A dramatic win in the Le Castellet 240 has given Filipe Albuquerque and Phil Hanson an extended championship lead at the halfway point of the 2020 season.
The race was affected by heavy rain and saw so many changes of lead it was hard to keep up. But a last 20-minute race to pass the no26 G-Drive Racing Aurus of Jean-Eric Vergne saw Albuquerque take the chequered flag in the no22 Oreca-Gibson to give United Autosports their third win of the 2020 season and the second for the no22 car.
The race started behind the safety car as the track was very wet, but the earlier rain had stopped.After two laps behind the safety car the race went green and Hanson, starting from pole position, led the field into the first corner. The British driver had a 3 second lead over Konstantin Tereshenko in the no30 Duqueine Team Oreca, who had passed the no26 G-Drive Racing Aurus of Roman Rusinov.
Further back the no24 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca of Henning Enqvist was fighting off a determined challenge from Will Owen in the no32 United Autosports and Alexandre Cougnaud in the no39 Graff. The Swedish driver running wide at T1 on lap 9 and was passed by both cars for 4th and 5th respectively.
The track continued to dry and during the first stops most of the teams opted for intermediate tyres for the next stint but United Autosports took a gamble and switched both the no22 and no32 Orecas to slicks, which turned out to be a wrong turn because the rain returned within 10 minutes of their pitstop.
While the rain was just a shower, Hanson and Owen dropped down the order as they struggled for grip in the slippery condition. Nicolas Lapierre was now in the lead in the no37 Cool Racing Oreca but was being chased down by Mikkel Jensen in the no26 Aurus-Gibson, the Dane taking the lead at the top of the first hour.
After 100 minutes of racing the second safety car was deployed when the rear tyre of the no5 Graff LMP3 Duqueine exploded after being damaged in a collision with the no16 BHK Motorsport Ligier spreading debris across the track on the Mistral Straight. Lapierre had lost his second place to Tereshenko in the no30 Duqueine Team Oreca but had to give the place back when it was judged to have been done just as the safety car period was declared.
However, at the restart, Tereshenko repeated the move and took second place from Lapierre and after the pitstops the no31 Panis Racing Oreca of Nicolas Jamin was now leading from Mikkel Jensen in the no26 G-Drive Racing Aurus, who was holding off a determined challenge from the no25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca of Simon Trummer. The Swiss driver got past to take second as the second hour approached, but Jensen retook the place a few laps later in a great battle before handing over the car to Jean-Eric Vergne.
The no22 United Autosports Oreca of Phil Hanson had started to make steady progress up the field as the track dried and with just over 90 minutes of the four-hour race remaining, he took the lead when the next round of pitstops occurred. Hanson then handed the car over to Filipe Albuquerque for the final part of the race.
Nicolas Jamin was still leading in the no31 Panis Racing Oreca from the no26 Aurus of Jean-Eric Vergne and James Allen in the no39 Graff Oreca. Vergne dropped down the order to 5th when he went off and re-joined at T1 as the no24 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca of Loïc Duval was making progress up the field, setting the fastest lap of the race at that point. However, the French drivers race came to an abrupt end when two spinning LMP3 cars caused him to be tipped into a roll at T10 and his car end up in the tyre wall upside down, bringing out the safety car for the third time. Duval was unhurt and after 15 minutes the race resumed.
