Though halted by the red flag, the first qualifying session of the 82nd edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans still identifies a preliminary hierarchy.

The Automobile Club de l’Ouest is pleased to announce that Sir Mark Cavendish, who holds the record for the most Tour de France stages won (35), will wave the start of the 2026 24 Hours of Le Mans, at 16:00 on Saturday 13 June.

<p>Emblematic figure of world sport, <strong>Sir Mark Cavendish rewrote cycling history</strong> as he put his name to one Tour de France stage after another &ndash;&shy; totalling 35 in all. Awarded Knight of the British Empire in 2024, the Manx Missile is particularly fond of France, having won many a sprint on its roads and inspired a generation of cyclists. The Tour de France and the 24 Hours of Le Mans have much in common. Both are monuments of world sport, both French, both household names all around the globe.</p>

<p>As official starter, Cavendish joins a list of great sportsmen who have paid the event the same honour. As a formidable competitor, he will be in excellent company on the starting grid this June.</p>

<h2>Sir Mark Cavendish</h2>

<p><em><strong>&quot;France and me go back a long way. The Tour taught me everything I know about pain, glory, and pushing your limits. Some competitions transcend their discipline; they belong to all sports fans everywhere. The 24 Hours of Le Mans is one of them. It&rsquo;s a temple of sport and I&rsquo;m looking forward to experiencing the start from the inside.&quot;</strong></em></p>

<h2>Pierre Fillon, President of the Automobile Club de l&rsquo;Ouest</h2>

<p><em><strong>&quot;Sir Mark Cavendish is an outstanding sportsman and a fitting starter for our 94th 24-hour race. He stands for all that this event holds dear: dazzling performance and shared passion.&quot;</strong></em></p>

<p><u><strong>Previous 24 Hours of Le Mans Official Starters</strong></u></p>

<ul>
	<li>2025&nbsp; Roger Federer &mdash; Tennis</li>
	<li>2024&nbsp; Zin&eacute;dine Zidane &mdash; Football</li>
	<li>2023&nbsp; LeBron James &mdash; Basketball</li>
</ul>

<p><strong><u>Some of the other greats:</u></strong></p>

<ul>
	<li>2018&nbsp; Rafael Nadal &mdash; Tennis</li>
	<li>2016&nbsp; Brad Pitt &mdash; Cinema</li>
</ul>

World-renowned cyclist Sir Mark Cavendish to wave the start of the 24 Hours of Le Mans

To mark the 94th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Automobile Club de l’Ouest, in collaboration with Kappa, the event’s Official Outfitter, is unveiling the new official collection dedicated to the world’s greatest endurance race.

<p>Designed to extend the 24 Hours of Le Mans experience beyond the racetrack, this collection celebrates the legacy of motorsports, the identity of the major motorsport nations, and the unique world of endurance racing. It is organized around three complementary themes:&nbsp;<strong>TEAM KIT, FANWEAR, and HERITAGE</strong>.</p>

<h2>TEAM KIT &ndash; The official team gear</h2>

<p>Building on the success of previous editions, the TEAM KIT reflects the operational needs of the teams competing in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.</p>

<p>Developed to meet the demands of the track, this line combines functionality, comfort, and understated style in a design true to Kappa&rsquo;s technical DNA. A collection designed to support race participants in the most demanding conditions.</p>

<h2>FANWEAR &ndash; The spirit of the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the great nations of motorsport</h2>

<p>The FANWEAR collection draws inspiration from racing culture and the history of the 24 Hours of Le Mans through a reinterpretation of motorsport&rsquo;s iconic symbols.</p>

<p>Available in green, red, and blue, several styles pay homage to the historic colors of the great motorsport nations: the United Kingdom, Italy, and France. The pieces proudly bear the LE MANS logo and reflect enthusiasts&rsquo; passion for the world of endurance racing.</p>

<p>Through the EROI project (&ldquo;heroes&rdquo; in Italian), Kappa also highlights the concepts of belonging, collective passion, and sporting identity, in the spirit of the great communities that have kept the 24 Hours of Le Mans alive for over a century.</p>

<p>The FANWEAR collection also includes a more lifestyle-oriented capsule line, as well as two signature jerseys:</p>

<ul>
	<li>A jersey inspired by the iconic yellow and blue speed bumps of the 24 Hours of Le Mans circuit;</li>
	<li>A tone-on-tone black jersey featuring a checkered pattern, a direct nod to the historic codes of motorsport.</li>
</ul>

