The 2006 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 74th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place over 17–18 June 2006. The winners of the race were Frank Biela, Marco Werner, and Emanuele Pirro, driving the Audi R10 TDI. For the first time in the history of the race, the winner was a diesel-powered car.

Pre-race Prior to this race the ACO redeveloped the area around the Dunlop Curve and Dunlop Chicane, moving the Dunlop Curve in tighter to create more run-off area, while also turning the Dunlop Chicane into a larger set of turns. As part of the development, a new extended pit lane exit was created for motorcycles running the Bugatti Circuit. This second pit exit re-enters the track just beyond the Dunlop Chicane and before the Dunlop Bridge.

Before the official test days, the FIA requested that the sportscars should also use this new pit lane, and mandated a 60 km/h speed limit for the entire 450m length, instead of using the normal pit exit in the Dunlop Curve as planned. This was originally used for the Le Mans test days, but due to complaints from the teams, the ACO decided to return to the old pit lane exit for the race.

Qualifying In the LMP1 category, during Wednesday's wet-weather qualifying Pescarolo C60 took the top two spots. Then, a day later, during dry weather conditions the new Audi R10 TDIs overtook the Pescarolos to claim the top two positions.

In LMP2, the Ray Mallock Ltd. Lola ran two seconds quicker than the new Intersport Lola.

In LMGT1, the Aston Martin factory squad swept the front row, with the #64 Corvette right behind them.

In GT2, the French IMSA Performance Matmut Porsche took the quickest time; however, Luca Riccitelli took the car off at Nord du Karting at the end of the session, injuring his ankle and badly damaging the chassis of the car. In a unique move, the ACO went against its own rules and granted permission for the team to replace the chassis with a brand new car. The car was still forced to start at the back of the grid. The Scuderia Ecosse Ferrari 430 thus started at the front for the GT2 class.

Qualifying times Class leaders and the fastest lap time on each day are in bold.

