Circuit de la Sarthe
race course in Le Mans
The Circuit de la Sarthe, 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 13.626 km (8.467 mi) 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 322 km/h (200 mph) to around 100 km/h (62 mph) 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 240 km/h (150 mph).
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Circuit de la Sarthe” as race course in Le Mans. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as race course in Le Mans. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q174090. VIAF identifies the subject as 9424153289947632770001. Authority coordinates are 47.950, 0.208. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1955 and 2018.
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This entry incorporates text from “Circuit de la Sarthe” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.