Tough 24 Hours of Le Mans 2026 for Manthey Porsche

Participating in the race with the No. 91 and No. 92 Porsche 911 GT3 R entries, the German squad arrived at Circuit de la Sarthe aiming to add another LMGT3 victory to its impressive Le Mans record. Strong pace throughout practice and qualifying suggested that both cars had the potential to fight at the front of the field.

However, trouble struck early for the No. 92 Bend Porsche driven by Richard Lietz, Riccardo Pera  and Yasser Shahin. Damage to the steering system forced the team into lengthy repairs during the opening stages of the race, costing valuable time and dropping the car down the order. Despite an impressive recovery effort and faultless stints from the three drivers the car eventually crossed the finish line in 13th position in the LMGT3 category.

The No. 91 Manthey DK Engineering Porsche, shared by Timur Boguslavskiy, James Cottingham and Ayhancan Güven, enjoyed a much stronger race for most of the event. Running consistently among the class leaders, the team appeared to be on course for a podium finish. Unfortunately, disaster struck during the morning hours. With about 6 hours to go and running in 4th place in class, Ayhancan experienced a broken steering which led to an incident at the exit of the Daytona chicane that forced the car into retirement, ending its challenge prematurely and triggering the second safety car period (of the race).

Having participated at Le Mans a staggering 18 times, and after dominating the LMGT3 class in previous seasons, Manthey Racing left Le Mans 2026 without the result it had hoped for. Nevertheless, the performance shown by both Porsche entries demonstrated the team's competitiveness. In the end, Le Mans 2026 became a story of bad luck, missed opportunities, and a reminder that success in the world's most famous endurance race is never guaranteed.