Earl Bamber, Timo Bernhard, and Brendon Hartley drove a Porsche 919 Hybrid to victory, taking the lead in the final two hours. It was Bamber and Bernhard's second Le Mans victory, Hartley's first, and Porsche's 19th. Toyota's Sébastien Buemi, Anthony Davidson, and Kazuki Nakajima finished eighth in a TS050 Hybrid after starting second, and were the only other competitors in the Le Mans Prototype 1 (LMP1) field to finish the race. Oliver Jarvis, Thomas Laurent, and Ho-Pin Tung of Jackie Chan DC Racing's Oreca 07-Gibson won the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) category; they led the race for nearly two hours in the closing stages before finishing second overall. The second DC Racing entry of David Cheng, Tristan Gommendy, and Alex Brundle finished third overall, three laps ahead of the Signatech Alpine of André Negrão, Nelson Panciatici, and Pierre Ragues.
The Aston Martin Vantage shared by Jonathan Adam, Daniel Serra, and Darren Turner overtook the stricken Chevrolet Corvette C7.R of Antonio García, Jan Magnussen, and Jordan Taylor in the final two laps to win the Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Professional (LMGTE Pro) category for Aston Martin Racing. On the final lap, a Ford GT passed the Corvette to take second place for Pipo Derani, Andy Priaulx, and Harry Tincknell. The JMW Motorsport Ferrari 488 GTE shared by Robert Smith, Will Stevens, and Dries Vanthoor won the Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Amateur (LMGTE Am) class. Spirit of Race's Marco Cioci, Duncan Cameron, and Aaron Scott and Scuderia Corsa's Townsend Bell, Cooper MacNeil, and Bill Sweedler completed the class podium for Ferraris in second and third.
Bamber, Bernhard, and Hartley took the World Endurance Drivers' Championship lead from Buemi, Nakajima, and Davidson by 17 points. Jarvis, Laurent, and Tung moved to third after their LMP2-class victory. Derani, Priaulx, and Tincknell stayed first in the GT World Endurance Drivers' Championship, with Adam, Serra, and Turner's category win, moving them to second. Porsche overtook Toyota to lead the World Manufacturers' Championship by 28.5 points, as Ford passed Ferrari for the GT World Endurance Manufacturers' Championship lead with six races left in the season.
Following the 2016 race, the standards for car classification were changed by the ACO. The event's slow-zone system was also revised, with nine dedicated slow zones around the circuit. The circuit was modified from the Porsche Curves to the Ford Chicane. The Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) category was revamped with the introduction of a single specification engine from Gibson, with increased power output compared to 2016 LMP2 cars.
On 4 June, the circuit held two mandatory four-hour sessions as part of a pre-Le Mans testing day. Practice was held on 14 June, with all 60 cars on the circuit for four hours in hot and sunny weather.
Beginning late Wednesday night in clear conditions, the first of three qualifying sessions to set the race's starting order by the fastest lap times set by each team's quickest driver commenced. The final session saw Kobayashi take Toyota's third pole position at Le Mans and their first since 2014. Aston Martin led LMGTE Pro, with Turner improving with a 3-minute 50.837-second lap for Aston Martin's first class pole since 2015. Rees earned Larbre Compétition's first class pole in ten years with a 3-minute 52.843-second lap.
A 45-minute warm-up session was held on Saturday morning. Nakajima's No. 8 Toyota set the fastest lap at 3 minutes 18.308 seconds.
The weather was hot, with an air temperature of 19 to 32 °C (66 to 90 °F); the track temperature ranged from 27 to 38 °C (81 to 100 °F). Formula One Group's chair and chief executive Chase Carey waved the French tricolour to begin the race before 258,500 spectators with a rolling start at 15:00 local time. The first retirement occurred during the opening hour when Webb's No. 4 ByKolles car hit the wall at Tertre Rouge corner after suffering a front-left puncture. Midway through the seventh hour, Nakajima's No. 8 Toyota passed Lotterer's No. 1 Porsche for second place overall. The No. 7 Toyota's retirement promoted Tandy's No. 1 Porsche to the race lead. After the race's halfway point, Nicolas Prost's No. 31 Rebellion Oreca car entered the garage for an inspection due to a reported gearbox problem.
The No. 2 Porsche team led for the remainder of the race, winning after 367 laps, earning Bamber and Bernhard their second Le Mans victories, Hartley his first and Porsche its 19th. The No. 38 DC Oreca entry led the final 141 laps of LMP2 to win the category and finish second overall, a lap down. Aston Martin secured their first LMGTE Pro Le Mans victory, with Turner taking his third category win and Adam and Serra their first. JMW, unchallenged since the race's eighth hour, won the LMGTE Am class with the No. 84 Ferrari leading the last 234 laps.
Bamber called Porsche's victory "'incredibly nerve-wracking. A great fightback from us, and one of those fairytale Le Mans stories I think'". Hartley added, "'You can't write these stories. It's Le Mans. It's always unpredictable. Sometimes at the beginning of the race you don't believe that such a story exists. But it did'". Bernhard remarked the race could be either "the cruellest race or it can be the best race ever" and that the objective was to score the maximum drivers' and manufacturers' championship points available. Oliver Jarvis said, "'We can't be disappointed winning LMP2 and finishing second, but there was a moment when I saw the #1 Porsche at the side of the track and thought we could actually win! It would have been incredible'". Tung called the LMP2 victory "'extremely important. Not just to win here at Le Mans, it's so special, but also for the World Endurance Championship, it's a very important race'". Actor Jackie Chan equated his team's class victory to his winning an Academy Award. FIA president Jean Todt said that LMP2 cars driven by unknown drivers leading the race and finishing on the overall podium were "'great for racing'".
After the race, third-place-overall finisher No. 13 Rebellion Oreca was disqualified by race officials after it was found that the team had modified its rear bodywork by cutting a hole to allow them to access a faulty starter motor; it was declared an unnecessary modification of approved bodywork. The disqualification moved the second Jackie Chan DC Racing car to third place overall, and second in class. Rebellion Racing issued a statement admitting an "'error of judgement'".
Toyota president Akio Toyoda suggested that hybrid technology may not yet have been developed enough to cope with the event's demands. Oreca president Hugues de Chaunac echoed Toyoda, suggesting that the state of LMP1 hybrid cars were too convoluted. Porsche team principal Andreas Seidl felt that the hybrid failures were a consequence of faster racing, and Porsche had not experienced such problems. Jarvis said that ACO rule changes attempting to slow the LMP1 hybrid cars were ineffective and impaired reliability. Capillaire apologised to Toyota (which was accepted) for indirectly causing the No. 7 car's retirement, saying that he ran across the pit lane to encourage Kobayashi. Kobayashi said "It is so disappointing" following his retirement and that he felt very sad for all of the Toyota staff. Kaffer accepted an apology from Vaxivière for the incident which took the Risi Ferrari out of the race, and for which Vaxivière was strongly criticised. Prodrive chairman David Richards praised the "'extraordinary'" team effort of his Aston Martin team to win LMGTE Pro; Adam called his pursuit of Taylor "'the stint of my life'", saying that his team's reaction to his race-winning overtake of Taylor "'was quite emotional'".
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