Bernhard and his teammates triumphed in a close-fought battle with the sister Porsche 919 Hybrid driven by Andre Lotterer, Neel Jani and Nick Tandy during which the two cars were rarely separated by more than 10 seconds. 

The two Porsches, racing in high-downforce configuration for the first time this season, swapped positions multiple times over the course of the six hours. 

Lotterer appeared to have secured the victory over the final hour, pulling a 12s gap on Bernhard until the two cars made splash-and-dash fuel stops in the final 10 minutes. 

Bernhard was stationery for 20s less in the championship-leading Porsche, which allowed it to take the victory in what was clearly an orchestrated move.

Toyota briefly took the fight to Porsche with the pole-winning #7 TS050 Hybrid, with Kamui Kobayashi leading to the first round of pitstops before handing over to Jose Maria Lopez. 

The Argentinian driver was quickly passed by Hartley and then Jani, but remained in touch until the second fuel stops. 

Lopez was unable to match the Porsches on his second stint on the tyres and dropped 20s before handing over the car to Mike Conway, with the #7 trio ending up more than a minute down at the flag.

Sebastien Buemi, Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima, winners of the opening two rounds of the WEC, finished a distant fourth after losing five laps right at the start of the race.

Fuel pump failure meant Buemi had to complete the formation lap on electric power before pitting for a replacement. 

DC Racing adds to Le Mans triumph

Jackie Chan DC Racing trio Oliver Jarvis, Ho-Pin Tung and Thomas Laurent took their third LMP2 victory of the season in dominant fashion aboard their Jota Sport-run Oreca.

Jarvis battled with Bruno Senna in the best of the Rebellion Orecas, but the Le Mans-winning #38 car took control of the race in the second hour.

Senna, Julien Canal and Filipe Albuqueque ended up a lap down at the finish in the #31 Rebellion.

The Signatech Alpine team pipped the second Rebellion team to the final spot on the class podium. 

Its #36 Alpine shared by Nicolas Lapierre, Gustavo Menezes and Matt Rao sealed the spot ahead of the #13 Oreca of Mathias Beche, David Heinemeier Hansson and Pipo Derani during the final hour. 

Ferrari beats Porsche for GTE win

James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi overcame early leaders Porsche to claim GTE Pro honours for Ferrari. 

Calado established the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE in the lead during the fourth hour and went on to claim the victory by 50s. 

Frederic Makowiecki and Richard Lietz took second in their factory Porsche 911 RSR by just 8.7s from the sister car shared by Michael Christensen and Kevin Estre. 

The best of the Aston Martins, the #95 car shared by Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen, took fourth, ahead of Ford's best finisher, the #67 of Harry Tincknell and Andy Priaulx.

GTE Am honours went to the Dempsey-Proton Porsche driven by Matteo Cairoli, Christian Ried and Marvin Dienst, less than five seconds clear of the #54 Spirit of Race Ferrari 488.

Pos.	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Gap
1	2	Timo Bernhard   Brendon Hartley   Earl Bamber	Porsche 919 Hybrid	LMP1	204 laps
2	1	Andre Lotterer   Neel Jani   Nick Tandy	Porsche 919 Hybrid	LMP1	1.606
3	7	Kamui Kobayashi   Mike Conway   Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	1'04.768
4	8	Anthony Davidson   Kazuki Nakajima   Sébastien Buemi	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	5 laps
5	38	Oliver Jarvis   Ho-Pin Tung   Thomas Laurent	Oreca 07	LMP2	13 laps
6	31	Bruno Senna   Julien Canal   Filipe Albuquerque	Oreca 07	LMP2	14 laps
7	36	Nicolas Lapierre   Gustavo Menezes   Matt Rao	Alpine A470	LMP2	14 laps
8	13	Pipo Derani   David Heinemeier Hansson  Mathias Beche	Oreca 07	LMP2	14 laps
9	37	David Cheng   Tristan Gommendy   Alex Brundle	Oreca 07	LMP2	15 laps
10	26	Roman Rusinov   Pierre Thiriet   Ben Hanley	Oreca 07	LMP2	16 laps
11	25	Vitaly Petrov   Simon Trummer   Roberto Gonzalez	Oreca 07	LMP2	16 laps
12	28	François Perrodo   Emmanuel Collard   Matthieu Vaxivière	Oreca 07	LMP2	16 laps
13	24	Roberto Merhi   Jonathan Hirschi   Tor Graves	Oreca 07	LMP2	21 laps
14	4	Marco Bonanomi   Oliver Webb   Dominik Kraihamer	ENSO CLM P1/01	LMP1	22 laps
15	51	James Calado   Alessandro Pier Guidi	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE PRO	25 laps
16	91	Richard Lietz   Frédéric Makowiecki	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	25 laps
17	92	Michael Christensen   Kevin Estre	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	25 laps
18	95	Marco Sorensen   Nicki Thiim	Aston Martin Vantage	LMGTE PRO	26 laps
19	67	Harry Tincknell   Andy Priaulx	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	26 laps
20	66	Stefan Mücke   Olivier Pla	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	26 laps
21	97	Darren Turner   Jonathan Adam   Daniel Serra	Aston Martin Vantage	LMGTE PRO	27 laps
22	77	Christian Ried   Matteo Cairoli   Marvin Dienst	Porsche 911 RSR (991)	LMGTE AM	29 laps
23	54	Francesco Castellacci   Miguel Molina   Thomas Flohr	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	29 laps
24	98	Pedro Lamy   Paul Dalla Lana   Mathias Lauda	Aston Martin Vantage V8	LMGTE AM	30 laps
25	71	Toni Vilander   Davide Rigon	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE PRO	30 laps
26	61	Matt Griffin   Mok Weng Sun   Keita Sawa	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	31 laps
27	86	Michael Wainwright   Ben Barker   Nick Foster Jr.	Porsche 911 RSR (991)	LMGTE AM	31 laps
Ret	34	Nigel Moore   Philip Hanson	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	92 laps
Ret	35	Nelson Panciatici   Pierre Ragues   Andre Negrao	Alpine A470	LMP2	143 laps