Though Precote Herberth Motorsport completed a flawless run en-route to its second win of 2016 at Paul Ricard, the team’s 14-lap advantage at the flag was nevertheless aided by miserable luck for its nearest rivals.  

Polesitter Drivex for example hit trouble immediately when the Audi R8 LMS’ ABS failed on the warm-up lap, further electrical problems and a rogue puncture eventually dropping the Spanish team 152 laps behind. Scuderia Praha was also in contention for victory early on but lost several laps when the Ferrari’s bonnet detached itself at high speed. Two punctures and gear selector issues eventually forced the 458’s retirement, though Scuderia Praha was still classified 7th. 

RAM Racing, the previous year’s winner, had to manage potentially terminal temperatures in its gearbox in the closing stages, but still managed to secure 2nd despite its tempered pace. GRT Grasser Racing Team meanwhile could only watch as a puncturing tyre cracked the Lamborghini’s fuel line, causing the Huracán GT3 to go up in flames at three-quarter distance. Even Optimum Motorsport, which had comfortably established itself in the top three, lost an hour in the pits to gearbox failure before being retired outright.  

Problems for the frontrunners thus allowed A6-Am class winner Hofor-Racing to finish 3rd overall, despite running low on fuel in the closing laps. Car Collection Motorsport and Leipert Motorsport rounded out the A6-Am class podium in 5th and 6th overall, while early leader HTP Motorsport, also suffering with the rocketing temperatures, eventually dropped back to 8th.

Porsche Lorient Racing took a popular SP2 class win on home turf, rounding out the overall top 10 in the process just behind IDEC SPORT RACING. Further back, HRT Performance (11th) ultimately pipped MSG Motorsport (12th) for victory in ‘991’ after the latter was briefly felled during the night with ABS failure. ALFAB Racing came out on top in SP3, and Team Altran Peugeot repeated its win the previous year with an impressive 1-2 in A3.

Reigning 24H SERIES champion Memac Ogilvy Duel Racing took victory in a troubled TCR class. Three hours in, NKPP Racing was wiped out against the pitwall in a heavy collision with the Team K-Rejser Peugeot RCZ, while Red Camel-Jordans.nl’s SEAT Leon Cup Racer, which was due to start on pole position, failed to start at all after the Dutch team was unable to pull together enough drivers. Bitterly, the sister MARC Mazda 3 V8 was looking good for an SP2 podium until broken cylinder after broken cylinder eventually destroyed the big V8. 

Spark Motorsport was the sole ‘survivor’ of a high attrition SPX class, though few suffered worse luck though than GPC MOTORSPORT: the Vortex went into the race with an engine problem and suffered incessant fuel pressure problems before bursting into flames, and retirement, on-track after 143 laps. 

As a mark of respect to the 84 killed during the Bastille Day terrorist attack just two days earlier, a minute’s silence was held on the grid and the podiums featured no champagne celebration.