After a wet qualifying, where Jernej Simoncic put the championship-leading #4 Floyd ByKolles-Burst LMP car on pole position, team-mate Jesper Pedersen took the reins for the race start. In GTE,

Bottas was looking strong in the opening stages of the race at Paul Ricard, shadowing Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton in third. Leader Verstappen came in for a second