24 Hours of Le Mans LIVE – Jenson Button, Valentino Rossi and star cast aim for glory in fabled race

Post retiring in 2021, MotoGP icon Valentino Rossi took to four-wheel racing and will be making his Le Mans debut this year in the GT3 class. The Italian is hoping to realise a “dream” and claim victory:

“It was always in my mind because I started my career with go-karts,” he told Eurosport. “So I started as a car driver. I started with the go-karts when I was very young and I started to race when I was five and six.

“My way was more the cars because Graziano, my father, was worried about motorcycles. Graziano raced with motorcycles and he had a lot of crashes, a lot of injuries, so he was scared.

“For me, the switch from bikes to cars is more easy, because you drive a car in your life even if you are not a [racing] driver. It’s [part of] normal life. A motorcycle, if you are not a rider, maybe you never drive. And for me, at the top of motorcycling, you need to start when you are very young.

“For example, I did a test with Lewis [Hamilton], we swapped and I drove the Formula 1 car and he rode my M1. He was fast but you know, the position on the seat is something you learn when you are very young. After, it is difficult.

“The 24 Hours of Le Mans was my target from the beginning because it’s the most famous race in the world. From motorcycle side, we always followed the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the paddock, but after you understand the race, it is incredible and you are always very fast. The dream is to try and win or try to arrive on the podium.”

Le Mans rookie Mick Schumacher says he is fully focused on a new adventure as he pilots the #36 Alpine:

“It is a great pleasure to be here as part of Alpine, a great French team. We’re very excited for it. It’s going to be a great event,” the former F1 driver said.

“I think it is a great race and it’s my first time so I’m experiencing everything for the very first time. It really shows that people are here because they’re passionate about racing and that’s a very, very nice thing to see. Personally, I’m just excited to get to the race, to see how that feels, 24 hours on edge, the longest I will have done that. One of the big points here is there’s always something happening. We always have traffic, we always have to think about strategy. You always have to make sure you can get to the end of your stint. There are a lot of cars out there, and if you happen to be in the wrong spot at the wrong time, it can be very costly. You know, it just adds to the challenge.

“Honestly, I didn’t think it was that difficult. We had a test in Jerez that I think was by far much more difficult than this. I really enjoyed it. It’s a different feeling and gives a different vibe. I think it’s going to be an exciting race for sure.”

A total of 17 former F1 competitiors will be on the grid for this year’s 24 hours of Le Mans, among them Romain Grosjean who’ll be steering the #19 Lamborghini. While relishing his return to the prestigious endurance race, the Frenchman is keeping expectations in check:

“It’s only year one, so, you know, we have to keep our expectations under control for sure,” he told Eurosport about racing for Lamborghini. “And Le Mans is such a tough race.

“I was lucky to compete in a lot of great races in my life but I was speaking with my wife earlier this season to say ‘Hey, I’m going to do Indy 500 and three weeks later, I’m going to go to Le Mans with Lamborghin,’ and she said ‘that is pretty badass!’

“The cars are a very big mix of a single seater and a GT cars, you know, they’re pretty heavy,” he said. “But we also have some good downforce from the wings that’s more like a single-seater car. So I think it is a really good mix between the two and I enjoy driving them.

“I’m excited for the race and I’m excited for the whole week with the fans,” he added. “Now I live in the US so I don’t get to see the French fans as much as I would love to, but here we are and I will make sure I spend some time with them.

“It is a challenge with traffic at night. It’s very different from everything I’ve done. But I like it. It’s a different vibe, a different environment.

“Well, I know how great the last time I came here was, it’s a long time ago [2010], it was the GT1 championship, it was a lot of fun. We had to retire the car through the race, but I had a really good time here.”

The cars were out on track earlier today for their 15-minute warm-up which took place in light rain. While the #83 Ferrari (Kubica/Shwartzman/Ye) set the fastest time ahead of their #51 sister car (Pier Guidi/Calado/Giovinazzi) and the #35 Alpine (Chatin/Habsburg/Milesi), it’s been trouble already for Toyota as Nyck de Vries collided with a slower GT3 car. There was some damage to the #7 Toyota, but it should be an easy enough fix.

A number of teams chose to not go out in warm-up.

Kevin Estre stole the show in the dying seconds to take Hyperpole victory for Porsche Penske Motorsport. Dries Vanthoor was favourite to take top spot after some impressive runs in practice, but his hopes were dashed when he put his BMW into the barriers.

The defending champions Ferrari qualified in P4. It’s been a frustrating outing so far for Toyota who missed the Hyperpole session.

