Audi Sport Team Sainteloc claimed a narrow victory at the 24 Hours of Spa, beating the rival Bentley squad by 11 seconds.
Markus Winkelhock, Christopher Haase and Jules Gounon ran quietly in the top 20 until the daylight hours, when they emerged as a contender as other entries fell by the wayside.
The team recovered from losing a lap during the night when one of the wheels under the #25 Audi R8 LMS came loose after a routine pit stop, before moving into a winning position through strong stints by all three drivers.
Sainteloc's main rival was the Mercedes AMG-GT3 entered by the French AKKA-ASP squad.
Raffaele Marciello, Edoardo Mortara and Michael Meadows finished third after being caught out by the Blancpain GT Series' rule that driver stints should not exceed 65 minutes.
Marciello, who completed 14 hours in his first 24-hour race, was forced to wait an extra 43 seconds in his pit box at the final round of stops, leaving just enough time to complete the run to flag within the allotted window.
However, that delay dropped the Mercedes behind not only Haase in the winning Audi, but also Maxime Soulet in the third-placed Bentley Continental GT3.
Soulet, Andy Soucek and Vincent Abril were contenders for much of the event, even with the loss of the Bentley's front grill bodywork on Sunday morning.
Having moved within reach of the top five from his 14th place starting position on Saturday afternoon, Soulet was installed in the #8 to mount a challenge on Haase, but the Belgian driver was unable to reduce the gap below 11 seconds.
In the early stages, the lead had been shared out by the pole-sitting Kaspersky Motorsport Ferrari 488 and the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup
points leading Grasser Racing Lamborghini, but entries both ran into problems.
The Giancarlo Fisichella/Marco Cioci/James Calado Kaspersky car retired in the early hours when Cioci crashed at Raidillon following contact with the #90 Mercedes that broke the 488's steering column.
The Lamborghini, driven by Mirko Bortolotti, Christian Engelhart and Andrea Caldarelli, hit trouble when Engelhart went off at the esses citing an ABS problem just after sunrise.
Other notable incidents included a crash on the left side of Raidillon for Pasin Lathouras in the #50 Ferrari that marked the first retirement of the day, followed by a similar incident on the right side of the same corner for Jimmy Eriksson's HTP Motorsport Mercedes.
The HTP car, which won the first two races of the BGTS Sprint campaign, was a championship contender until Eriksson spun out during the night.
Instead, the second-placed Bentley trio assumed first in the standings, leap-frogging the unfortunate Lamborghini crew.
Porsche LMP1 driver Timo Bernhard's factory-backed team finished fourth on its 24-hour race debut.
The #117 911 GT3-R was competitive, and might have won the race had it not picked up a three-minute stop-go penalty for a pit lane infringement.
In fifth and sixth were the two highest placed WRT-run Audis,
Pro-Am victory went to the Black Falcon Mercedes crew of Maximilian Gotz, Miguel Toril, Marvin Kirchoffer and Oliver Morley, which won by over a lap.
The Oman Racing/TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage finished second, with drivers Jonny Adam and Ahmad Al Harthy clinching the BGTS Endurance Cup class title for their performance alongside Euan Hankey and Salih Yoluc.
Am Cup honours went the way of the Kessel Racing Ferrari squad.
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