Overview
- Sebastien Buemi in the No.8 Toyota led the field after the first hour on Saturday, holding about a 6.7‑second advantage following the opening pit‑stop cycle.
- René Rast and the No.20 BMW ran strongly early and led for much of the first hour before Toyota's early stops reversed the order.
- Toyota overcame poor grid positions of 14th and 15th by pitting very early on laps eight and nine to exploit clean air and vault into the lead when rivals stopped later.
- All 62 starters were still running after the opening hour with Job van Uitert's No.28 IDEC topping LMP2 and Jack Hawksworth's No.78 Lexus leading LMGT3, while the only notable incident was the No.61 Iron Lynx spin at Tertre Rouge.
- Pre‑race testing showed a tightly packed hypercar field and hot conditions plus a crowd of more than 300,000 are expected to increase mechanical and strategic pressure over the remaining 23 hours.