<h2>HERITAGE &ndash; An elegant and timeless vision of endurance racing</h2>

<p>With the HERITAGE line, the ACO and Kappa offer a more premium take on the world of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.</p>

<p>Inspired by Italian elegance, this range combines tailored cuts, high-quality materials, and refined details. Polos, jackets, and accessories make up a wardrobe designed to extend the event experience in a style that is both modern and timeless.</p>

<h2>A Presence at the Heart of the Event</h2>

<p>The launch of this collection is accompanied by an immersive photo and video campaign highlighting the intensity, aesthetics, and culture of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.</p>

<p>As part of its partnership with the 24 Hous of Le Mans, Kappa will also be present at the heart of the race village with an official boutique dedicated to this collection.</p>

<h2>Availability</h2>

<p>The official 24 Hours of Le Mans x Kappa collection is <a href="https://www.kappa.fr/pages/24-heures-du-mans" target="_blank"><u><strong>available today on the Kappa website</strong></u></a> and will be available at the Kappa boutique in the 24 Hours of Le Mans village from June 6 to 14, 2026. It is also partially available on <a href="https://boutique.lemans.org" target="_blank">boutique.lemans.org</a> and in the&nbsp; 24 Hours of Le Mans official stores.</p>

ACO and Kappa unveil the official collection for the 2026 24 Hours of Le Mans

Just a few weeks ahead of the 94th running of Le Mans (10-14 June), the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) is in full swing with BMW M Team WRT dominating the Hypercar standings as Porsche delivers consistency in LMGT3. The points system specific to the 24 Hours means the top prizes in each class are still up for grabs.

<p>The&nbsp;6 Hours of Imola and&nbsp;TotalEnergies 6 Hours of&nbsp;Spa-Francorchamps set the tone for what&#39;s to come at the 2026 24 Hours: every&nbsp;constructor firmly believes it can win Le Mans this year.</p>

<p>While Toyota Racing stood out&nbsp;at Imola demonstrating a perfect command of&nbsp;endurance racing, BMW M Team WRT responded with a resolute one-two punch at Spa-Francorchamps. The German carmaker&nbsp;is currently leading the FIA Endurance Hypercar Manufacturers Championship with&nbsp;59 points, just&nbsp;seven ahead of&nbsp;Toyota. Ferrari-AF Corse trails with&nbsp;42 points, but never underestimate the Italian marque&nbsp;at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.&nbsp;Last year, AF Corse&#39;s #83&nbsp;Ferrari 499P served&nbsp;Maranello a third win in a row, its 12th total.</p>

<p>BMW is heading into the season&#39;s main event&nbsp;with momentum, Toyota with&nbsp;experience and&nbsp;Ferrari fueled by the desire for a historic repeat. In their rearview for now are Aston Martin THOR Team and&nbsp;Alpine Endurance Team boasting 14 points each, while Peugeot TotalEnergies and&nbsp;Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA are still looking&nbsp;for the spark to transform&nbsp;their potential into top&nbsp;results.&nbsp;Lastly, Hypercar class rookie Genesis Magma Racing earned its first points in Belgium.&nbsp;</p>

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<p>&nbsp;</p>

<h2>The&nbsp;24 Hours of Le&nbsp;Mans is much more than winning</h2>

<p>At Le Mans, the winner is awarded not only a stunning trophy&nbsp;but&nbsp;a whopping&nbsp;50 points in the championship (instead of the standard&nbsp;25 for a six-hour race). Victory at the 24 Hours can turn the provisional WEC classification on its head in an instant.</p>

<p>To give you an idea of the race&#39;s impact, second place pulls in&nbsp;36 points and third earns 30, so the WEC season can change drastically in a single&nbsp;weekend. BMW M Team WRT knows it. Toyota Racing too. Ferrari-AF Corse better than anyone.</p>

<p>That&nbsp;changes everything in pit lane. The engineers know not to&nbsp;approach this race like a standard round because every detail counts double. Managing traffic becomes a tightrope walk. The slightest mechanical intervention&nbsp;is carried out with&nbsp;surgical precision. And the drivers understand&nbsp;in the early hours of the morning, when fatigue blurs their bearings,&nbsp;the championship can turn on a single braking maneuver.</p>

<h2>LMGT3 |&nbsp;Porsche on top with mcLaren and&nbsp;BMW hot on its heels</h2>

<p>There seems to be some score-settling on the menu&nbsp;in LMGT3. Last year, The Bend Manthey&#39;s #92&nbsp;Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3 claimed the top step on the class podium and the team&nbsp;is definitely fired up for a second consecutive win.</p>

