The world's most iconic endurance race – the 24 Hours of Le Mans – returns this weekend with a bumper grid and four competitive classes. Here you can find all the key information, from entries to TV schedules, before track action begins on Wednesday.
What's new this year?
With Audi gone, Toyota and Porsche will lock horns for overall honours, with Toyota aiming to redress the 2016 race which saw its chances of victory scuppered by a turbo unit failure on the final lap. A full-length preview can be found in the latest edition of Motorsport Monday e-magazine.
In LMP2, the new regulations make this category at least eight seconds a lap quicker than last year (and faster than the 2006 overall pole).
GTE-Pro features another titanic manufacturer tussle between Aston Martin, Ferrari, Chevrolet, Ford and Porsche.
The GTE-Am category involves some of the world's best customer GT teams, including Clearwater Racing, Proton Competition and Scuderia Corsa.
A new feature this year is the system of nine fixed slow zones, to regulate speeds around incident areas. Previously slow zones were administered on an ad-hoc basis.
Modifications have also been made to the layout on the inside line at the Porsche Curves to increase safety, although drivers have already voiced concerns over corner-cutting.
Times from the official test day, held on June 4th, can be found here. Toyota went quickest, with a 3m 18.132s set by Kamui Kobayashi.
Who's taking part?
View the entry list here. Note: Tony Kanaan replaces Sébastien Bourdais in the #68 Ford.
This year's grid matches the record of 60 entries set last year, following the expansion of the pit complex.
LMP1: 6 cars – including five hybrids
LMP2: 25 cars – a class record
GTE-Pro: 13 cars – two per manufacturer, plus Ford’s quartet and the Risi Ferrari from the USA.
GTE-Am: 16 cars – with entries from WEC, IMSA (North America), ELMS (Europe) and AsLMS (Asia)
What's the schedule?
View the full event timetable here.
All times are local (CEST). UK is -1 hour and east coast USA is -6 hours.
Wednesday, June 14th
16:00-20:00 Free Practice
22:00-00:00 Qualifying 1
Thursday, June 15th
19:00-21:00 Qualifying 2
22:00-00:00 Qualifying 3
Friday, June 16th – driver parade in Le Mans town centre
Saturday, June 17th
09:00-09:45 Warm up
15:00 Race start – finishes at 15:00 on Sunday, June 18th
How can I follow the race?
This year, the 24 Hours of Le Mans will be streamed on the official app, with advert-free live coverage and onboard cameras from 16 cars.
Once again, Eurosport is one of the leading sources of TV coverage with the entire race and support package on Eurosport 1 combined with uninterrupted live streaming on the Eurosport Player app. Practice and qualifying are also part of the schedule on both fronts.
In the UK, digital channel Quest will be showing select live segments of the race, plus a highlights show on Monday, June 19th. View the times here.
ITV4 is also showing the last few hours live.
In the US, Fox Sports is covering the race live on its two primary TV channels.
For other countries, there is a detailed list of all the broadcasters for 2017.
Live circuit radio is supplied by Radio Le Mans.
Some useful Twitter accounts:
@MotorsportWeek
@24hoursoflemans
@FIAWEC
@Porsche_Team
@Toyota_Hybrid
@AMR_Official; @afcorse; @CorvetteRacing; @porscheraces; @FordPerformance
Official hashtag: #LEMANS24
What are the support races?
For the second year in a row, the Road to Le Mans provides support to the 24-hours, while the Porsche Carrera Cup joins the bill.
Taking place on Thursday (17:30) and Saturday (11:30) the 55-minute Road to Le Mans races are for LMP3 and GT3 machinery, and are part of the Michelin GT Le Mans Cup which takes place throughout the year in Europe.
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An expanded grid of 50 cars (eight more than last year) should make this a suitable appetiser for the more powerful prototypes and GTE cars racing in the main event. View the runners and riders here.
The Porsche Carrera Cup race combines the best entries from the French, German, British, Benelux, Scandinavian, Australian, Japanese, Asian and Brazilian variations of the one-make championship.
The 45-minute contest will take place on Sunday morning (before the second Road to Le Mans) with the green flag set to fly at 10:15. Browse the 61 entries here.
Things to look out for…
A colourful Corvette C7.R entered by French team Larbre Competition in GTE-Am. The 'art car' design was realised by a friend of driver Romain Brandela.
Eleven time F1 grand prix winner Rubens Barrichello is making his Le Mans debut with the Racing Team Nederland LMP2 squad.
Continuing the F1 theme, current Renault test driver Sergey Sirotkin will also make his debut, driving an SMP Racing Dallara in the same category.
The current race lap record is 3m 17.475, set by former Audi driver Andre Lotterer in 2015.
Mark Webber is the grand marshal for this year's race, while the official starter is yet to be confirmed.
Two former Audi LMP1 drivers are listed in the GTE-Pro ranks. Lucas di Grassi, still contracted to Audi, will drive an AF Corse Ferrari 488 whilst three-time Le Mans winner Marcel Fässler gets behind the wheel of a Corvette C7.R (the Swiss driver made a one-off appearance with the Chevrolet team in ’09).
Some of the world's best online racers will be at the Circuit de la Sarthe to take part in the 24 Hours of Le Mans esports event, which runs simultaneously with the 'real' 24-hours on Saturday and Sunday.
