Endurance Championship Round 4
Le Mans, France
5th - 11th June 2023

Photo: Nick Dungan / Drew Gibson Photography

4pm-6pm: The Grid settles

The first few laps are chaotic, as the tightly bunched field starts to spread out across the 8.5-mile circuit, each car vying to gain an advantage for the long haul. After all, it’s a motoring marathon – not a sprint.

A team’s drivers will swap every two to three hours – sometimes less – and after up to a maximum of four hours. The upside for spectators is that you can expect to see plenty of pit stops – especially if you grab one of the best viewpoints. Each team has three drivers in total, but they’ll try to keep pit times to a minimum where they can. After all, past races have been won and lost by seconds, even after 24 hours.

6pm-9pm: The rhythm of the race

Things are starting to develop. The cars are building momentum in the race. Even by this early point in the race, the hypercar class will have already covered similar ground to the entire Indy 500.

Around this time, the racing starts to heat up. In 2024, Hertz Team JOTA faced early challenges, including a crash during qualifying that required a chassis change. Despite this setback, they managed to get back on track and continue competing.

The photographers will be wiping their lenses at this point as opportunities for a shot in front of the sunset beckon. We’re about to enter the golden hour.

2023 Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe
Round 3 // Endurance Cup
Circuit Paul Ricard (France) - June 2nd - 4th, 2023
Photo: Michele Scudiero

9pm: Golden hour

The perfect time to take photos at Le Mans. Expect to see crowds of spectators pointing their cameras at the track from the Dunlop Bridge. If you go to a slower part of the course, you'll start to see cars' brake discs glowing orange as they brake heavily.

By now and the drivers will have already made their first few pit stops. At Le Mans, it’s not all about speed, all of the time. The extensive duration of the race means drivers need to balance pace with stamina.

Like any form of motor sport, it’s not just the drivers that make a difference. The wider team, including race engineers, also plays a crucial role. The synergy between both is key to helping the team’s performance – like the different parts of a clock working together to make it tick.

Timing is critical. One wrong move can jeopardize the whole race. It’s a competition of fine margins at exhilarating speeds. Around this time in 2024, the race saw intense battles between top teams, with positions changing frequently due to strategic pit stops and on-track overtakes.

9:58pm: Driving into the darkness

As the sun sinks beneath the horizon and daylight disappears, the darkness of night spreads across the circuit. The pit straight is still like a funfair – but on the Mulsanne Straight, it's like driving through a black, deserted forest.

With no more natural light, visibility comes down to headlights – and track knowledge. Tiredness grows. Instincts sharpen. The drivers aren't the only ones who start to feel the strain, however. In 2024, several teams faced mechanical issues during the night, including a notable incident where the very competitive No. 83 Ferrari of Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye and Robert Shwartzman retired due to a motor-generator unit malfunction.

As we edge closer to midnight, yellow flags become a more common sight. There are many reasons for this. Slower cars find it harder to spot faster-moving classes in their mirrors. Also, as prototypes share the track with the GTE class, the difference in performance between cars can make overtaking difficult. In 2024, multiple slow zones were enforced due to various on-track incidents during the night.

We’re now entering the graveyard shift, where races can be won and lost.

2023 FIA World Endurance Championship Round 4
Le Mans, France
5th - 11th June 2023
Photo: Drew Gibson

12am-6am: The graveyard shift

Expect a few driver changes to have occurred by now. This stretch is a real test of a driver’s mettle. It’s dark, and fatigue sets in for both drivers and engines.

With tiredness taking over, it’s normal for attention spans to lower, increasing the likelihood of human error. The 2024 race saw several teams lose valuable time due to minor mistakes and mechanical issues during this period.

Mechanics often use this period as an opportunity to steal a few minutes of sleep between pit stops, while the race engineer is often awake for the full 24 hours.

6am-9am: Blinking into the sunrise

The end is nigh. You might think the climax is almost in sight, but when the sun rises at 6am on Sunday, there's still another 10 hours of racing to go. This is a notoriously challenging part of the race.

While the stands around the circuit were teeming with life earlier in the evening, many of them are now empty, all but for the most committed of supporters.

Difficult visibility in the early morning light, plus driver fatigue, are now a real challenge. Despite racing for 14 hours, the order will still change a lot over the remainder of the race.

In 2024, the early morning hours saw several position changes in the LMP2 category, with the No. 22 United Autosports entry taking the lead during the pit stop cycle. The Mulsanne section has proven quite tricky to maneuver over the years - in 1997, Ralph Kelleners’ car even caught fire down the Mulsanne Straight.

9am-12pm: The circuit awakens

Despite the drivers having raced through the night, and many of their pit crew and engineers not getting much chance to sleep, large numbers of spectators will have bedded down briefly. Whether camping close to the action or staying somewhere nearby, those who choose to catch even a few hours of concerted sleep will now be making their way back to the trackside, taking a seat for the thrilling grand finale.

12pm-4pm: The final stretch

Nothing is guaranteed until a car crosses the finish line. It could have all been plain sailing until now, but any slight slip-up or miscalculation of pit stop timing can see the race lost. In 2016, Toyota driver Nakajima almost made it all the way to the end, stopping just before the finish line due to a faulty turbocharger and intercooler connection.

In 2024, the final hours were marked by intense battles and strategic decisions. The No. 50 Ferrari, driven by Nicklas Nielsen, Miguel Molina and Antonio Fuoco, managed to secure victory after 311 laps, finishing 14.2 seconds ahead of the second-placed No. 7 Toyota. Hertz Team JOTA finished eighth, a placing deemed remarkable by many, considering their car had to be rebuilt less than 36 hours before the race.

It’s not always the top manufacturers that are successful. Some of the relative minnows of motorsport have been known to rank highly, in epic tales of David vs Goliath. Lowly GTE Am team Seikel Porsche won its class by a full lap and achieved an overall top six finish in 2001, as heavy rain caused many of the faster prototype vehicles to be out of contention entirely.

Those getting over the line will feel a huge sense of achievement as an entire day of continuous racing comes to its climax. Completing the race requires a heady combination of mental strength, technical resilience and strategic intelligence. And, maybe, a healthy dose of luck. Expect to see spectators swarm onto the track as they head towards the podium to celebrate the winner. Will 2025 see a win to rank with the ones that have become truly legendary?