The Circuit de la Sarthe,Official rules for 2016; : :3.1.2 24 HEURES DU MANS ... La course se déroule les samedi 18 et dimanche 19 juin 2016 sur le circuit des 24 Heures du Mans. Longueur du circuit : 13,629 km: known for its Circuit des 24 Heures du Mans variation after the 24-hour semi-permanent circuit, located in Le Mans, Sarthe, France, is a permanent auto sport circuit. It is the host of the 24 Hours of Le Mans auto race and widely known as the site of the 1955 Le Mans disaster, the deadliest event in motorsport history.
The track comprises a combination of private, race-specific sections of track in addition to public roads used only during the 24 Hours of Le Mans which remain accessible most of the year. Its present 24 hour configuration is long, making it one of the longest circuits in the world. The capacity of the permanent race track the short Bugatti Circuit is 100,000. The Musée des 24 Heures du Mans is a motorsport museum for the 24 hours of Le Mans located at the main entrance of the venue.
Up to 85% of the 24 hour circuit lap time is spent on full throttle, putting immense stress on engine and drivetrain components. Additionally, the times spent reaching maximum speed also mean tremendous wear on the brakes and suspension as cars must slow from over to around for the sharp corner at the village of Mulsanne.
Track modifications The road racing track, which was a triangle from Le Mans down south to Mulsanne, northwest to Arnage, and back north to Le Mans, has undergone many modifications over the years, with CIRCUIT N°15 being in use since 2018. Even with the modifications over the years, the Sarthe circuit remains very fast, with prototype cars achieving average lap speeds in excess of .
In the 1920s, the cars drove from the present pits on Rue de Laigné straight into the city, then took a sharp right-hand corner near the river Huisne Pontlieue bridge (a hairpin removed from the circuit in 1929). They left the city on the rather straight section now named Avenue Georges Durand after the race's founder. Then long and unpaved, a bypass within the city shortened the track in 1929. The city was bypassed completely in 1932 with the addition of the section from the pits via the Dunlop Bridge and the Esses to Tertre Rouge. This classic configuration was long and remained almost unaltered even after the 1955 tragedy. Its frighteningly narrow pit straight was further narrowed to make room for the pits and was part of the road itself, without the road becoming wider around the pits, and no separation. The pit straight then was about wide, further widened in 1956 after the tragedy, but the race track and pits were not separated for another 15 years.
Car speeds increased dramatically in the 1960s, pushing the limits of the "classic circuit" and sparking criticism of the track as being unsafe after drivers died during trials. In 1965, a smaller Bugatti Circuit was added which shares the pit lane facilities and the first corner (including the famous Dunlop bridge) with the full "Le Mans" circuit. For the 1968 race, the Ford chicane was added before the pits to slow down the cars. The circuit was fitted with Armco barriers for the 1969 race. The "Maison Blanche" kink was particularly harrowing, claiming many cars over the years (including three Ferrari 512 variants) and several lives, including the legendary John Woolfe in 1969 behind the wheel of a Porsche 917. The circuit has been modified ten more times — 1971, a year when prototypes were averaging over , was the last year the classic circuit was used. That year, an Armco barrier was added to the pit straight to separate the track from the pits. In 1972, the race track was considerably revamped, at a cost of 300 million francs, with modification of the pit area and the first and final straights, the addition of the quick Porsche curves bypassing "Maison Blanche", the signalling area being moved to the exit of the slow Mulsanne corner, and the track being resurfaced.
In 1979, due to the construction of a new public road, the profile of "Tertre Rouge" had to be changed. This redesign led to a faster double-apex corner and saw the removal of the second Dunlop Bridge. In 1986, construction of a new roundabout at the Mulsanne corner demanded the addition a new portion of track in order to avoid the roundabout. This created a right hand kink before Mulsanne corner. In 1987, a chicane was added to the very fast Dunlop curve, where cars would go under the Dunlop bridge at . Now they would be slowed to .
Le Mans was most famous for its long straight, called Ligne Droite des Hunaudières, a part of the route départementale (for the Sarthe département) D338 (formerly Route Nationale N138). As the Hunaudières leads to the village of Mulsanne, it is often called the Mulsanne Straight in English, even though the proper Route du Mulsanne is the one from or to Arnage.
After exiting the Tertre Rouge corner, cars spent almost half of the lap at full throttle, before braking for Mulsanne Corner. The Porsche 917 long tail, used from 1969 to 1971, had reached . After engine size was limited, the top speed dropped until powerful turbo engines were allowed, like in the 1978 Porsche 935, which was clocked at . Speeds on the straight by the Group C prototypes reached over during the late 1980s. At the beginning of the 1988 24 Hours of Le Mans race, Roger Dorchy driving for Welter Racing in a "Project 400" car, which sacrificed reliability for speed, was clocked by radar travelling at . Jean-Louis Lafosse and Jo Gartner would ultimately suffer from fatal high speed accidents in 1981 and 1986, respectively, leading to concerns with the growing speeds on the straight.
