BMW left hurt after narrow Le Mans defeat to Toyota

BMW’s Le Mans breakthrough ends in frustration

BMW’s drivers admitted the emotion of finishing second at the Le Mans 24 Hours was sharpened by how close they came to victory, after the factory #20 M Hybrid V8 spent major parts of the race in contention for the overall win.

The race developed into a four-way fight between BMW, the two Toyotas and the #12 Cadillac, with temperature swings and caution periods repeatedly shifting the balance. For more on the race-winning Toyota effort, read our report on how Toyota defeated BMW and Cadillac to win Le Mans 24 Hours.

Frijns: ‘Only P1 counts’

“Of course, the disappointment is a bit higher than the happiness,” Frijns said. “It’s been a long 24-hour race. A lot of ups and downs. We’ve been very strong at the beginning, with taking the start and taking the lead directly and slightly pulling away from the field, so we were very hopeful.”

He added that BMW’s pace dipped before recovering during the night, only for Toyota to emerge as a persistent threat. Frijns also lost important time on a messy in-lap with three hours remaining, although he later passed Sebastien Buemi’s #8 Toyota in the final stint to secure second.

“It’s a bit painful to finish P2 in a race where only P1 counts, even when you are 10 seconds behind the leader,” he said.

Pride, pain and safety-car consequences

Rast described the podium as a major success for a programme that had not previously completed Le Mans without technical issues. BMW entered the Hypercar class in 2024 after first focusing on IMSA’s GTP category, and only recently claimed its first top-class WEC win at Spa.

Van der Linde echoed the same mixed feeling, calling BMW’s first Le Mans podium a proud moment but admitting that losing by 10 seconds “hurts.”

BMW Motorsport boss Andreas Roos said he had no regrets, but felt the second safety car with six hours remaining hurt the #20 crew’s race position. Roos explained that BMW had track position but an energy disadvantage before the caution, and the safety car erased the former while leaving the latter intact.

Still, he refused to claim BMW would have won without it. The verdict was more measured: the race might have unfolded differently, but Le Mans offered no guarantees.