The most thrilling comebacks in Le Mans history – and the British hypercar gunning for glory

Telegraph

14-06-2025

At 4pm local time today, 62 cars will cross the start-line of the Circuit de la Sarthe, outside the French city of Le Mans, for the 93rd running of the most famous endurance race in the world.
If Formula One is a series of high-speed sprints between 20 near-identical cars, the 24 Hours of Le Mans is motorsport's answer to the ultra-marathon, with a broader spread of machinery. An intense and relentless day and night of high-octane entertainment that pushes cars and competitors to breaking point. Covering more miles in a single race than some F1 cars will do in a whole season, Le Mans has been likened to a 24-hour war.
Despite this attrition, the race that dates back to 1923 has a way of enticing some of the world's greatest car manufacturers back year on year in the hope they'll take the title as the most consistent, reliable and fastest team in endurance racing. It's an irresistible challenge that's seen some of the most prestigious marques come, go and then come back for more.
British challenge
For this year's event, all eyes are on Aston Martin as the great British marque returns to Le Mans in the top-flight Hypercar category, in search of its first outright victory in 66 years, when Roy Salvadori and Carroll Shelby drove a DBR1 to victory in 1959. Helping it do that will be a brace of Valkyrie AMR-LMHs, a Le Mans-ready version of the £2.5 million Valkyrie road car from the pen of Adrian Newey, perhaps the finest racing car designer of the past 30 years.
'It would be almost unimaginable for Adrian Newey to design a car and not think about it going racing at some point,' says Adam Carter, Aston Martin's head of endurance motorsport. 'With an extraordinary fusion of F1 technology and road car mastery, the Valkyrie is truly built for racing.'
Going up against seasoned veterans Porsche, Ferrari, Toyota, BMW, Alpine, Peugeot and Cadillac, Aston Martin's return to Le Mans will be hailed as one of the greatest comebacks of all time – if it goes to plan.
Ahead of its big moment at the French endurance classic, here's a look back at the marques which defied the odds to make miraculous comebacks at the world's greatest endurance race.
1966
Ford: all-American revenge
Ford's victory over Ferrari in 1966 was a sporting fairytale worthy of Hollywood, so much so the event was made into a film in 2019, starring Matt Damon and Christian Bale. The story starts with Henry Ford II's failed bid to buy the Italian marque from Enzo Ferrari himself, after years of Ferrari dominance at Le Mans. Bitter from the collapse of the deal between him and il Commendatore, Ford decided to take on one of the greatest names in motorsport head-on.
To do so, Ford hired Texan racer Carroll Shelby, a former Le Mans winner turned car designer, and instructed him to build a car capable of beating Ferrari and winning Le Mans outright. Together with the help of British driver and mechanic Ken Miles, the Ford GT40 was born. Despite getting off to a rough start, failing to finish in 1964 and 1965, the following year GT40 s took the top three places, making it one of the greatest redemption stories in Le Mans history.
1988
Jaguar: the Big Cat roars again
​In the 1980s, Jaguar made a triumphant return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans after more than two decades away from top spot. Partnering with the Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR), the British manufacturer bravely entered into the Group C bear pit – a class dominated by Porsche at the time – with its sleek, Silk Cut-liveried XJR.
After several years of development and near misses, Jaguar finally achieved victory in 1988 when five TWR Jaguars squared up against three factory Porsches. After a long battle, the V12-powered XJR-9 driven by Jan Lammers, Johnny Dumfries and Andy Wallace took the chequered flag ahead of the Porsche of Derek Bell, Klaus Ludwig and Hans-Joachim Stuck. It marked Jaguar's first win at Le Mans since 1957, when Ivor Bueb and Ron Flockhart took the flag in a D-type but, more significantly, it proved Jaguar was capable of curtailing Porsche's dominance of the race.
2003
Bentley: an Audi wolf in Bentley clothing
As one of the greatest and longest-standing names in Le Mans history, it's surprising Bentley hasn't been on the startline more often. In the 1920s golden days, when swashbuckling Bentley Boys like Woolf 'Babe' Barnato and Sir Henry 'Tim' Birkin would pilot supercharged 'Blower' Bentleys across the Channel before racing at Le Mans, the marque racked up five outright wins between 1924 and 1930.
So, when Bentley announced it would be returning to Le Mans in 2001 with its Audi-inspired Speed 8, it caused quite a stir. Fast forward to 2003 and the marque claimed a dominant victory, with Rinaldo Capello, Tom Kristensen and Guy Smith behind the wheel – Bentley's first overall victory since 1930.
While the car wore a Bentley badge, it was largely down to the operational and strategic support from Joest Racing, the team behind fellow VW Group marque Audi's previous Le Mans success, which clinched the win for the British marque. Having achieved outright victories in 2000, 2001 and 2002, Audi's works Le Mans programme was paused in 2003 to give Bentley the win, before the German marque re-emerged to take victory again from 2004 onwards. Between 1999 and 2016, Audi racked up 13 victories in 18 starts. Had it not been for its sister brand Bentley getting in the way, Audi would have swerved that 'unlucky' number 13.
2023
Ferrari: Maranello's miraculous return to glory
Enticed back to top-class racing at Le Mans by the creation of the new Hypercar category in 2021, Ferrari waited until the Le Mans Centenary race in 2023 to claim its historic victory. Before then, the Maranello-based marque hadn't secured an overall victory at Le Mans since 1965, when Masten Gregory and Jochen Rindt took the flag in a 250 LM, a year before Ford would put an end to Italian endurance racing dominance.
With the added pressure of making a comeback the same year that the race was celebrating its centenary, few believed Ferrari could top Toyota at the first attempt, given the Japanese manufacturer had won the previous four races. Equipped with the Rosso Corsa red 499P, the No. 51 Ferrari, piloted by Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi, led the final 55 laps to secure the win, marking Ferrari's 10th overall victory at Le Mans and its first factory-backed entry in the top category since 1973.
2025
Aston Martin?
Hoping to rekindle the British marque's fortunes in top-class racing at Le Mans are two V12-powered Valkyrie AMR-LMHs. Behind the wheel of the all-British no.007 car – naturally – will be Harry Tincknell, Tom Gamble and Ross Gunn, which will be joined by a no.009 sister car on the grid.
Whether Adrian Newey's Le Mans-spec Valkyrie will be enough to top the intense competition over 24 hours remains to be seen. Since it was established in 2021, the Hypercar class has attracted a whole new level of competition to the world's most famous 24-hour race, with reigning champion Ferrari keen to defend its title and Porsche eager to add to its record tally of 19 outright wins in this corner of France.
'We have been present at Le Mans since the earliest days, and through those glorious endeavours we succeeded in winning Le Mans in 1959 and our class 19 times over the past 95 years,' says Lawrence Stroll, chairman of Aston Martin.
'Now we return to the scene of those first triumphs aiming to write new history with a racing prototype inspired by the fastest production car Aston Martin has ever built.'