As the combination of high speed and high downforce caused tyre and engine failures, two roughly equally spaced chicanes were consequently added to the Mulsanne Straight before the 1990 race to limit the maximum achievable speed. The chicanes were also added because the FIA decreed it would no longer sanction a circuit which had a straight longer than , which is roughly the length of the Döttinger Höhe straight at the Nürburgring Nordschleife. The fastest qualifying lap average speed though only dropped from in 1992. In 1994, the Dunlop chicane was tightened.
In 2002, the run to the Esses was reconfigured in the wake of renovations to the Bugatti Circuit. The Le Mans circuit was changed between the Dunlop Bridge and Esses, with the straight now becoming a set of fast sweeping turns. This layout allowed for a better transition from the Le Mans circuit to the Bugatti circuit. This layout change would also require the track's infamous carnival to be moved near the Porsche curves, and in 2006, the ACO redeveloped the area between the Dunlop Curve and Tertre Rouge, moving the Dunlop Chicane in even tighter to create more run-off area, while also turning the area after the Dunlop Chicane into an even larger set of fast, sweeping turns, known as the Esses en route to Tertre Rouge. As part of the development, a new extended pit lane exit was created for the Bugatti Circuit. This second pit exit re-enters the track just beyond the Dunlop Chicane and before the Dunlop Bridge.
Following the fatal crash of Danish driver Allan Simonsen at the 2013 race at the exit of Tertre Rouge into D338, Tertre Rouge was re-profiled again. The radius was moved in approximately for safety reasons with new tyre barriers at the exit. The current version of the track has been in use since 2018.
For 2026, the old Dunlop Bridge switched to Goodyear branding.
Layout evolution of Circuit de la Sarthe
Lap records Years Record year Distance record Average race speed Lap record (in race) Driver – car Lap record (qualifying) Driver – carCircuit N°1 – 1923–1928 1928 Bentley 4½ Litre 8:07 ()in 1928 H.BirkinBentley 4½ LitreCircuit N°2 – 1929–1931 1931 Alfa Romeo 8C 6:48 ()in 1930 H.BirkinBentley BlowerCircuit N°3 – 1932–1955 1955 Jaguar D 4:06.6 ()in 1955 M.HawthornJaguar DCircuit N°4 – 1956–1967 1967 Ford Mk IV 3:23.6 ()in 1967 M.Andretti & D.HulmeFord Mk IV 3:24.04 ()in 1967 B.McLarenFord Mk IVCircuit N°5 – 1968–1971 1971 Porsche 917 3:18.4 ()in 1971 J.OliverPorsche 917 3:13.9 ()in 1971 P. RodríguezPorsche 917Circuit N°6 – 1972–1978 1978 Alpine-Renault A442 B 3:34.2 ()in 1978 J.P.JabouilleAlpine-Renault A443 3:27.6 ()in 1978 J.IckxPorsche 936Circuit N°7 – 1979–1985 1985 Porsche 956 3:25.1 ()in 1985 J.MassPorsche 962 3:14.8 ()in 1985 H.StuckPorsche 962Circuit N°8 – 1986 1986 Porsche 962 C 3:23.3 ()in 1986 K.LudwigPorsche 956 3:15.99 ()in 1986 J.MassPorsche 962 CCircuit N°9 – 1987–1989 1988 Jaguar XJR9 3:21.27 ()in 1989 A.FertéJaguar XJR9 3:15.04 ()in 1989 J.L.SchlesserSauber Mercedes C9Circuit N°10 – 1990–1996 1993 Peugeot 905 3:27.47 ()in 1993 E.IrvineToyota TS010 3:21.209 ()in 1992 Ph.AlliotPeugeot 905Circuit N°11 – 1997–2001 2000 Audi R8 3:35.032 ()in 1999 U.KatayamaToyota GT-One 3:29.93 ()in 1999 M.BrundleToyota GT-OneCircuit N°12 – 2002–2005 2004 Audi R8 3:33.483 ()in 2002 T.KristensenAudi R8 3:29.905 ()in 2002 R.CapelloAudi R8Circuit N°13 – 2006 2006 Audi R10 TDI 3:31.211 ()in 2006 T.KristensenAudi R10 TDI 3:30.466 ()in 2006 R.CapelloAudi R10 TDICircuit N°14 – 2007–2017 2010 Audi R15 TDI plus 3:17.475 ()in 2015 A.LottererAudi R18 e-tron quattro 3:14.791 ()in 2017 K. KobayashiToyota TS050 HybridCircuit N°15 - Since 2018 2018 Toyota TS050 Hybrid 3:17.297 ()in 2019 M. ConwayToyota TS050 Hybrid 3:15.267 ()in 2020 K. KobayashiToyota TS050 Hybrid
Fastest race laps of Circuit de la Sarthe
As of June 2026, the fastest official race lap records at the Circuit de la Sarthe for different classes are listed as: