How to watch the 2024 Le Mans 24 Hours: live stream and TV schedule

It’s the race everyone wants to win: the Le Mans 24 Hours returns in 2024 with a 23-strong Hypercar grid leading away a competitive field of LMP2 and LMGT3 cars in a race around the clock.

All the racing action will be available to watch via livestream, including the Hyperpole shootout at 7pm on Thursday and the full race from 3pm BST on Saturday. But, as ever, predicting who will reach the chequered flag first is a near-impossible task.

In 2023, Ferrari returned to Le Mans’ top class after a 50-year hiatus from the World Endurance Series to claim an historic 10th victory — overcoming the dominance of Toyota in the process. A year on from its triumph, the Maranello outfit is in fighting form to defend its crown, although holding onto it could prove difficult.

Toyota and Porsche — with a combined 24 Le Mans victories between them — look to be among the closest closest challengers for overall victory around La Sarthe’s 8.4-mile circuit, having already won in the World Endurance Championship this year, but with wet weather forecast, on top of the race’s trademark unpredictability, don’t rule out other manufacturers, including Lamborghini, Alpine, Peugeot, BMW and Cadillac.

How to watch the Le Mans 24 Hours

You can watch every session of the Le Mans 24 Hours on Eurosport’s channels, either through a Sky TV package or a subscription to Discovery+, costing £6.99 per month (cancel it afterwards or it will recur).

Broadcasts begin 15 minutes before each session time listed below, apart from the race itself which will have a one-hour build-up.

You can also stream via the WEC app (renamed to 24H Le Mans TV for race week). In addition to live coverage of every session, it also offers live onboard cameras, replays of the sessions and race, plus real-time telemetry. If you’re trackside in France, outside the UK or connecting via a VPN, then a pass for the race week costs £14.99. However, UK users’ only option is to buy the £44.99 season pack, which covers the full World Endurance Championship season.

That covers the pictures. For many, the only way to follow the Le Mans 24 Hours is through the unique coverage of John Hindhaugh and the Radio Le Mans crew. As ever, they will be broadcasting trackside, and you certainly won’t be alone if you choose to turn down the TV commentary and tune in to radiolemans.com (91.2FM if you’re at the circuit).

If you’re planning a less intensive viewing schedule over the weekend, highlights will be published hour-by-hour on the race’s official YouTube channel.

2024 Le Mans 24 Hours — Sessions you don’t want to miss: 

Who is competing at Le Mans in 2024? 

The largest top-class Le Mans field this century brings the hope of a frenetic battle at the front, with extra cars boosting the regular WEC line-up to 23 Hypercar entries.

A further 39 LMP2 and GT3 cars brings the total grid to 62 and 186 drivers, including sports car specialists, as well as those from F1, IndyCar and Formula E.

Hypercar 

Among the Hypercar line-up are 18 former F1 drivers , including 2009 world champion Jenson Button who will be behind the wheel of Team Jota’s No38 Porsche 963. Robert Kubica, who was on the cusp of a Ferrari F1 drive before a rally crash left him seriously injured in hospital, is finally realising his dream, racing for Ferrari this season. The team’s longstanding Italian rivals, Lamborghini, is fielding Daniil Kvyat and Romain Grosjean in its top-class Le Mans debut, while Kamui Kobayashi, Nyck de Vries, Sébastien Buemi and Brendon Hartley will have their sights set on victory for Toyota; Jean-Eric Vergne and Stoffel Vandoorne line up in a revised; Mick Schumacher will race at Le Mans for the first time; while other ex-F1 talent including Antonio Giovinazzi (Ferrari) and Paul Di Resta (Peugeot) are joined by current reserve drivers Robert Shwartzman (Ferrari),  and Felipe Drugovich will hope to make statements of their own.

The 2024 Le Mans 2024 Hours will also feature the Le Mans debut of reigning IndyCar champion Alex Palou, who will race for Cadillac, as will six-time series champion and 2008 Indy 500 winner Scott Dixon, who’s in the same car as four-time Champ Car champion and ex-Toro Rosso F1 driver Sébastien Bourdais.

But, as Ferrari proved last year, with a team made up largely of drivers who have climbed up the sports car ranks, single-seater experience is no prerequisite of success: Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado will be looking for a second win in succession alongside ex-Alfa Romeo F1 team-mate Giovinazzi.

LMP2 

The close-combat LMP2 class will return at Le Mans, despite being dropped from the World Endurance Championship this season, and should offer plenty of competition.

There’s experience in the ranks with veterans including Patrick Pilet, Le Mans class winner Oliver Jarvis, and Mathias Becher, who have each raced the endurance classic at least ten times. Few line-ups can boast the pooled 26-race experience of Ben Keating, Filipe Alberquerque and Ben Hanley, however — with four class wins between them.  The trio, in the United Autosports No23 car ill be among the favourites.

Don’t discount the younger contingent, though. European Le Mans Series leaders Inter Europol Competition have 19-year-old Vladislav Lomko along with Le Mans debutant Clément Novalak. Mercedes junior and 2023 F2 runner-up Frederik Vesti competes for Cool Racing, and secured his first podium at Paul Ricard at the second round of the European Le Mans series in May.

LMGT3 

Valentino Rossi will arguably be the headline act in a massive LMGT3 class which promises to be as heated as ever. The motorcycle legend, who remains the only rider in history to win 125cc, 250cc, 500cc and MotoGP World Championships, will be racing for Team WRT in a BMW M4 LMGT3, but will have contend heavily against the likes of Sarah Bovy, Michelle Gatting, Rahel Frey — who complete a strong line-up for the all-female Iron Dames team — as well as the leading Porsche 911 of Aliaksandr Malykhin, Joel Strum and Klaus Bachler.

What’s the weather at Le Mans this weekend?

Intermittent rain is forecast on all four days of competitive action at the 2024 Le Mans 24 Hours — creating possible havoc throughout the field.

On Wednesday June 12, La Sarthe is set to be soaked from 9am-2pm, before a break in the clouds could allow the track to dry ahead of qualifying practice at 6pm. The following day’s Hyperpole session is also expected to be held in the dry, with on-track temperatures forecast to reach 18C with 9mph winds.

Rain is set to fall at the start of this year’s Le Mans proceedings, with teams preparing for rainfall from 6am in the morning to 8pm in the evening. Night-time running should be mostly dry, although the track could still remain damp. Rain is forecast again from 6am-3pm as the teams close in on the chequered flag.

Guide to the Le Mans circuit (La Sarthe)

The La Sarthe circuit on which the Le Mans 24 Hours is held is one of the great motor sport challenges. At 13.6km (8.4 miles) the track is longer than most modern circuits, the official lap record being held by Toyota’s Mike Conway, who in 2019 clocked a 3min 17.297sec driving a TS050 LMP1 prototype.

Drivers clock some of the highest speeds in racing on the Mulsanne Straight, while negotiating the hazards of running on public roads: ruts, bumps, undulations and all.

The lap opens with a right-hand sweep into the Dunlop Curve before heading through the Dunlop Bridge and chicane section. A number of technical corners present themselves before drivers round Tertre Rouge, the right-hand turn which precedes drivers going full-throttle down the Mulsanne.

After negotiating the straight’s two chicanes, cars slam on the brakes for the Mulsanne corner, before taking on the left-right switch of Indianapolis and Arnage.

Competitors then slalom through the sweeping Porsche curves before the chicanes of Maison-Blanche, Ford and Raccordement finish the lap.

Run over 24 gruelling hours, Le Mans is one of racing’s greatest challenges,

2024 24 Hours of Le Mans schedule (BST)