Nobody had reckoned with the success of the Sauber Mercedes in the run up to 1989. The races at Le Mans had been catastrophic in all cases in the previous years and, since 1985, the Sauber team from Zürcher Oberland in Switzerland had not managed to finish the race with a single car! 3 cars started in 1989, taking positions 1, 2 and 5.

There was a shock in store for the Sauber team shortly before the end, as the car in second position was only running in 5th gear. However, the enormous engine displacement and lead more than made up for this, and the car maintained its position. The Sauber C9 with its Mercedes 5.0L Turbo V8 engine ran without difficulty for 24 hours with all the precision of a Swiss watch.

37 years after the last Mercedes victory, a Silver Arrow once again crossed the finish line in 1st position, the no. 63 with Jochen Mass, Manuel Reuter and Stanley Dickens. Hermann Lang and Fritz Riess had achieved this back in 1952 in the 300 SL.

In third position was the already somewhat aged Porsche 962 from the team of Reinhold Joest and Hans-Joachim Stuck.