The TWR-Porsche prototype ahead of the GT1 s

 The 65th Le Mans 24 Hour race began on a dry track and in spite of a good start by the works no.25 Porsche, the Joest Racing TWR Porsche went into the lead on lap 4 from the GTs led by Wollek's Porsche and van de Poele's Nissan. These 3 drivers rapidly opened up a gap over their pursuers which included the McLaren driven by Christophe Bouchut. The Frenchman got up to third place before the first round of refuelling battling with the quickest McLaren on the track, the works entry in the hands of Lehto-Piquet-Soper.

 After 2 hours racing the TWR Porsche refuelled just ahead of the Porsche GT1s stretched its lead to 30 seconds after 2 hours' racing. Bob Wollek had seat problems and lost 40 seconds during his stop while on a double stint handing over 2nd place to his sister-car driven by Collard-Dalmas-Kelleners. Just behind waiting to pounce, the 2 Nissans refuelled around the same time as the Porsches while the McLarens seemed able to do 2 or 3 more laps thus gaining precious time. No.42 was in third place ahead of the Nissans and in the same minute as the leaders. The Gulf Davidoff Team McLarens were also in the leading group in spite of Gounon's spin in the middle of the track directly in front of others competitors. The first race incident came when the Dams-entered Panoz hit a Nissan in the Ford Chicane before the race had even started. The car had to stop for repairs and the front bonnet will be changed before nightfall. The Marcos was soon in the wars due to battery problems and this was followed by a smoking engine. In spite of attempts to repair the damage the car retired after about an hour's racing. Two other notable retirements were the no.32 Roock Racing GT1 Porsche which stopped on lap 8 in the new part of the circuit and Michel FertŽ's Ferrari which ran out of fuel on Les Hunaudieres. The BRM also went out with a blown engine and the no.45 Lister Storm was retired after the car's rear was damaged following a spin.

 Among the prototypes the no.13 Courage got the better of the 333 SP Ferrari to take over second place in the category. The La Fili�re-entered Courage lost some time following Clerico's excursion into a sand trap, and the one driven by the Andrettis plus Grouillard lost precious seconds when it had to stop to have a fuse changed. However, fuelwise, this car looks in a good position.

 In the GT2 category Jarier's strong challenge to the Vipers ended when he was forced to stop a second time to have a drive shaft changed after his team had spotted the weakness during his first refuelling stop. Thus, the 2 Vipers of Archer-Ayari-Duez and GacheBeretta-Dupuis continued their triumphal domination in this category ahead of the no.84 Staler Motorsport 911 GT2 Porsche. The third Oreca Viper (no.63) had to stop to have its gearbox changed, a halt of 38 minutes. The Chamberlain Engineering Viper was delayed by a gear lever problem. In the Saleen Mustang pits there a moment of panic when both cars arrived for refuelling at the same time. Later on no.66 came back in after going off into a gravel trap. Finally, the no.80 Porsche had to stop to have the gearbox changed.