Remarkably, that car finished the race without any significant hiccups, coming home first of the four privateer Hypercars.

The No. 38 sister car took second in the Hypercar World Cup classification, while Proton claimed third despite a dire weekend for its privateer Porsche crew who battled a broken door and mechanical issues all the way to the end, finishing 60 laps down.

Off the lead lap, the first of Lamborghini’s SC63s came home 10th in what was an encouraging but quiet 24-hour debut for the new LMDh.

Peugeot also finished off the lead lap and outside the top 10 with its pair of 2024 9X8s. Both cars stayed reliable, though mostly invisible. It was not the performance on home soil the French marque would have hoped for when it finished the development work on its revised LMH challenger…

Due to the conditions, and the size of the Hypercar field (23 cars), there was a fair amount of attrition throughout.

For Alpine and its pair of A424s, the race was a total disaster, both cars retired with engine trouble before the 90-lap mark.

BMW’s M Hybrid V8s operated by Team WRT also had a weekend to forget — the No. 15’s performance in qualifying will seem like an age ago to the team, which now need to bounce back fast after both cars crashed out.

Ganassi’s No. 3 Cadillac was another car that showed pace pre-race, but failed to finish, the car suffering a punctured oil-tank.

Perhaps the most dramatic retirement, though, was that of the No. 83 AF Corse privately-entered 499P of Robert Kubica, Robert Shwartzman and Ye Yifei (which notably was penalized for wiping out the No. 15 BMW overnight).

The car, on occasion, looked like the strongest of the three Ferraris. Early on, as one of a few cars that stayed out on slicks during the first rain shower (the correct decision), the yellow 499P led the race on strategy and pace, only to be undone by a hybrid possible battery fire incident issue that prevented it from making the end.Inter Europol Competition made a valiant effort to defend its 2023 LMP2 title, but in the end, the United Autosports No. 22 ORECA Gibson was just too strong. Anchored by the experienced Oliver Jarvis, a previous winner, with two Le Mans rookies in Bijoy Garg and rising star Nolan Siegel, the team demonstrated its strength throughout the race, putting a stamp on it at the end with a 18.651s gap to the No. 34 Inter Europol ORECA of Jakub Smiechowski, Vladislav Lomko and Clement Novalak.“It’s unbelievable! First time here, there was so much to learn, and I’m so lucky to have done it with such a great group of people,” said Siegel before Garg added: “This is the best moment of my life.”

The No. 28 IDEC Sport team finished third with Paul Lafargue, Job van Uitert and Reshad de Gerus. AF Corse won the Pro-Am sub-category of LMP2, Francois Perrodo, Ben Barnicoat and Nicolas Varrone piloting the No. 183 ORECA to fourth in LMP2 overall.

Porsche claimed the first contest for LMGT3Q at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with Yasser Shahin, Morris Schuring and Richard Lietz piloting the No. 91 Manthey EMA 911 GT3 R to victory in the class’s introduction. The team had a comfortable margin over the No. 31 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 of Augusto Farfus, Darren Leung and Sean Geleal. It appeared early on that the sister WRT BMW was in with a shot of victory for Valentino Rossi, Maxime Martin and Ahmad Al Harthy, but the No. 46 ended its day in a gravel trap.

Proton Competition’s Fords shocked with their performance and reliability, both of which had been largely absent in previous rounds of the World Endurance Championship, to not only claim the first podium for the Mustang GT3 but back it up with a fourth-place finish as well. It was the No. 88 of Dennis Olsen, Mikkel Pedersen and Giorgio Roda claiming the podium over Christopher Mies, Ben Tuck and Christian Ried in the No. 44 Mustang GT3.

Full reports to follow.