With a scorching forecasted high of 35℃, the day began under intense sunlight. A 45-minute warm-up session was held starting at 8:30 a.m. Honda HRC (Takumi Takahashi, Johann Zarco) recorded a time of 2:08.300, placing 14th. The top Honda team in the session was SDG Team HARC-PRO. Honda (Teppei Nagoe, Yuki Kunii, Keito Abe), which posted a 2:07.200 lap to finish third.

The race officially began at 11:30 a.m. with the traditional Le Mans-style start. From pole position, Takahashi got the holeshot, but Kunii—starting from fourth—made an aggressive move through the S-curves and overtook Takahashi in the Reverse Bank corner to take the lead. Kunii completed the opening lap in first, followed by Takahashi in second. Third place went to Gregg Black of YOSHIMURA SERT Motul (Suzuki), fourth to Kohta Nozane of Astemo Pro Honda SI Racing (with teammates Kohta Arakawa and Ryusei Yamanaka), fifth to Satoru Iwata of Team ATJ with docomo business (teamed with Kouki Suzuki and Takuma Kunimine), and sixth to Katsuyuki Nakasuga of YAMAHA RACING TEAM (Yamaha).

Takahashi, holding pace behind Kunii, made his move on lap 14 and reclaimed the lead. He increased his pace to the 2:07 range while Kunii remained in the 2:08 range, gradually widening the gap. By lap 20, the lead had extended to 3.941 seconds.

Kunii pitted on lap 24 and handed over to Abe. Around the same time, Team ATJ with docomo business swapped Iwata for Kunimine. Amid the flurry of first pit stops, Takahashi continued to lead the field at a high pace in the 2:07s. On lap 26, Nakasuga pitted, handing off to Andrea Locatelli (Yamaha), and shortly after, Takahashi entered the pits and passed the bike to Zarco.

Zarco rejoined the track in the lead on lap 27. Meanwhile, F.C.C. TSR Honda France (Alan Techer, Corentin Perolari, Taiga Hada)—a full-season EWC entry team—experienced machine trouble, prompting an unscheduled pit stop by Techer.

By lap 30, Zarco and second-placed Locatelli had both raised their pace to the 2:07 range, while third-place Abe maintained consistent 2:08s in solo runs. On lap 45, Zarco extended the lead established by Takahashi to 14.531 seconds over Locatelli. Further back, Kunimine moved up to fifth.

The second round of rider changes began on lap 48. On lap 51, the second-place YAMAHA RACING TEAM pitted, with Locatelli handing the bike to Jack Miller (Yamaha). Zarco continued his stint, maximizing the fuel efficiency of the CBR1000RR-R FIREBLADE SP, and finally pitted on lap 54. Honda HRC completed a lightning-fast pit stop in just 42 seconds, including refueling and tyre change, and sent Takahashi back out on track.

At the two-hour mark, the top three positions were held by Honda HRC, YAMAHA RACING TEAM, and YART - YAMAHA (Yamaha). Among the Honda teams, SDG Team HARC-PRO. Honda was 4th, Team ATJ with docomo business 7th, Astemo Pro Honda SI Racing 8th, Honda DREAM RT Sakurai Honda 12th, and Honda Asia-Dream Racing with Astemo 14th.