The Le Mans 24 hour race is perhaps the toughest car race there is: a full day of non-stop racing. It’s exhausting for the car and the drivers, but it makes it one of the highlights of the calendar for motorsport fans. 2023 marks the 100th anniversary of the event, making it a particularly special event.
Hundreds of thousands of people flock to the Circuit de la Sarthe in France, but for many more, watching online or on TV is the only way to see the spectacle. And that’s why you’re here, of course.
So here’s everything you need to know about the action this weekend, plus Hyperpole practice and qualifying sessions.
What is the start time of the 24 Hours of Le Mans?
The race itself starts at 4 p.m. local time (France) on Saturday June 10.
In the UK, this is a 3pm start time on Eurosport 2, 10am on the US East Coast and 7am on the West Coast – on MotorTend.
Obviously, being a 24-hour race, it will end at 4 p.m. local time on Sunday, June 11.
Qualifying takes place on June 7 from 6-7pm, with Hyperpole qualifying on June 8, with coverage starting at 6.45pm (UK) on Eurosport 2. In the US you can catch it at 1.45pm (EDT) on MotorTrend.
Can I watch or stream Le Mans for free?
Yes you can, although you won’t be able to watch the entire race live.
In the UK you can watch it on Quest (Freeview channel 12, or 114 for Quest HD) but only from 11pm on Saturday for four hours – not exactly ideal.
For more coverage you can watch on the free French channel L’Equipe which is licensed to broadcast up to 6pm of the race live.
You will need to look through the website and in order to do this you will need to create an account. Click on the menu, then connect (shown below). Then click on not yet registered? and enter your email address and a password (which must contain at least one capital letter, one number and one symbol).
Jim Martin / Foundry
If you’re not actually in France, you’ll also need a VPN to watch, otherwise the video is blocked. Luckily, you can subscribe to NordVPN or Surfshark to get around this problem. We can confirm that NordVPN’s Parisian server successfully unblocked the video.
Of course the commentary will be in French, but if you don’t speak French you can listen to the English commentary separately from the Radio UK website.
Eurosport 1 is broadcast for free in Germany and the full race will be broadcast live for German viewers via satellite. If you have a Freesat box and can tune your dish to receive it outside of Germany, you can watch, but it’s far from straightforward to watch the German version of Eurosport online, even if you have a VPN.
How to watch the entire 24 Hours of Le Mans on TV
If you’re in Europe, including the UK, you can watch the entire race live on Eurosport 2 And Eurosport 2HD.
To watch Eurosport, you will need the appropriate Sky, BT TV, Virgin or TalkTalk plan or plan. However, if you don’t get your internet (and TV) from one of these providers, you can watch Eurosport through the Discovery+ app, but there’s no way to watch Discovery+ without paying.
A subscription to Discovery+ costs £6.99 per month or £59.99 per year.
An alternative is a subscription to MotorTrend+ (see below) which is available on Amazon Prime Video Channels (for UK, US and Canadian viewers), and you can also get it on Apple TV and Roku.
United States and Canada
In the United States, you can watch the entire race on TV on MotorTrend TV. In Canada, the same is possible on Velocity.
The race itself starts at 10 a.m. EDT or 7 a.m. PT, but pre-race coverage starts an hour earlier.
You can also stream the race live on most devices through the MotorTrend+ streaming service which costs $4.99 per month or $44.99 per year. There’s a useful seven-day free trial, which is of course enough to watch the full 24 hours of the race.
2023 Le Mans race schedule
Here’s the MotorTend broadcast schedule (all times EDT)
Free practice and qualifying
Wednesday, June 7 at 7:45 a.m.
Qualifying tests
Wednesday, June 7 at 12:45 p.m.
Free practice session 2
Wednesday, June 7 at 3:45 p.m.
Free practice session 3
Thursday, June 8 at 8:45 a.m.
Hyperpole qualification
Thursday, June 8 at 1:45 p.m.
Free practice session 4
Thursday, June 8 at 3:45 p.m.
Warm up
Saturday, June 10 at 5:45 a.m.
Pre-Race Coverage
Saturday, June 10 at 9:00 a.m.
How can I stream Le Mans online?
You can try to find unofficial streams (likely to be reruns of Eurosport coverage) online, but we obviously cannot tolerate that route.
If you want to stream the entire 24 Hours of Le Mans as a single event, you can buy a pass in the new official WEC app for $12.99 (around £10). However, this isn’t available to watch in the US or Canada as it’s region locked (but as already stated, you can get MotorTrend+ in those countries instead). If you really want to use the WEC app, you will need a VPN service. Two good choices are NordVPN and Surfshark.
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