Alpine drivers André Negrão, Nicolas Lapierre and Matthieu Vaxivière led the Hypercar Drivers' Championship with 57 points entering the race, ahead of Glickenhaus' Romain Dumas and Olivier Pla (39 points) and Toyota's Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryō Hirakawa (27 points). Porsche's Michael Christensen and Kévin Estre led the GTE Drivers' Championship over AF Corse's James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi.
The race was the first at Le Mans to use FIA-compliant renewable fuel produced from wine residue by TotalEnergies, and a section of the Mulsanne Straight was resurfaced after inspections revealed fatigue in the tarmac. Russian entries, including G-Drive Racing, were excluded following sanctions related to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Hartley set the Hyperpole lap of 3:24.408 in the No. 8 Toyota, giving Toyota its sixth consecutive Le Mans pole position. The Hyperpole session — a half-hour shootout for the six fastest class qualifiers — placed the No. 36 Alpine third and both Glickenhaus entries fourth and fifth. In LMGTE Pro, Corvette took the first two positions with Tandy's No. 63 entry fastest.
Buemi led from pole but could not build a sufficient gap due to oversteer, eventually losing the overall lead to Conway's No. 7 sister Toyota after pit stops. Both Corvette entries ran strongly in LMGTE Pro early on before a succession of mechanical problems — downshifting issues for Tandy, then a left rear suspension replacement for García — promoted both Porsches to the class lead by the sixth hour.
Lapierre was observed speeding in a slow zone, earning the No. 36 Alpine a drive-through penalty that removed it from contention. Vaxivière later brought the car into the garage to repair an electronic clutch fault, a 13.5-minute stop that ended Alpine's realistic chances of winning the race.
The two Toyotas traded the overall lead through the night, with Buemi's No. 8 and Conway's No. 7 separated by seconds at various points. By half-distance, the No. 8 Toyota led by nearly 19 seconds. Both Glickenhaus cars ran steadily in third and fourth, providing the first serious Hypercar challenge from an independent manufacturer.
Porsche's No. 92 car held the LMGTE Pro lead for 104 consecutive laps before routine brake changes ceded the position to AF Corse's No. 51 Ferrari. A dramatic sequence in the 18th hour saw the No. 63 Corvette retire with rear mechanical damage, then the No. 64 Corvette receive heavy front damage after François Perrodo's LMP2 car squeezed Sims into the left-side barrier on the Mulsanne Straight. Perrodo received a three-minute stop-and-go penalty. With both Corvettes eliminated, Makowiecki's No. 91 Porsche led the class. AF Corse's No. 51 Ferrari, driven by Pier Guidi, suffered a right-rear puncture entering the Porsche Curves, which promoted the Porsche permanently into the category lead.
The race's single safety car deployment came in the 18th hour when Frijns crashed WRT's No. 31 LMP2 Oreca into the Armco at Indianapolis corner; the car was retired and an Armco barrier required repair.
Hartley's No. 8 Toyota led for the final 125 laps and finished first after 380 laps, 2 minutes 1.222 seconds ahead of Conway, Kobayashi and López in the sister No. 7 car. It was Buemi's fourth Le Mans victory, Hartley's third and Hirakawa's first. Toyota claimed its fifth consecutive outright victory. Glickenhaus completed the podium — its first Le Mans overall podium — five laps adrift in third with the No. 709 car of Ryan Briscoe, Franck Mailleux and Richard Westbrook.
Jota's No. 38 Oreca of Roberto González, António Félix da Costa and Will Stevens won LMP2 after leading for all but 15 laps, the Prema squad of Lorenzo Colombo, Louis Delétraz and Robert Kubica second and the sister Jota car of Jonathan Aberdein, Ed Jones and Oliver Rasmussen third.
In the final LMGTE Pro class race at Le Mans, Porsche's No. 91 RSR-19 of Gianmaria Bruni, Richard Lietz and Frédéric Makowiecki won by 42.684 seconds over AF Corse's No. 51 Ferrari. Bruni and Lietz took the GTE Drivers' Championship lead with the result. The TF Sport Aston Martin of Henrique Chaves, Ben Keating and Marco Sørensen won LMGTE Am, leading the final 105 laps, 44.446 seconds ahead of WeatherTech's Porsche in second.
A record 53 of the 62 starting cars were classified at the finish.
The 2022 race closed an era: LMGTE Pro, which had defined the top GT class at Le Mans since 2011, made its final appearance with a Porsche victory. The race also confirmed Toyota's dominance of the new Hypercar era and introduced Glickenhaus as a credible independent manufacturer capable of running at the front of the field. The introduction of FIA-certified renewable fuel from agricultural by-products marked the beginning of Le Mans' formal transition toward carbon-neutral competition.