• Valkyrie, the only road-derived hypercar to contest Le Mans, carries encouraging form into 2026 edition of world’s most famous race
  • Aston Martin THOR Team brings new special livery as it carries the hopes for legions of British racing fans at Le Mans
  • All-British line-up, Harry Tincknell, Tom Gamble and Ross Gunn reunited to race Valkyrie #007
  • Three-time FIA WEC GT champion Marco Sørensen, Alex Riberas and Roman De Angelis chasing first points of season with Valkyrie #009
  • Valkyrie is the only ‘Hypercar’ to contest the world’s two premier sportscar series, IMSA and the FIA World Endurance Championship, in 2026

8 June 2026, Le Mans, France: Aston Martin returns once again to the scene of its greatest sporting glory – the Circuit de La Sarthe – this June, as the breathtaking Valkyrie hypercar renews its quest to earn a place among the pantheon of the world’s most famous race; the 2026 24 Hours of Le Mans.

A year on from its first appearance at Le Mans, and 67 years (to the week) after the iconic Aston Martin DBR1 achieved its famed overall victory for the British ultra-luxury performance brand in the 1959 24 Hours of Le Mans with drivers Roy Salvardori (GBR) and Carroll Shelby (USA), Valkyrie, born of the ultimate expression of a road-going hypercar, is back to challenge for overall victory in the premier class of the world’s most famous endurance motorsport event.

The 62-strong entry for the 94th 24 Hours of Le Mans, which will be officially started at 16:00 (CEST) 13 June by Aston Martin High Performance Ambassador Sir Mark Cavendish (the former professional cyclist who holds the record for the most stage wins of the Tour de France), includes two specially-liveried works Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie Hypercars. Fresh from encouraging points-finishing performances in the opening rounds of the FIA World Endurance Championship [WEC] at Imola (ITA) and Spa-Francorchamps (BEL), the British-built and engineered, 6.5-litre V12-powered machines have built hard-earned momentum heading into the most important race of the season.

“More than a year into Aston Martin’s hypercar endurance racing programme, we can say with certainty that Valkyrie has begun to realise its potential and is continuing to gain competitive impetus in the WEC,” said Aston Martin CEO, Adrian Hallmark. “Le Mans is perhaps the most important standalone race in global motorsport, and we are of course fiercely proud to carry British hopes of glory into this year’s 94th running of this prestigious event. Valkyrie wholly represents Aston Martin’s uncompromising approach to performance engineering, and the racing interpretation carries with it the very spirit of our founding principles. You could say that Le Mans is Valkyrie’s perfect natural habitat. 

“Aston Martin’s pedigree at Le Mans remains a proud one across the classes we compete in. This brings with it a responsibility to the huge number of fans who travel far and wide to come and witness us race in France. Valkyrie is already adored for its sonorous V12 and stunning silhouette, but thanks to the excellent work and outstanding endeavor of our works partner The Heart of Racing, Aston Martin is steadily moving towards the legacy it truly deserves on the track. Long may this continue.”

Valkyrie’s 2026 Le Mans livery, which features a Union Flag on the front splitter, is a tribute to the great British racing heritage at Le Mans and demonstrates Aston Martin THOR’s pride associated with carrying British hopes in the top class of the great race.

“The pageantry and prestige of the 24 Hours of Le Mans is unique within motor racing, and it is only right that Aston Martin should line up shoulder to shoulder with the best sportscar manufacturers in the world; a breathtaking gathering of fierce competitors,” said Aston Martin Head of Endurance, Adam Carter. “We are proud to be carrying the hope of British fans, as well of those of Aston Martin all over the world, into this year’s race.

“Aston Martin’s DNA was forged in motorsport, and we have played a role in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, on and off, for nearly a century, so it’s only right that we take our place in the top class of the event. We are participating with the intention of winning because that is what we are here to try and do.

“But like we always say, it’s only worth racing if the competition is worthy, and it’s never been stronger than it is today. We understand that at Le Mans, just as in WEC and IMSA, we have much to learn compared to many of our key rivals – who in some cases have been racing here for more than a decade – and we do not underestimate that at all. For us, the learning process of the Hypercar class, and competing at Le Mans, continues perpetually, and as we develop as a team, we continue to uncover new ways to extract performance from our platform so that we can move forwards and fight at the front of the field.”

Masterminded by works team The Heart of Racing (THOR), the two Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyries are the first factory Aston Martin hypercars to compete in the top class (Hypercar) of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) – which includes the blue riband 24 Hours of Le Mans – since the series was founded in 2012.

