The no32 United Autosports Oreca took the first victory of the 2020 European Le Mans Series at the end of a thrilling 4 Hours of Le Castellet with Job Van Uitert taking the chequered flag. The no22 United Autosports Oreca of Phil Hanson was leading but a front left puncture dropped the British driver back to 4th. Thomas Laurent crossed the line in the no39 Graff Oreca in 2nd with Nyck De Vries completing the podium in the no26 G-Drive Racing.
With the sun shining and the air temperature a balmy 24 degrees, the 4 Hours of Le Castellet got underway to start the 2020 European Le Mans Series. Phil Hanson, who started on pole in the no22 United Autosports Oreca and led the 35-car field into the first corner, pursued by the no26 G Drive Racing Aurus of Mikkel Jensen and the no32 United Autosports Oreca of Will Owen.
Hanson had the no26 Aurus filling his mirrors as Jensen tried to find a way into the lead, but the Dane also had Owen’s Oreca snapping at his heals as the top three cars were covered by 1.5 seconds at the end of the first lap.
Behind the leading trio, the no28 Idec Sport Oreca of Paul Lafargue was heading a four-car train of cars. However, the 2019 LMP2 Champions race took a turn for the worse when the car slowed at Signes Corner and limped back to the pits with an electrical problem.
Back at the front Will Owen got the run on Jensen on the Mistral and swept past to take second place. United Autosports were now running 1-2 and Owen was catching his teammate.
The first pitstops occurred at around 40-minutes with Jensen handing over the no26 G-Drive Racing Aurus to Roman Rusinov while Will Owen and Phil Hanson staying in their respective cars.As the cars regained the track the no32 Oreca had a 6 second lead over the no22 car, with Rusinov 13 seconds behind Hanson.
The no24 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca of former champion Jon Lancaster was 4th with the no39 Graff Oreca of Alexandre Cougnaud in 5th place.However, Lancaster had to head back to the pits when the front left tyre blew out, promoting Cougnaud into 4th place, 10 seconds behind Rusinov’s Aurus.
The no55 Spirit of Race Ferrari of Duncan Cameron collided with the barriers at Signes after a clash with the no30 Duqueine Team Oreca driven by Konstantin Tereschenko, which the French team later apologised for. A Full Course Yellow was shown to recover the damaged Ferrari while the no30 Oreca headed to the pits.
Will Owen took advantage of the FCY to come in and hand the no32 United Autosports Oreca over to Alex Brundle and Phil Hanson came in to allow Filipe Albuquerque to take over the no22 Oreca.
The race went green after five minutes and Alex Brundle soon built up a 15 second lead while Roman Rusinov and Filipe Albuquerque were fighting for second place, before Rusinov headed to the pits for fuel and to hand the car back to the silver rated Mikkel Jensen. The no39 Graff Oreca was now third but 70 seconds behind the no32 United Autosports Oreca at the front of the field.
Mikkel Jensen re-joined the track on fresh tyres and set the fastest lap of the race at that point as he attempted to close the gap to the leaders.However, the Safety Car was deployed when the no31 Panis Racing Oreca of Julien Canal suddenly went to the left at the final corner with suspected suspension failure and hit the tyre wall.Canal was OK but the marshals had to remove the car.
After 15 minutes under the Safety Car the race resumed with Brundle’s lead reduced to less than 2 seconds ahead Albuquerque, with James Allen in the no39 Graff in 3rd and Andre Negrao in the no50 Richard Mille Racing Team Oreca up to 4th.
At the next set of pitstops Will Owen jumped back into lead car, with Filipe Albuquerque remining behind the wheel, the Portuguese driver emerging from the pits just 0.6s behind his teammate. The platinum rated Albuquerque tried to pass his silver rated teammate, but Owen held his nerve and his place and even started to open a gap as the leaders threaded their way through traffic.
On the next pitstop Owen was still leading and handed the car to Job Van Uitert while Phil Hansen went back to finish the race in the no22 Oreca.Nyck De Vries took over the driving duties in the no26 G-Drive Racing Aurus and a three-way battle commenced once again.
Phil Hanson took the lead while Van Uitert and De Vries battled for second place, the two Dutch drivers going side by side down the Mistral Straight. On the second attempt De Vries made the move stick going into Signes and he set off to try and catch Hanson.
Thomas Laurent in the no39 Graff was running 4th ahead of Anders Fjordbach in the no20 High Class Racing Oreca, Tatiana Calderon in the no50 Richard Mille Oreca and the no37 Cool Racing Oreca of Nico Lapierre. Lapierre went past Calderon to take 5th and started to close on Fjordbach.
