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Record Tour de France stage winner Mark Cavendish was the honorary race starter on Saturday afternoon
The series has rediscovered its popularity since the introduction of new hypercar rules for the top class of cars in 2021 - with manufacturers including Ferrari, Peugeot, Alpine, BMW, Toyota, Genesis, Cadillac and Aston Martin.
Le Mans - part of the World Endurance Championship (WEC) series - is a sellout each year as about 350,000 fans flock to Circuit de la Sarthe, while other races such as the Six Hours of Spa are growing in popularity.
Several former F1 drivers take part in the WEC, including the highly rated Stevens, who drove for Caterham and Marussia across 2014 and 2015.
Britain's former W Series champion Jamie Chadwick made history by becoming the first female to drive a hypercar at Le Mans during a test day before the race as she took the wheel of the new Genesis entry.
Reserve driver Chadwick saw her team-mates finish 13th in the number 19 car on its debut after the sister number 17 car retired with suspension failure.
In only the team's second year following a return to the top class of racing in the WEC, Aston Martin's beautiful Valkyrie was far more competitive and reliable - the 007 car driven by Britons Harry Tincknell, Tom Gamble and Ross Gunn finished eighth, with number 009 car 14th.
Next year brings the reintroduction of a six-hour WEC race at Silverstone as both Ford and McLaren enter the series in the hypercar category - the former rekindling their legendary rivalry with Ferrari.
Four-time F1 world champion Max Verstappen is rumoured to be keen to compete in Le Mans following his participation in GT racing this year.
In the lower LMP2 category, in which the British company Gibson supplies the engines, Polish team Inter Europol retained their title with a one-two finish.
France's top female talent Doriane Pin ran high up in LMP2 earlier in the race but her Duqueine team retired with a few hours remaining following brake failure.
In the LMGT3 class, American manufacturer Corvette were victorious through Ben Keating, Nicky Catsburg and Britain's Jonny Edgar.
The sister Corvette, run by Racing Team Turkey by TF Sport, was sixth through Northern Ireland's Charlie Eastwood, who won Le Mans in 2020, Ireland's Peter Dempsey and Turkey's Salih Yoluc.
But there was heartbreak for Northern Ireland's Dan Harper on his Le Mans debut as he was forced to retire inside the final four hours of the race.
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