<p>After finishing third at Imola and delivering a solid performance at&nbsp;Spa-Francorchamps, the #92&nbsp;Porsche snatched the lead in the FIA Endurance LMGT3 Teams Trophy with 30 points. But the pressure is on. The #10&nbsp;McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo of&nbsp;Garage 59, winner in Belgium, lags by only four points. Team WRT&#39;s #69 BMW M4 LMGT3 Evo, winner at Imola, also remains ideally&nbsp;positioned.</p>

<p>TF Sport&#39;s #33&nbsp;Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R follows with 22 points, while&nbsp;Vista AF Corse, The Heart of Racing and&nbsp;Akkodis ASP Team wait for the perfect&nbsp;moment to strike.</p>

<p>This is precisely why the 94th running is special. There are&nbsp;so many contenders for victory in the WEC. Rarely have the margins between competitors been so negligible as race week approaches. Soon, the grandstands will be buzzing as&nbsp;the&nbsp;Hypercars, LMP2&nbsp;prototypes and&nbsp;LMGT3s take the start&nbsp;after dark!</p>

BMW and others gearing up for epic battles at the 2026 24 Hours of Le Mans

On Friday 5 and Saturday 6 June this year, the place de la République in the city centre will serve as the stage for the first electrifying highlight of the 94th running of the Le Mans classic, officially kicking off race week with the one event more highly anticipated than the 24 Hours itself.

<p>Every year, race week kickstarts&nbsp;in the Le&nbsp;Mans city centre with die-hard fans as far as the eye can see &ndash; cheering, taking photos left and right,&nbsp;and generally amping up the excitement level as the 62 cars entered in the 24 Hours submit to two days of administrative and&nbsp;technical checks known as Scrutineering.&nbsp;</p>

<p>This&nbsp;is one of the rare moments you can actually get close to the&nbsp;Hypercars, LMP2s and&nbsp;LMGT3s, as well as the drivers, entered in the most spectacular endurance race in the world.</p>

<p>On Friday 5 June at 10:00, Inter Europol Competition&#39;s #43 ORECA 07-Gibson LMP2 will open the show, followed by the other racing cars&nbsp;until Team WRT&#39;s #69&nbsp;BMW M4 LMGT3 Evo closes the event on Saturday&nbsp;6 June at&nbsp;12:40.</p>

<p>After&nbsp;Scrutineering concludes, the festivities continue with the unforgettable city centre parade. For the fourth year in a row, select cars entered in the 2026 24 Hours will snake through the streets from the place du Jet d&rsquo;Eau to the place des Jacobins, reminding everyone in attendance that this&nbsp;race belongs&nbsp;as much to the city as it does to its&nbsp;legion of fans worldwide.</p>

<p>Check out the 2026 Scrutineering Programme for the 94th&nbsp;24 Hours of Le&nbsp;Mans below.</p>

24 Hours of Le Mans – 2026 Scrutineering Programme

<p style="text-align: justify;">
	For its return to prototypes, Porsche has already made its mark: the two 919 Hybrids clocked the two best times, Hartley-Webber-Bernhard ahead of Lieb-Dumas-Jani. Already victorious in the LM P2 class at the first two rounds of the FIA World Championship (WEC), G-Drive Racing achieved the best time in the class. It was Ferrari domination in the LM GTE class, with the No. 51 AF Corse 458 Italia in the LM GTE Pro class and SMP Racing&#39;s in the LM GTE Am class.<br />
	<br />
	Among the novelties in this 2014 edition, the Ligier JS P2 is fourth in LM P2, with the No. 35 of Brundle-Mardenboroug-Shulzhitskiy. The new Corvette holds the same position in the LM GTE Pro class.</p>
<p>
	<img alt="" src="/wpphpFichiers/1/1/ressources/Image/actualites/2014/24-heures-du-mans/06/q1.JPG" style="width: 960px; height: 527px;" /></p>
<p>
	Click here for the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.24h-lemans.com/wpphpFichiers/1/1/ressources/Pdf/2014/24-heures-du-mans/classification/24-heures-du-mans-2014-qualifying-practice_01.pdf">complete rankings of the first qualifying session of the 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans</a>.</p>


Le Mans 2014 - The results of the first qualifying session

Related News

World-renowned cyclist Sir Mark Cavendish to wave the start of the 24 Hours of Le Mans

ACO and Kappa unveil the official collection for the 2026 24 Hours of Le Mans

BMW and others gearing up for epic battles at the 2026 24 Hours of Le Mans

24 Hours of Le Mans – 2026 Scrutineering Programme

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