Pos No. Team Car Class Day 1 Day 2 Behind 1 7 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R10 TDI LMP1 4:17.189 3:30.466 Leader 2 8 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R10 TDI LMP1 4:17.676 3:30.584 +0.118 3 16 Pescarolo Sport Pescarolo C60 Hybrid-Judd LMP1 4:13.832 3:32.584 +2.118 4 17 Pescarolo Sport Pescarolo C60 Hybrid-Judd LMP1 4:14.447 3:32.990 +2.524 5 13 Courage Compétition Courage LC70-Mugen LMP1 4:25.582 3:34.120 +3.654 6 14 Racing for Holland Dome S101Hb-Judd LMP1 4:22.873 3:34.864 +4.398 7 9 Creation Autosportif Creation CA06/H-Judd LMP1 4:22.021 3:36.459 +5.993 8 2 Zytek Engineering Zytek 06S LMP1 4:27.754 3:39.252 +8.786 9 5 Swiss Spirit Courage LC70-Judd LMP1 4:23.727 3:40.182 +9.716 10 19 Chamberlain-Synergy Motorsport Lola B06/10-AER LMP1 4:37.362 3:40.467 +10.001 11 12 Courage Compétition Courage LC70-Mugen LMP1 4:35.943 3:40.722 +10.256 12 25 Ray Mallock Ltd. MG-Lola EX264-AER LMP2 4:34.940 3:41.555 +11.089 13 33 Intersport Racing Lola B05/40-AER LMP2 4:34.160 3:43.869 +13.403 14 22 Rollcentre Racing Radical SR9-Judd LMP2 4:43.803 3:44.324 +13.858 15 39 Chamberlain-Synergy Motorsport Lola B05/40-AER LMP2 4:37.362 3:45.732 +15.068 16 32 Barazi-Epsilon Courage C65-AER LMP2 4:27.357 3:47.467 +17.001 17 37 Paul Belmondo Racing Courage C65-Mecachrome LMP2 4:45.086 3:48.846 +18.380 18 27 Miracle Motorsports Courage C65-AER LMP2 4:56.168 3:50.826 +20.360 19 6 Lister Storm Racing Lister Storm LMP Hybrid-Chevrolet LMP1 4:31.565 3:50.940 +20.476 20 007 Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin DBR9 GT1 4:31.179 3:52.015 +21.559 21 009 Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin DBR9 GT1 4:32.053 3:52.561 +22.095 22 64 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C6.R GT1 4:51.557 3:53.100 +22.534 23 20 Pir Competition Pilbeam MP93-Judd LMP2 4:25.398 3:53.285 +22.819 24 69 BMS Scuderia Italia Aston Martin DBR9 GT1 4:35.531 3:53.611 +23.145 25 67 Convers MenX Team Ferrari 550-GTS Maranello GT1 4:33.561 3:53.781 +23.315 26 63 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C6.R GT1 4:54.941 3:53.993 +23.327 27 66 ACEMCO Motorsports Saleen S7-R GT1 4:35.016 3:54.476 +24.010 28 72 Luc Alphand Aventures Chevrolet Corvette C5-R GT1 4:42.545 3:55.629 +25.163 29 24 Binnie Motorsports Lola B05/42-Zytek LMP2 4:51.872 3:56.123 +25.657 30 35 G-Force Racing Courage C65-Judd LMP2 4:48.714 3:56.452 +25.986 31 36 Paul Belmondo Racing Courage C65-Mecachrome LMP2 4:50.408 3:56.460 +25.994 32 62 Team Modena Aston Martin DBR9 GT1 4:35.789 3:57.776 +27.310 33 61 Cirtek Motorsport Ferrari 550-GTS Maranello GT1 4:40.097 3:59.822 +29.356 34 53 JLOC Isao Noritake Lamborghini Murcielago R-GT GT1 4:58.656 4:00.287 +29.821 35 30 Gerald Welter WR LMP04-Peugeot LMP2 5:15.480 4:00.775 +30.309 36 50 Larbre Compétition Ferrari 550-GTS Maranello GT1 4:47.924 4:01.920 +31.454 37 76 IMSA Performance Matmut Porsche 911 GT3-RSR GT2 4:41.623 4:03.438 +32.972 38 87 Scuderia Ecosse Ferrari F430 GT2 GT2 4:52.423 4:04.596 +34.130 39 83 Seikel Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3-RSR GT2 4:53.695 4:04.897 +34.431 40 80 Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3-RSR GT2 4:46.888 4:05.266 +34.800 41 90 Krohn Racing Porsche 911 GT3-RSR GT2 4:39.912 4:05.700 +35.234 42 85 Spyker Squadron BV Spyker C8 Spyder GT2-R-Audi GT2 4:48.691 4:06.299 +35.833 43 77 Multimatic Team Panoz Panoz Esperante GT-LM-Ford GT2 4:55.638 4:06.642 +36.176 44 86 Spyker Squadron BV Spyker C8 Spyder GT2-R-Audi GT2 4:45.916 4:07.939 +37.473 45 89 Sebah Automotive Ltd. Porsche 911 GT3-RSR GT2 4:54.946 4:08.688 +38.222 46 81 Team LNT Panoz Esperante GT-LM-Ford GT2 4:50.424 4:12.043 +41.577 47 93 Team Taisan Advan Porsche 911 GT3-RSR GT2 5:05.305 4:14.477 +44.011 48 73 Ice Pol Racing Team Porsche 911 GT3-RSR GT2 4:57.096 4:16.246 +45.780 49 91 T2M Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3-RSR GT2 5:06.716 4:17.342 +46.876 50 98 Noël del Bello Racing Porsche 911 GT3-RSR GT2 5:07.105 4:23.547 +53.081

Race

This race marked the first Le Mans win for a diesel engined sports car, the Audi R10 TDI, and the second time that a diesel-powered sports car won a major international motorsports event, following the Audi R10 TDI's win at the 2006 12 Hours of Sebring. This was, however, not the first time a diesel-powered racing car had won an international racing event; back in 1998, BMW became the first marque to enter a diesel-powered race winner as they won the Nürburgring 24 Hours with their 320d touring car.

This race also marked the first time since 1991 that Porsche (or a Porsche-powered prototype) did not win a single class in Le Mans. A Panoz Esperante was successful in upsetting the contingent of Porsches in the GT2 class, the only class that did feature Porsche entries.

Corvette Racing's 355-lap pace in their GT1 class win became the record for a homologated GT racer.

Official results

Class winners are marked in bold. Cars not completing 70% of the winner's distance are listed as Not Classified (NC).