Ready for the Road to Le Mans

Instead of one 2-hour race there will be two 55-minute encounters at Le Mans, one on Friday afternoon and one on Saturday morning.

Here is a quick guide to Round 4 of the 2020 season.

WHAT’S RACING AT LE MANS?

1. FIA World Endurance Championship – 24 Hours of Le Mans
2. Michelin Le Mans Cup
3. Porsche Carrera Cup

SCHEDULE

CLICK HERE for the full program

ENTRY LIST

CLICK HERE to see the entry list for the Road to Le Mans

CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS

CLICK HERE for the championship standings after Round 3

WHERE TO WATCH THE ROAD TO LE MANS

Round 4 of the 2020 season will be held behind closed doors but fans of the MLMC around the world can watch for free the second race on the official website.

A WORD FROM EDUARDO FREITAS

With plenty to do with the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Eduardo Freitas will not be the Race Director for the Road to Le Mans this year, instead he will be handing over the reins for this race to Rui Marques.However, he will be keeping one eye on the monitors as the MLMC is very close to his heart.

“The Road to Le Mans is like an appetiser to the main course, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It is a big opportunity for drivers to visit the 13km track which is not permanently there for the rest of the year.It is the cherry on the top of the cake for the season of the Michelin Le Mans Cup.

“This year I will not be directing the race, I have handed it over to Rui Marques.This is because the 24 Hours by itself gives me a lot of work and it sometimes gives me an overload. We are all looking forward to the 2020 Road to Le Mans and if drivers can’t be there for the ‘big one’ at least they can race on the full circuit to acquaint themselves with the track for, who knows, a future project.”

WHAT THE DRIVERS SAY…

Nicolas Leutwiler – no2 Pzoberer Zürichsee by TFT Porsche 911 GT3 R

“Road to Le Mans is a very important race for this season and with Julien (Andlauer) I have a joker because he is a winner in the LMGTE AM class. So I am really hoping with my two participations at Le Mans that we will be a good team and come away for a good result.”

Matt Bell – no69 Cool Racing Ligier JS P320-Nissan

“Road to Le Mans is the highlight of the year and it’s the highlight of this series.It’s great to be going back to Le Mans and to be on the grid there again. We’ll be looking for another strong result on a track that I love so hopefully we can replicate the win in Le Castellet.”

LAP RECORDS

LMP3: Laurents Hörr - 3m49.381 - Norma M30-Nissan - 15/06/2019

GT3: Ross Gunn - 3m55.509 - Aston Martin Vantage GT3 - 15/06/2019

FACTS AND FIGURES

1. The 2020 Road To Le Mans will be the 5^th edition of the event.
2. In 2016 Road to Le Mans was one 55-minute race but in 2017 this was changed to two 55-minute races.
3. The 2016 race was open to both LMP3 and GT3 competitors but only GT3 was able to score championship points. In 2017 LMP3 became part of the Michelin Le Man Cup and could score points at Road to Le Mans.
4. Championship points are awarded differently that the two-hour races. The winners receive 15 points instead of 25 for each race, second is 9 points, third is 7 followed by 6-5-4-3-2-1 and all other finishers receive 0.5 points.
5. In LMP3 Norma have won four of the seven races, with Ligier winning the other three.
6. France has had six drivers who have won a Road To Le Mans race.

oThomas Laurent (LMP3 2016),

oAlexandre Cougnaud (LMP3 2016),

oAdrien Chila (LMP3 2019),

oNicolas Schatz (LMP3 2019),

oFrançois Kirmann (LMP3 2019),

oFabien Lavergne (GT3 2019)

1. Ahmed Al Harthy and Tom Jackson became the first drivers to win both races in the same weekend driving the TF Sport Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 in 2017.
2. Mikkel Mac and Fabien Lavergne also won both races in the same weekend in 2019 driving the Luzich Racing Ferrari 488 GT3.
3. Two teams have won a Road to Le Mans race twice in different seasons.AF Corse won in 2016 and 2018, while DKR Engineering won in 2017 and 2019.
4. Kay Van Berlo is the youngest ever RTLM winner.The Dutch driver won the first race of the weekend in 2018 with Mikkel Jensen in the Eurointernational Ligier at 17 years 5 months and 23 days (DoB 22/12/2000).