How to watch the Le Mans 24 Hours: Schedule, channel and more

The world’s most prestigious endurance race is again, as drivers will sort out 24 hours of Circuit de la Sarthe for the subsequent spherical of the WEC marketing campaign.

Ferrari arrives because the defending winner having claimed its first Le Mans victory since 1964 on the centenary version of the race, which later received the 2023 Autosport Second of the 12 months Award.

So, will the Italian producer repeat that success in 2024? Right here is how and when to observe this 12 months’s motion.

Photograph by: Alexander Trienitz

When is the 2024 Le Mans 24 Hours?

Date: Saturday 15 June – Sunday 16 June
Begin time: 3pm BST/4pm native time

The 2024 Le Mans 24 Hours begins on Saturday 15 June at 3pm in the UK and 4pm native time. Nevertheless, the race follows a full week of preparation because the Le Mans extravaganza begins on Friday 7 June with the primary of two scrutineering periods, which occur in Place de la République – the town’s essential sq..

Town centre procession can also be staged on the identical weekend as scrutineering, the place 1000’s of followers collect to observe the drivers parade their automobiles by downtown Le Mans on a 1.3-mile loop. Then throughout the next week are 4 follow periods, qualifying and hyperpole to arrange the principle occasion.

2024 Le Mans 24 Hours schedule

The right way to watch the 2024 Le Mans 24 Hours

Eurosport holds the WEC broadcasting rights for the UK, continental Europe and Australia, which means it’s the place to observe this 12 months’s Le Mans 24 Hours. That does imply a subscription is required although and it may be bought by TNT Sports activities, who’re additionally owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.

New prospects should purchase a package deal for £20 monthly that features all 4 TNT sport channels, Eurosport 1 and a pair of, in addition to reside streaming platform Discovery+. So, Le Mans may also be watched through a cell or pill system, in addition to a console.

Followers may watch the Le Mans 24 Hours through a race-specific package deal from WEC TV. For £15.31, it offers followers the prospect to livestream each observe session, view a reside leaderboard and real-time telemetry and relive outdated Le Mans races.

Non-European viewers can watch the Le Mans 24 Hours through their native sports activities broadcasting platform whether or not it’s Max or MotorTrend TV in america, SuperSport for these in Sub-Saharan African or WEC TV which is obtainable worldwide.

Photograph by: JEP / Motorsport Images

The place to observe highlights of the 2024 Le Mans 24 Hours

Highlights of the Le Mans 24 Hours could be watched through the official WEC or Eurosport platforms together with social media and their respective web sites. They have a tendency to add highlights quickly after every session is finished, whereas the official WEC YouTube channel additionally printed a full race replay three weeks after the 2023 Le Mans 24 Hours had completed.

How does the Le Mans 24 Hours work?

Le Mans is WEC’s blue-riband occasion and varieties a part of the illustrious motorsport triple crown, which is awarded to a driver who wins the Monaco Grand Prix, Indianapolis 500 and Le Mans of their profession.

In 2024, the Le Mans grid might be cut up into three classes – hypercar, LMP2 and LMGT3 – the place groups should rotate their automotive between three drivers with no driver being behind the wheel for greater than 14 hours in whole.

Though the festivities start the weekend previous to the race, drivers don’t formally take to the 8.467-mile observe till the Wednesday earlier than with two follow periods and day considered one of qualifying. Qualifying for the Le Mans 24 Hours is cut up into two components, the place the primary session lasts for 12 minutes and entails all automobiles making an attempt to set their greatest lap across the circuit.

The eight quickest automobiles from the totally different classes then progress to hyperpole the next day. Hyperpole lasts for half-hour in whole, 10 minutes for every class, and determines the pole place winners plus the remainder of the highest eight beginning positions.

A fourth and last follow session follows this earlier than the principle occasion which, since 1970, has not used its conventional beginning ritual the place drivers ran to their automobiles to start the race. As an alternative, whereas drivers nonetheless begin out lined up in opposition to the pit wall, a security automotive leads them for a formation lap earlier than a rolling begin commences the 24-hour affair.

What number of laps are there within the Le Mans 24 Hours?

There isn’t a set quantity of laps on the Le Mans 24 Hours given it’s a race in opposition to the clock, however the winner’s last whole has been within the 380s for 4 of the final six editions. That is nonetheless a way off the document although, which stands at 397 laps set in 1971 (Helmut Marko and Gijs van Lennep in a Porsche 917KH Coupe) and 2010 (Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Mike Rockenfeller in an Audi R15 TDI).

However Ferrari received the 2023 race after finishing simply 342 laps – the bottom since 2001 – because of a collection of stoppages and poor climate.

Photograph by: Andreas Beil

Who’re favourites for the 2024 Le Mans 24 Hours?

Though the #51 Ferrari automotive – pushed by Antonio Giovinazzi, James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi – is the reigning Le Mans winner, 2024 has not been so variety because the trio sit ninth within the championship with fourth in Spa-Francorchamps being their greatest outcome.

They need to have received in Imola although, the season’s second spherical, as #51 was main a Ferrari 1-2 after 4 of six hours however the staff was too late in pitting its automobiles for moist tyres.

That dropped Ferrari out of competition and handed victory to the #7 Toyota – pushed by Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Nyck de Vries – which is considered one of three entrants to have received this 12 months.

The Porsche Penske of Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer and Laurens Vanthoor, and the Staff Jota Porsche of Callum Ilott and Will Stevens each have one win apiece, as nicely. However it’s the former who holds the championship lead, as its run of solely prime two finishes locations the #6 Penske 22 factors above the Jota Porsche, which got here outdoors of the factors in Imola after second in Qatar.

So, one might argue that it’s possible a Porsche will win this 12 months’s Le Mans, which might be the German producer’s first victory there since 2017. However one can’t low cost the reigning WEC champions Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa, regardless of the Toyota trio mendacity eighth within the 2024 standings with fifth in Imola being their greatest outcome to date.

Something can occur through the gruelling occasion, so it’s typically laborious to foretell who will emerge victorious – particularly when Le Mans was the one spherical that Toyota didn’t win in 2023.

And it’s one that would fully change the championship image, as Le Mans affords probably the most factors – 50 for the winner – of any WEC race.

Elsewhere, a Porsche can also be main the LMGT3 standings the place Klaus Bachler, Alex Malykhin and Joel Sturm maintain virtually double the factors tally of these behind.

The Manthey Racing trio have 72 factors which means they’re already 35 forward of Staff WRT (Augusto Farfus, Sean Gelael and Darren Leung) and Coronary heart of Racing (Ian James, Daniel Mancinelli and Alex Riberas) in joint-second.

This comes on account of the #92 Porsche scoring a podium in every spherical to date, together with victory within the Qatar season opener, whereas these in second failed to assert any factors at Spa. So, one other robust displaying in Le Mans, the season’s halfway-point, might go a good distance in serving to Bachler, Malykhin and Sturm to clinch the LMGT3 title.

It’s the first time that WEC has used a two-class construction, because the long-standing LMP2 was dropped for 2024 because of rising demand within the rejuvenated prime class which noticed the likes of Lamborghini, BMW and Alpine arrive for this 12 months.

Nevertheless, LMP2 is returning as a one-off for Le Mans the place it has 16 grid slots with all drivers utilizing an Oreca 07-Gibson.