Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA led the 2026 24 Hours of Le Mans at the 12-hour mark, with le mans live timing showing the order after a night that stripped time from several contenders. The lead came after a 45-minute neutralisation and a sequence of problems that left the race open but sharply altered.
Cadillac’s position at halfway came after the field had already been reshuffled shortly after midnight. Once the green flag returned at 00:23, the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid led the way ahead of the #20 BMW M Hybrid V8 and the #12 Cadillac V-Series.R, but the gap narrowed again when Brendon Hartley made a slight error at the Mulsanne Corner at 01:33 and the Cadillac moved to within four-tenths of a second.
Mulsanne Pressure on Hartley
Hartley’s mistake did not hand the race away, but it put the #12 Cadillac back into the fight and kept Toyota under direct pressure. A few minutes later, BMW switched the #20 to soft tyres while Toyota stayed on the medium compound, another move that kept the front of the race in motion rather than settled.
That tension at the front sat against a very different story for the #50 Ferrari 499P. It hit a problem with its fire extinguisher system at 00:25, and mechanics spent considerable time working beneath the driver’s seat before it returned to the track at 00:53 after a 28-minute stoppage.
#50 Ferrari 499P Drops Back
The Ferrari came back in 23rd place and eight laps down, a setback that changed its race from contention to recovery. AF Corse’s #83 Ferrari 499P stayed on track, and Robert Kubica said it had good pace but was losing too much time in the straights because of a lack of acceleration.
Shortly after midnight, the race had already been neutralised for 45 minutes after an off-track incident at the Forest Esses involving the #54 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3 Evo, which was later forced to retire. That interruption helped set up the fragmented race order that Cadillac later turned into the lead at halfway.
Genesis Rookie Run
Genesis Magma Racing’s rookie appearance also produced a delay when the #19 GMR-001 Hypercar driven by Paul-Loup Chatin came to a halt between Arnage and Indianapolis at 3:25. Chatin restarted it after radio instructions from his team, but the stoppage cost the car about 10 minutes.
At the 12-hour mark, Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA sat on top while Toyota, BMW and Cadillac were still in the mix at the front. The next stretch now turns on whether the leaders can hold position over the remaining hours while the cars that already lost laps chase a cleaner run to the finish.