• P1 #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport
• P2 #2 Cadillac Racing
• P3 #3 Cadillac Racing
• P4 #51 Ferrari AF Corse
• P5 #50 Ferrari AF Corse
• P6 #35 Alpine Endurance Team
• P7 #15 BMW M Team WRT
• P8 #12 Hertz Team Jota

The following line-ups will be racing for the 23 factory and customer hypercars (racing number, team name (manufacturer): driver line-up):

#2, Cadillac Racing (Cadillac Factory): Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn, Alex Palou

#3, Cadillac Racing (Cadillac Factory): Sebastien Bourdais, Scott Dixon, Renger van der Zande

#4, Porsche Penske Motorsport (Porsche Factory): Mathieu Jaminet, Felipe Nasr, Nick Tandy

#5, Porsche Penske Motorsport (Porsche Factory): Matt Campbell, Michael Christensen, Frederic Makowiecki

#6, Porsche Penske Motorsport (Porsche Factory): Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer, Laurens Vanthoor

#7, Toyota Gazoo Racing (Toyota Factory): Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez, Nyck de Vries

#8, Toyota Gazoo Racing (Toyota Factory): Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa

#11, Isotta Fraschini (Isotta Fraschini Factory): Carl Bennett, Antonio Serravalle, Jean-Karl Vernay

#12, Hertz Team Jota (Porsche Customer): Callum Ilott, Norman Nato, Will Stevens

#15, BMW M Team WRT (BMW Factory): Raffaele Marciello, Dries Vanthoor, Marco Wittman

#19, Lamborghini Iron Lynx (Lamborghini Factory): Matteo Cairoli, Andrea Caldarelli, Romain Grosjean

#20, BMW M Team WRT (BMW Factory): Robin Frijns, Rene Rast, Sheldon van der Linde

#35, Alpine Endurance Team (Alpine Factory): Paul-Loup Chatin, Ferdinand Habsburg, Charles Milesi

#36, Alpine Endurance Team (Alpine Factory): Nicolas Lapierre, Mick Schumacher, Matthieu Vaxiviere

#38, Hertz Team Jota (Porsche Customer): Jenson Button, Phil Hanson, Oliver Rasmussen

#50, Ferrari AF Corse (Ferrari Factory): Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina, Nicklas Nielsen

#51, Ferrari AF Corse (Ferrari Factory): James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi, Alessandro Pier Guidi

#63, Lamborghini Iron Lynx (Lamborghini Factory): Mirko Bortolotti, Daniil Kvyat, Edoardo Mortara

#83, Ferrari AF Corse (Ferrari Factory): Robert Kubica, Robert Shwartzman, Yifei Ye

#93, Peugeot TotalEnergies (Peugeot Factory): Mikkel Jensen, Nico Muller, Jean-Eric Vergne

#94, Peugeot TotalEnergies (Peugeot Factory): Paul di Resta, Loic Duval, Stoffel Vandoorne

#99, Proton Competition (Porsche Customer): Julien Andlauer, Neel Jani, Harry Tincknell

#311, Whelen Cadillac Racing (Cadillac Customer): Jack Aitken, Pipo Derani, Felipe Drugovich

Another big name to keep an eye out for is MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi who will be racing the #46 Team WRT BMW in the LMGT3 series alongside Ahmad Al Harthy and Maxime Martin.

Defending champions Ferrari are back in the competition with three teams, one of them the line-up that lifted the trophy a year ago, as well as Toyota who will be keen to regain the title with one of their two factory line-ups. Porsche too are back in the mix with six teams, Cadillac are lining up three, and Peugeot two teams.

Additionally, BMW (two teams), Lamborghini (two teams), Isotta Fraschini (one team) and Alpine (two teams) have joined the field this year.

The endurance race runs continuously over a 24-hour period. The team that covers the most distance over the course of the race will clinch the trophy.

Each team has three drivers that alternate over the 24 hours – no driver can race for more than 14 hours in total.

There are three different classes of cars: Hypercar, LMP2 and LMGT3. The hypercars are the fastest cars in endurance racing.

You can watch all the action from Le Mans 24 in the UK with discovery+, where fans can enjoy a subscription that includes TNT Sports, Eurosport and entertainment in one destination.

Good afternoon and thank you for joining our live text coverage of the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2024. It’s T-minus one hour for the 101st edition of what is widely considered the biggest race in motorsport and it comes with a stacked hypercar field. Twenty three hypercars, seven more than in 2023 with four additional manufacturers, will take to the Circuit de la Sarthe and battle it out for the coveted trophy. Defending champions Ferrari have stuck with the same driver line-up that took them to the title last year, but with bolstered competition will they be able to defend it? We’re about to find out!