The sixth and final round of the 2020 Michelin Le Mans Cup season ended in dramatic circumstances when a safety car period 20 minutes from the end of the races shuffled the order at the front of the field, denying the no37 Cool Racing Ligier victory and a shot at the title.
The no3 DKR Engineering Duqueine of Laurents Hörr needed to finish in the top ten to claim the Team and Driver titles and the German was running 8th before the Safety Car period and afterwards was in the top five, and ahead of the no37 Cool Racing Ligier of Edouard Cauhaupe who had dropped back to sixth at the restart, as the chequered flag brought the race to a conclusion.
The no7 Nielsen Racing Duqueine of Tony Wells and Colin Noble were declared the winners as the winning no26 Graff Ligier of Rory Penttinen and Matthias Kaiser had failed to pit to serve a driver through penalty.
The no8 Iron Lynx Ferrari of Giacomo Piccini and Rino Mastronardi, which had won the 2020 GT3 titles in Monza, took the chequered flag ahead of the no74 Kessel Racing 488 of David Perel and Michael Broniszewski.
The seventh race of the 2020 season got underway under sunny skies and warm temperatures in the Algarve.The no37 Cool Racing Ligier of Nicolas Maulini led the field into the first corner and pulled away from the no26 Graff Ligier of Rory Penttinen and the no21 Mühlner Motorsport Duqueine of Moritz Kranz who were battling over second place.
Within five minutes the Safety Car was deployed when the no5 CD Sport Ligier of Michael Jensen went off into the gravel at T11.After 8 minutes the race went back to green with the no37 Ligier leading from the no26 Graff Ligier with the no21 Duqueine holding off the no69 Cool Racing Ligier of Maurice Smith.
In GT3 Rino Mastronardi was holding off the attentions of Michael Broniszewski in the no 74 Kessel Racing Ferrari and the no2 Pzoberer Zürichsee by TFT Porsche of Nicolas Leutwiler, with the Porsche getting ahead of the no74 Ferrari after 25 minutes of racing, but the Swiss drivers hard work was undone when the Porsche spun at T14 allowing Broniszewski to retake the position.
Back at the front Krantz finally got ahead of Penttinen in a move at T12, T13 and moved up to second in the no21 Mühlner Motorsport Duqueine. The no55 Rinaldi Racing Duqueine of Alexander Mattschull was challenging the no69 Ligier of Maurice Smith for 4thplace, with the German driver getting ahead of the American only to receive a driver through penalty for abusing track limits.Smith then had a spin at T5 promoting the no27 MV2S Racing Ligier of Fabien Lavergne up to 4thplace.
After the mandatory first pitstops the order saw Edouard Cauhaupe leading the race in the no37 Cool Racing Ligier ahead of the no26 Graff of Matthias Kaiser in second and the no21 Mühlner Motorsport Duqueine of Alex Kapadia in third.
The no3 DKR Engineering Duqueine was in 8thplace with Laurents Hörr taking over from Wolfgang Triller.The German knew he had to finish in the top 10 to be assured of the championship and was told to stay out of trouble.
With less than 30 minutes remaining the no27 MV2S Racing Ligier of Christophe Cresp spun on its own at T9 and while the French driver was trying to re-join he was collected by the no24 United Autosports Ligier of Andy Meyrick, causing heavy damage to both cars and bringing out the Safety Car for the second time.
The LMP3 cars had to complete one final mandatory stop for fuel but Cauhaupe’s large 30 second lead was his undoing because the French driver had passed the entry to the pitlane when the Safety Car was deployed, whereas the rest of the field was able to dive into the pits and complete their final stop under the Safety Car and re-join.Cauhaupe pitted on the next lap but the damage was done; he re-joined in sixth place with all hope of victory gone.This also meant Laurents Horr in the no3 DKR Engineering Duqueine was effectively the 2020 champion because the no37 Ligier had to win the race.
The clock continued to count down as the debris was cleared and with less than nine minutes remaining the race went green again.The four GT3 cars, which didn’t need to make a second stop, were at the front of the massing LMP3 field and when the race resumed, they had to fight for position in their class as well as watch their mirrors for the LMP3 cars behind them.
The no8 Iron Lynx Ferrari of Giacomo Piccini had to defend the lead as David Perel in the no74 Kessel Racing Ferrari made a strong start.The two cars were side by side going into T1, with Perel getting ahead only to run wide and allow Piccini to retake the lead.
The LMP3 leader, which was now the no26 Graff Ligier of Mattias Kaiser got bounced at the restart by the no69 Cool Racing Ligier of Matt Bell, the British driver taking the lead, only to see all his hard work undone a few corners later by spinning off the track on his own.
Kaiser retook the lead ahead of the no7 Nielsen Racing Duqueine of Colin Noble, the no21 Mühlner Motorsport Duqueine of Alex Kapadia, the no98 Motorsport98 Ligier of Dino Lunardi and the no3 DKR Engineering Duqueine of Laurents Hörr, and this is how they remained until the chequered flag.
