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.

With the no31 Panis Racing Oreca in the pits for Jamin to hand over to Will Stevens, the no26 G-Drive Racing Aurus went into the lead and a short stop for fuel put the French driver out in by 30 second ahead of Filipe Albuquerque and Thomas Laurent in the no39 Graff Oreca.

With race entering the last 20-minutes the no22 Oreca started to close the gap, with Albuquerque seeing the opportunity to take the win after all. In just three minutes the gap went from 8 second to 4 seconds and as the clock entered the last ten minutes the two cars were nose-to-tail.Vergne held on to his lead for several laps but on lap 116 the two cars were side by side on the Mistral Straight and Albuquerque swept into the lead at Signes.

At the chequered flag there were celebrations in the United Autosports garage as Filipe Albuquerque took the chequered flag 2.6 seconds ahead of the no26 G-Drive Racing Aurus and 12 seconds ahead of the no39 Graff Oreca of Thomas Laurent.

LMP3

A drama filled Le Castellet 240 saw Realteam racing score a debut ELMS victory with Esteban Garcia and David Droux celebrating on the winner’s podium after a challenging four hour race marked by rain, safety cars and full on racing action.

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 Esteban Garcia, starting from the LMP3 pole position, led the 12-car field into the first corner. However, he dropped back to 4th as the no2 United Autosports Ligier of championship leader Rob Wheldon took the lead, followed by the no3 United Autosports Ligier of Andrew Bentley.

On lap 4, Garcia dropped to 5th when he was passed by the no11 Eurointernational Ligier of Jacopo Baratto. The no16 BHK Motorsport Ligier of Lorenzo Veglia was third but was tipped into a spin and dropped to 4th when challenged by Baratto for the place.The two would clash again at T6 and for this move Veglia was given a Stop and Go penalty.

Rain began to fall again and the no9 Graff Ligier of Arnold Robin was making progress, passing the no11 Eurointernational Ligier at T10 and then taking the lead when the two United Autosport Ligier pitted. The no11 Ligier also had to pit and was pushed back into its garage with an issue, dropping the car out of contention.

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.

When the race went green the no9 Graff Ligier was leading, with the no2 United Autosports Ligier in second and the no7 Nielsen Racing Duqueine of Tony Wells in third, while the no8 Realteam Racing Ligier languished down the order.

After the next set of pitstops the order was shaken up again, with the no7 Nielsen Racing Duqueine of Colin Noble now in the lead, ahead of the no15 RLR MSport Ligier of Robert Megennis.

Another safety car period was declared when the no24 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca of Loïc Duval ended up in the tyre wall upside down after avoiding a spinning no16 BHK Motorsport Ligier and clipping the no5 Graff Duqueine-Nissan. The no7 Nielsen Racing Duqueine also stopped on track in an unrelated incident, Colin Noble pulling off the circuit with no power.

When racing resumed, Duncan Tappy was leading in the no3 United Autosports Ligier with David Droux now bearing down on the British driver as the final part of the race approached.With just 11 minutes of the race remaining David Droux took the lead and pulled away from Tappy’s Ligier.

At the chequered flag, David Droux crossed the line two second ahead of the no3 United Autosports Ligier and 3.6 seconds ahead of the no13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier of Nigel Moore, who took the final podium position.

GT

The Le Castellet 240 proved to be action packed from start to finish, with the no55 Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 GTE EVO of Duncan Cameron, Aaron Scott and Matt Griffin taking the chequered flag for the first time since the 4 Hours of Monza in May 2018.

The race started behind the safety car as the track was extremely wet, but the earlier rain had stopped. The no93 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR failed to make the grid after being too badly damaged in a qualifying accident earlier in the day.

After two laps behind the safety car the race went green and the no77 Proton Competition Porsche of Christian Ried made the most of the pole position to move ahead of the rest of the LMGTE field. The no74 Kessel Racing Ferrari of Michael Broniszewski moved up from fourth to second, while Duncan Cameron in the no55 Spirit of Racing Ferrari also made progress from fifth on the grid.

As the track dried, Broniszewski came into the pits to fit intermediates, which proved to be the right move as the Polish drivers lap times were far quicker than the cars on full wets, so there was a flurry of activity as other drivers followed suit.

Christian Ried continued on wets and was well ahead of the rest of the field when the rain returned. The German driver continued to pull away and was nearly a minute ahead of the no60 Iron Lynx Ferrari and the no66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari fighting over the minor podium positions.

Ried handed the Porsche over to Michele Beretta, which handed the lead to the no74 Kessel Ferrari, which held a 10 second advantage over Duncan Cameron in the no55 Ferrari.

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.

When the race went green the no74 Ferrari was leading from the no77 Porsche and the no83 Iron Lynx Ferrari.

As the race approached the halfway stage the no77 Porsche was hit by the no2 Ligier at T9, dropping both cars out of contention in their respective classes.The no83 Ferrari of Rahel Frey took the lead with a 23 second advantage over the no55 Ferrari now driven by Aaron Scott.Scott started to close the gap and with 90 minutes left on the clock, the gap was down to 8 seconds. However, this then opened up again to around 15 seconds as Scott went into the pits to hand the car over to Matt Griffin. Frey continued for another 15 minutes, pitting after the final safety car period to hand the car over to Michelle Gatting.

Griffin now held a commanding 50 second lead with the no77 Proton Competition Porsche of Alessio Picariello in second and Gatting’s Ferrari in third. While the gap was diminishing, with Griffin trying to save fuel until the end of the race, the Porsche was starting to close the gap slightly.But it wasn’t enough in the difficult conditions and at the chequered flag the no55 Spirit of Race Ferrari was 25 seconds ahead of the no77 Proton Competition Porsche, with the no83 Iron Lynx Ferrari claiming the third podium position one lap behind the lead car.