The race began behind the safety car in wet weather conditions. Heavy showers led to a total of six safety car periods, a 41-minute red flag as well as several full-course yellows and virtual safety cars. In total, only two hours and 47 minutes were run under green flag conditions.
At the penultimate restart Estre passed Alessandro Pier Guidi’s #51 Ferrari 499P into Turn 1 and took control of the race. Contact between the two cars left Pier Guidi with a puncture, dropping the Ferrari down the order. Miguel Molina in the #50 Ferrari led the Scuderia’s challenge in the closing stages but was unable to prevent the reigning champion’s Porsche from pulling clear.
Third place went to the #94 Peugeot TotalEnergies 9X8 of Stoffel Vandoorne, Loïc Duval and Malthe Jakobsen. The crew secured Peugeot’s first podium of the season, finishing ahead of the sister car to complete a 3-4 result for the French manufacturer.
Pole-sitting #83 AF Corse Ferrari of Robert Kubica, Phil Hanson and Ye Yifei finished seventh following a difficult race that included a five-second penalty for a driver exiting the car when it was not properly stopped in its designated working area, and a spin for Kubica following contact with a GT car.
UNITED’S BREAKTHROUGH WIN
In LMGT3, the #54 Ferrari of Davide Rigon crossed the line first ahead of the #95 United Autosports McLaren GT3 Evo shared by Marino Sato, Sean Gelael and Darren Leung, but a five-second penalty for contact with the #77 Proton Ford Mustang demoted the Vista AF Corse entry to third, handing United Autosports its maiden LMGT3 victory.
The #77 Proton Ford Mustang GT3 looked on course for the American manufacturer’s first LMGT3 victory, a day after a qualifying 1-2 for the pair of muscle cars, until tyre choice in the closing stages of the race compromised the chances of the crew comprising Ben Barker, Bernardo Sousa and Ben Tuck.
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