2021 24 Hours of Le Mans

The event, the fourth round of the 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship, was postponed from June to August to increase the likelihood of admitting spectators to the race amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in France.

The debuting Team WRT squad of Robin Frijns, Ferdinand Habsburg and Charles Milesi won the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class by 0.727 seconds over Jota Sport's Tom Blomqvist, Sean Gelael and Stoffel Vandoorne after the second WRT crew of Louis Delétraz, Robert Kubica and Yifei Ye failed to complete the final lap because of a throttle sensor problem stopping their class-leading Oreca 07 entry.

Ferrari won the Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Professional (LMGTE Pro) class with an AF Corse-fielded Ferrari 488 GTE Evo shared by James Calado, Côme Ledogar and Alessandro Pier Guidi beating Corvette Racing's Nicky Catsburg, Antonio García and Jordan Taylor in a Chevrolet Corvette C8.R by 41.686 seconds.

The Italian marque also won the Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Amateur (LMGTE Am) category for the first time with AF Corse's Nicklas Nielsen, François Perrodo and Alessio Rovera ahead of TF Sport's Felipe Fraga, Ben Keating and Dylan Pereira in an Aston Martin Vantage AMR.

Conway, Kobayashi and López's victory promoted them atop the Hypercar Drivers' Championship by nine points over their teammates, Buemi, Hartley and Nakajima, whose second-place finish demoted them to second.

With 60 points, Alpine's Nicolas Lapierre, André Negrão and Matthieu Vaxivière were third, with Glickenhaus' Romain Dumas and Richard Westbrook fourth.

[1] In the GTE Drivers' Championship, Porsche's Kévin Estre and Neel Jani led with 76 points ahead of AF Corse's James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi in second, and their third-placed teammates Miguel Molina and Daniel Serra.

[7] Attendees had to present a French Government health passport proving full vaccination, a negative COVID-19 lateral flow test taken within 48 hours, or provide proof of a previous COVID infection between fifteen days to six months and be deemed immune.

[16][17][a] The ACO granted the innovative spot to Frédéric Sausset's La Filière by SRT41 team,[17] who had deferred their planned entry from the 2020 event to the following year's race because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

84 Oreca 07-Gibson car converted to an adapted automobile fitted with a braking, clutch and throttle system controlled by paraplegic drivers Takuma Aoki and Nigel Bailly from a hand-controlled steering wheel.

47 Ferrari before Mulsanne corner with a rear axle failure, Scott Andrews ran wide onto artificial grass and into the Porsche Curves gravel trap in Kessel's No.

21 DragonSpeed entering the Dunlop Curve corner saw front and rear damage to both vehicles and required repairs to the right-hand side barriers and track cleanups.

[44] The session was ended prematurely, with fifteen minutes remaining, when Ollie Milroy lost control of the Inception Ferrari on the inside kerb entering the Ford Chicane at high speed and damaging its right-rear corner against the barrier.

In second through sixth were the WRT (Delétraz), Panis Racing (Stevens), G-Drive (De Vries), and the United Autosports (Jamin and Di Resta) entries.

Dries Vanthoor secured the class pole position in the HubAuto Porsche ahead of Serra of AF Corse and Tandy's Corvette.

[62] While the session passed with no major incidents, Robin Frijns, Sean Gelael, Robert Kubica and Ricky Taylor each lost control of their LMP2 cars; all were undamaged.

[65] John Elkann, Ferrari's chairperson, waved the French tricolor at 16:00 local time to start the event[66] in front of 50,000 spectators,[67] as race control declared the running of three formation laps behind the safety car because of the wet conditions.

64 Corvette past the stalled High Class ORECA LMP2 entry that was slow to drive away from the grid after a mechanic left a movable jack on the car's rear.

[73][74] Buemi stopped on the Mulsanne Straight's side to reset the Toyota fully before driving wide onto Arnage corner's run-off area,[70][71] losing more than 90 seconds to teammate Conway.

[74] Lapierre moved Alpine to second before falling to fifth by the end of the first hour, spinning without car damage at Indianapolis turn on the third racing lap and losing a minute.

[64] Davidson became stuck deep in the gravel approaching the Dunlop Chicane, possibly because of the light rain and attempting to avoid Andrew Haryanto's spun No.

28 entry had a 90-second stop-and-go penalty imposed on it because Blomqvist crossed the white line denoting the pit lane exit when the green light was accidentally illuminated instead of being held to rejoin when the nearest, not the next safety car passed by.

25 G-Drive car at high speed and crashed backwards into the right-hand side tyre barrier through the Dunlop Bridge braking zone, leading to the entry's retirement.

[70][94] Cooper MacNeil lost control of the sixth-placed LMGTE Pro WeatherTech Porsche on the Ford Chicane entry kerbs and crashed into the left-hand tyre barrier, activating the medical light.

52 Ferrari suffered a further setback when Bird brought the car to the garage for right-front bodywork repairs, the result of a front-right puncture that left debris on the circuit.

41 WRT car stopped down the hill past the Dunlop Bridge because of a broken throttle sensor creating an electrical short circuit that temporarily turned the engine's electronic control unit off.

28 Jota entry in slower GT traffic,[110] and avoided hitting Patrick Morriseau, the Clerk of the course, who was waving the chequered flag close to the start/finish straight's centre to win LMP2 by 0.727 seconds.

[10] Conway said he was "crying like a little girl" and spoke of the difficulty of winning Le Mans: "We came close so many times, and to get it done here with the new hypercar as well with these boys ... [my] teammates did a stellar job as always.

"[122] López commented the race's final hours were stressful because Toyota were coping with a fuel problem, and Kobayashi felt he and his co-drivers' losses at Le Mans strengthened their bond.

[130] TF Sport owner Tom Ferrier concluded his team's car being slowed by a puncture and the resulting loss of time prevented them from challenging AF Corse close to the race's conclusion.