Developed by Aston Martin and THOR from the Valkyrie production model, the Le Mans Hypercar (LMH) version is the only car in the WEC’s premier category derived from a road-legal hypercar and is also the only car built to Hypercar homologation that competes simultaneously in WEC and the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship.

The race-optimised Valkyrie Hypercar carbon-fibre chassis is powered by a modified lean-burn iteration of the sensational naturally aspirated 6.5-litre V12 Cosworth-developed engine, which in standard road-going form revs to 11,000rpm and develops more than 1000bhp. For competition purposes, the engine – which persists at the heart of the entire Valkyrie bloodline – adheres to a strict 500kw (680bhp) regulation power limit.

For Le Mans, the Aston Martin THOR Team returns to the three-driver line-ups for the first time this season following the postponement of the opening round, the Qatar 1812km (eight-hour) event, in March.

It means that IMSA Valkyrie racer and IMSA GTD Pro race winner Ross Gunn returns to the regular all-British line-up in the #007 entry for the first time in 2026. Harry Tincknell, the 2016 European Le Mans Series (ELMS) overall champion and 2020 Le Mans LMGTE winner (for Aston Martin) will also be joined in this car by rising endurance racing star Tom Gamble. For Tincknell and Gamble Le Mans represents an opportunity to string together a third WEC points finish in succession, having achieved the best series finish yet for Valkyrie at Spa with fourth place.

Aston Martin’s most successful works driver Marco Sørensen (DEN) makes his 12th start in the event in the #009 Valkyrie, having won the LMGTE class at Le Mans in an Aston Martin Vantage in 2022. The three-time WEC GT champion is joined, as always, by multiple WEC and IMSA GTD Pro race-winner Alex Riberas (ESP). The 2022 IMSA GTD champion Roman De Angelis (CDN) rejoins the crew for Le Mans for his third Le Mans start.

Valkyrie and Aston Martin THOR return to Le Mans with happy memories having recorded a trouble-free double-finish on their debut in 2025. Moreover, last year’s event marked the first points-finish for the programme, earning Manufacturers’ world championship points with the #009 finishing 12th overallahead of the #007 in 14th.

“We’re excited to be going back to Le Mans,” said Ian James, Aston Martin THOR Team principal. “The position the team is in now, in terms of experience and understanding, processes and methodology, and how to find performance in Valkyrie, is a step in magnitude away from where we were last year. That said Le Mans is unique, and among the sternest challenges we face all season long, and our experience is therefore less than some of our competitors when it comes to racing there.

“We will approach this race the same way we do any other, by focusing on execution, minimising errors and being ready to take advantage of opportunities presented to us. There has never been a more competitive field in the top class at Le Mans, and while we do not underestimate the challenge in front of us, we are as ready as we can be to carry the fight to the opposition.”

Aston Martin’s endurance racing legacy is indelibly linked to Le Mans. A mere 15 years after the marque was formed by Robert Bamford and Lionel Martin, it was racing at la Sarthe; its debut coming in 1928 with a pair of AM415 ‘Internationals’. Three years later it claimed its first victory when Augustus Cesare Bertelli and Maurice Harvey won the 1.5-litre class in an International. It took class honours in 1932 and ’33 as well. Two more wins in the ’30s for the Ulster meant that Aston Martin ended the pre-war era as one of Le Mans pre-eminent manufacturers.

The race wasn’t held between 1940-1948 with Europe affected by the second World War, but once it returned in 1949, Aston Martin did too, making the 3-litre class its own through the 1950s. It won the class six times, finishing first, second and third with the DB2 in 1951. This halcyon era culminated in a glorious overall victory for Shelby and Salvadori in 1959. It was also in this period that Aston Martin became known as a haven for legendary racing stars. Among the many aces to have raced Aston Martins at Le Mans are Jim Clark, Sir Stirling Moss, Peter Collins, Sir Jack Brabham, Shelby, Salvadori, Tony Brooks, Phil Hill, John Surtees, Innes Ireland, Paul Frére, Graham Hill and Bruce McLaren.

This century Aston Martin has come to the fore once again as one of the truly great GT manufacturers. Returning to the race with a GT1 class podium in 2006, Darren Turner, Rickard Rydell and David Brabham recorded a famous victory over Corvette with the mighty V12-powered DBR9 in 2007, heralding the beginning of a long run of success with engineering partner Prodrive, which celebrates 25 years at La Sarthe this week. Aston Martin Racing repeated the victory the following year. In the WEC era, which began in 2012, Aston Martin has added five more class victories with Vantage, the most recent in 2022.

Valkyrie marks the 29th different Aston Martin chassis/engine combination to compete at Le Mans. No venue has given Aston Martin so much success, or more steadfastly proven that its DNA is forged out of the very essence of competition, than Le Mans. ****