The planned eight-hour race ended in an anticlimax when severe weather moved into the area in the final hour.
The #36 Alpine A480-Gibson grandfathered LMP1 car – driven by Nicolas Lapierre, Matthieu Vaxiviere and Andre Negrao – dominated the event, constantly outpacing the Hypercar class opposition from Toyota and Glickenhaus as well as the LMP2s.
Following the first red flag and 30-minute delay, while the barriers were repaired following Jose Maria Lopez’s huge crash in the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid at Turn 15, the race went green with just over 3hr40mins remaining.
The #8 Toyota led at that point but had to take emergency service, to avoid running out of fuel, and pitted on the following lap for another stop.
At the resumption, Alpine led the solo Glickenhaus 007 LMH by a lap with the remaining Toyota dropping back to third. However, as the green flag flew, Briscoe in the Glickenhaus passed the Corvette GTE Pro car before the restart, earning a penalty.
After a second red flag for electrical storms in the area, although no rain fell, the race was scheduled to restart with a 36-minute dash to the finish – but with more rain threatening. After further electrical activity, the field was getting ready to restart when more lightning was detected nearby.
The chequered flag was waved with 14 minutes still on the clock as the heavens finally opened.
Alpine claimed its first overall WEC win from the surviving #8 Toyota of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa, and the Glickenhaus of Olivier Pla, Romain Dumas and Ryan Briscoe.
In LMP2, the #23 of United Autosports Oreca entry of Paul di Resta, Oliver Jarvis and Josh Pierson won the class in fourth overall ahead of the lead WRT car of Robin Frijns, Sean Gelael and Rene Rast.
The Realteam by WRT car shared by Ferdinand Habsburg, Norman Nato and Rui Andrade initially dropped out of third place after taking an emergency pitstop behind the safety car following the second red flag, but was ultimately handed the final podium spot in an adjustment to the results.
That demoted Prema to fourth on the team's LMP2 debut with Robert Kubica, Louis Deletraz and Lorenzo Colombo at the wheel, ahead of the two JOTA entries in fifth and sixth.
Porsche overcomes Corvette in GTE Pro
The #92 factory Porsche squad of Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen, which dominated the weekend, won the GTE Pro class by 1.4s from the belligerent Chevrolet Corvette team.
After an entertaining battle between Porsche and Corvette over the opening hours, during which both 911 RSR-19s were penalized for a startline infringement, Estre’s car passed the sole Corvette C8.R soon after the restart following the first red flag on the run to the final corner.
The sister #91 Porsche of Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz looked set to make it a one-two but a jammed left-rear wheelnut hampered its cause as it finished third, over 9secs in arrears of the Corvette of Nick Tandy and Tommy Milner.
Ferrari's pair of 488 GTE Evos trailed home in fourth and fifth, with the #51 car of Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado leading home the #52 machine of Miguel Molina and Antonio Fuoco.
In GTE Am, Aston Martin locked out the top two places, with the NorthWest AMR squad of David Pittard, Nicki Thiim and Paul Dalla Lana winning out ahead of the TF Sport car of Marco Sorensen, Ben Keating and Florian Latorre and the #56 Team Project 1 Porsche.
Race results:
| Cla | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Laps | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 36 |
 Andre Negrao  Nicolas Lapierre Matthieu Vaxiviere
| Alpine A480 | HYPERCAR | 194 | - |
| 2 | 8 |
 Sébastien Buemi  Brendon Hartley  Ryo Hirakawa
| Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 194 | 6.886 |
| 3 | 708 |
Olivier Pla Romain Dumas  Ryan Briscoe
| Glickenhaus 007 LMH | HYPERCAR | 193 | 1 lap |
| 4 | 23 |
 Paul di Resta Oliver Jarvis  Josh Pierson
| Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 192 | 2 laps |
| 5 | 31 |
 Sean Gelael  Robin Frijns  René Rast
| Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 192 | 25.410 |
| 6 | 41 |
 Rui Andrade  Ferdinand Habsburg Norman Nato
| Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 192 | 3'13.649 |
| 7 | 9 |
 Robert Kubica Louis Deletraz  Lorenzo Colombo
| Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 192 | 3'16.997 |
| 8 | 28 |
 Oliver Rasmussen  Ed Jones  Jonathan Aberdein
| Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 192 | 3'20.707 |
| 9 | 38 |
 Roberto Gonzalez Antonio Felix da Costa Will Stevens
| Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 192 | 3'22.676 |
| 10 | 22 |
Philip Hanson Filipe Albuquerque Will Owen
| Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 192 | 3'27.793 |
| 11 | 5 |
Dane Cameron Emmanuel Collard Felipe Nasr
| Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 192 | 3'35.354 |
| 12 | 83 |
François Perrodo Nicklas Nielsen Alessio Rovera
| Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 191 | 3 laps |
| 13 | 35 |
Jean Baptiste Lahaye Matthieu Lahaye François Heriau
| Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 190 | 4 laps |
| 14 | 45 |
Steven Thomas James Allen Rene Binder
| Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 190 | 2.258 |
| 15 | 1 |
Lilou Wadoux Sébastien Ogier Charles Milesi
| Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 189 | 5 laps |
| 16 | 44 |
 Miro Konopka Mathias Beche Tijmen van der Helm
| Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 188 | 6 laps |
| 17 | 92 |
Michael Christensen Kevin Estre
| Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 183 | 11 laps |
| 18 | 64 |
Tommy Milner Nick Tandy
| Chevrolet Corvette C8.R | LMGTE PRO | 183 | 0.916 |
| 19 | 91 |
Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz
| Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 183 | 2.878 |
| 20 | 51 |
Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado
| Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 183 | 3'34.623 |
| 21 | 98 |
 Paul Dalla Lana David Pittard Nicki Thiim
| Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 180 | 14 laps |
| 22 | 52 |
 Miguel Molina Antonio Fuoco
| Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 180 | 2.142 |
| 23 | 33 |
Ben Keating Florian Latorre Marco Sorensen
| Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 180 | 2'36.349 |
| 24 | 56 |
Brendan Iribe Ollie Millroy Ben Barnicoat
| Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 180 | 2'39.225 |
| 25 | 77 |
Christian Ried Sebastian Priaulx Harry Tincknell
| Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 180 | 3'15.435 |
| 26 | 85 |
Rahel Frey Michelle Gatting  Sarah Bovy
| Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 179 | 15 laps |
| 27 | 777 |
Satoshi Hoshino Tomonobu Fujii Charlie Fagg
| Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 179 | 16.834 |
| 28 | 21 |
Simon Mann Christoph Ulrich  Toni Vilander
| Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 178 | 16 laps |
| 29 | 60 |
Claudio Schiavoni Matteo Cressoni Giancarlo Fisichella
| Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 178 | 8.196 |
| 30 | 54 |
Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Nick Cassidy
| Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 178 | 9.330 |
| 31 | 34 |
Jakub Smiechowski Fabio Scherer Esteban Gutierrez
| Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 174 | 20 laps |
| 32 | 88 |
Fred Poordad Patrick Lindsey Julien Andlauer
| Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 169 | 25 laps |
| 33 | 10 |
Nico Müller  Ryan Cullen Mike Rockenfeller
| Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 157 | 37 laps |
| 34 | 71 |
Franck Dezoteux Pierre Ragues Gabriel Aubry
| Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 122 | 72 laps |
| 35 | 46 |
Matteo Cairoli Mikkel Pedersen Nicolas Leutwiler
| Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 86 | 108 laps |
| 36 | 7 |
Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi  Jose Maria Lopez
| Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 110 | 86 laps |
| View full results | ||||||
