It's hard to judge a 24 hour race like that. You never know who is using what strategy. If you look at the fastest lap of the race, it was done in a BMW M8 GTE.
#25 BMW M8 GTE
1:42.908
Porsche was right on their heels though.
#911 PORSCHE 911 RSR
1:42.963
These were the only two cars to break into the 1:42's, but the field was
incredibly well matched this year. The "slowest" car (by fastest lap) was the #67 Ford GT at 1:43.355. So basically, the entire field was separated by 0.4s when compared by fastest lap.
This was anybody's race. At times, the #911 Porsche and #62 Ferrari appeared to be leaving the field behind, but as it turns out, it was all strategy. This is a 24 hour race, after all.
IMO, two things got BMW the win:
1) A well played race strategy of keeping the car in tact, while remaining within striking distance. IMO, they took a page from Corvette racing. You don't need to lead all the laps, you only need to lead the last one.
2) Augusto Farfus' absolutely heroic drive in the rain. While the rest of the field were busy driving their cars off the circuit and smashing into each other (Porsche... again
), Augusto drove to the front of the field perfectly at the limit. The in-car camera was really something to watch. Lots of fast hands and sweating bullets. It was amazing to watch, really.
So if you ask me, this was a hard fought, and well earned win by BMW. It doesn't matter that they won under red flag, because every racer out there knew that the hammer could drop at any moment. Drivers said as much in interviews during those hectic final laps. It was basically a now or never scenario, and Augusto was one of the few to keep their nerve.
It's basically the same thing that happened in DPi. Alonso didn't win on outright pace, he drove at the limit, and not beyond it. Sometimes you win on the backs of other's mistakes, but it is a credit to have avoided making the same ones.