The #1 Rebellion Williams Esports entry has survived a late-race charge from the lone ByKolles entry and a second red flag period to win the inaugural virtual 24 Hours of Le Mans organised in partnership with WEC and Motorsport Games.
Meanwhile, an unfortuante server error deep into the latter stages of the race during a driver change ruled the #92 Porsche driven by kiwi Supercup ace Jaxon Evans and Bathurst 12 hour victor Matt Campbell out from a sublime podium finish.
Running in third for the majority of the race, the technical issues chanced with just over one hour remaining in the twice-around-the-clock French classic.
The duo, paired with sim-racing aficionados Mack Bakkum and Jeremy Bouteloup, would still see the chequered flag albeit down in 11th in class.
Victory in the GTE class would ultimately be awarded to the dominant #93 Porsche, with Le Mans winner Nick Tandy, Porsche junior Ayhancan Guven, Porsche Esports Supercup champion Josh Rogers and professional sim racer Tommy Ostgaard at the wheel.
The quartet were untouchable all race, crossing the line over a lap ahead of the second placed #95 Aston Martin Racing, with the Romain Grosjean-backed Corvette rounding out the podium.
Factory Mercedes GT driver Raffaele Marciello, Haas Formula 1 reserve Louis Deletraz and sim-racing pair Nikodem Wisniewski and Kuba Brzezinski triumphed in the prototype class, maintaining the lead after being elevated to the head of the field early in the night stint after Max Verstappen suffered technical issues.
Erstwhile leaders in the #4 ByKolles entry executed an incredible recovery drive from a drive-through and broken simulator in the opening half-an-hour to charge back onto the lead lap, eventually finishing runners up by 17.781 seconds.
The sister #13 Rebellion cruised home to an unchallenged third as the last car on the lead lap.
Despite his early race casualty, Fernando Alonso and Rubens Barrichello were reinstated back into the race following the first red flag period and ended up in 17th at the chequered flag.
The #8 Toyota piloted by Brendon Hartley, Sebastien Beumi, Kenta Yamashita and Yuri Kasdorp strung together a clean second half of the race to snare 11th overall – 3 laps down on the leaders.
Having crashed from the lead earlier in the race, Verstappen and F1 counterpart Lando Norris had uninstalled the rFactor2 software, announcing their retirement from the race. However, an opportunity to re-join the field following the second red flag period saw the Redline entry return to the race and finish in 25th.
Images: Xynamic
