What we've learned from the 2020 Le Mans 24 Hours so far

The September date, condensed schedule and no fans in attendance means the 2020 Le Mans 24 Hours will be long-remembered as an event out of the ordinary.

"You feel it the whole week because normally the week starts on Sunday or Monday with the scrutineering and now our arrival day was Tuesday or Wednesday without having any feeling of really being in the biggest race of the year," said Porsche's Kevin Estre. "And today, [Friday] is the biggest loss with the parade. It's a bit sad, everybody is happy to be here, to race here, but the atmosphere is missing."

But when the clock hits 2:30pm local time and the green flag is waved by basketball ace Tony Parker, all thoughts will be on the action itself.

Toyota is again hotly tipped for outright honours on the final appearance at Circuit de la Sarthe for its TS050 Hybrid, but there are plenty of other storylines to keep an eye on up and down the field - even in the GTE Pro field reduced from 17 cars last year to eight in 2020.

There have also been significant off-track developments, with Peugeot confirming its commitment to return with a Hypercar, and the usual announcements from World Endurance Championship's organiser the Automobile Club de l'Ouest.

Toyota's near-record pace shows it hasn't loosened the reins

By Filip Cleeren

Toyota wants to finish the LMP1 hybrid chapter on a high by scoring a hat-trick of wins at Le Mans and it very nearly did so with a new track record in qualifying.

Kamui Kobayashi came tantalisingly close to his 2017 benchmark of 3m14.791s. Following a first Hyperpole lap of 3m15.267, Kobayashi was six tenths up and on lap record schedule only for his second flying lap to be abandoned due to track limits.

Toyota's one-lap pace was arguably even more impressive than it was in 2017, as the sole remaining hybrid manufacturer has been pegged back since. The TS050 Hybrid was made another seven kilos heavier than it was last year, its minimum weight raised from 888kg to 895kg.

Technical director Pascal Vasselon said the new track record was on the cards, but Toyota hasn't analysed yet whether Kobayashi's lap would have been enough as it was not clear how much time Kobayashi gained - or lost - by going out of bounds at Tertre Rouge.

"The lap record was possible, but we didn't analyse if the track limits [issue] was a gain or loss," he said.

Vasselon explained the favourable track grip and the new Hyperpole format were two important factors in Kobayashi's mesmerising pace.

"The Hyperpole format allowed us to have two runs with two sets of [new] tyres, which we didn't do very often in the past," he said after qualifying.

"It allows the driver to finetune every single corner, this makes a big difference. For sure track grip and format of the Hyperpole have contributed to the fact that it could have been possible to beat the record."

PLUS: Le Mans 2020 - The team by team guide

If anything, Toyota's searing pace shows that despite the absence of Porsche, Audi or any other LMP1 manufacturers, the Cologne-based team hasn't loosened the reins. Toyota has had to stay on top of its game, pushed all the way by privateer Rebellion and its favourable Equivalence of Technology formula.

Rebellion can only hope to pressure, not outrace, Toyota

By Jamie Klein

Rebellion might have notched up two wins in the WEC so far this season, but only with the Toyotas slowed down by the LMP1 success handicap system. Now the Japanese cars are unshackled, it seems the two Gibson-powered R-13s will struggle to keep up the pace.

Yes, Gustavo Menezes managed to split the Toyotas in qualifying with what he called "pretty damn close to a perfect lap", putting the #1 Rebellion second on the grid. But over a stint, and especially in traffic, the Swiss squad is fighting a losing battle. And that's before you factor in the chance of rain, in which Rebellion openly admits it has no chance.

PLUS: Can Rebellion cause an upset at Le Mans?

The best Rebellion can hope for, says team CEO Calim Bouhadra, is simply to execute the perfect race and hope to pressure Toyota into a mistake.

"Toyota still has an advantage with the hybrid system and the four-wheel drive, even more if the weather is not good," Bouhadra believes. "This for me is the biggest concern.

"We are motivated to make no mistakes and be as close as possible to Toyota. We want to push Toyota to their limit. That is our strategy. Definitely, we have no chance to win Le Mans with our car if they have no mistakes.

"We have to be perfect on our side and hope on the other side they make some mistakes. This is the only way we can imagine victory."

Things aren't looking much rosier for the only other privateer squad in the LMP1 field, ByKolles, which is still searching for a classified finish with its ENSO CLM P1/01 challenger.

A crash for Bruno Spengler in Thursday's second practice session left the team facing a huge rebuild job overnight, with Tom Dillmann finally qualifying seven seconds off the pace at the rear of the five-car LMP1 field, and 1.5s up on the quickest LMP2.

"This morning the mechanics had to work until 6am to repair the car as well as changing the engine and everything for the race," said Dillmann on Friday. "FP4 we had some issues after the rebuild which we had to fix, so we didn't go into the Hyperpole session in an ideal scenario.

"We still were in shakedown mode. After the crash, it's not so easy with spare parts anymore. We are OK, but we knew we couldn't damage the car in qualifying."

United Autosport's credentials as favourite in LMP2 unchanged

By Gary Watkins

United Autosports is the favourite in LMP2 going into the race, only don't mention that to the Anglo-American team co-owned by McLaren Racing boss Zak Brown.

Paul di Resta banged in two laps good enough for pole position in Hyperpole qualifying aboard the #22 entry, both cars have been there or there abouts in every session so far and the team arrived at Le Mans with six victories on the bounce across the WEC and the European Le Mans Series, so it's difficult not to attach the favourites tag to the United.

PLUS: The colleagues turned rivals with scores to settle at Le Mans

But Richard Dean, who co-owns the team with Brown, isn't so sure.

"Just because you've got pole position and a winning record coming into the race, it doesn't mean anything at Le Mans," he reckons. "One small problem can put a car out here. We don't feel we are favourites in our garage, only that we know we've got two competitive cars."

United has definitely had a good week so far. What we shouldn't forget is that this is the first time that it's running the ORECA 07 at Le Mans. It only swapped to the ORECA prior to its first full WEC campaign starting last September after entering the LMP2 division in 2017 with the Ligier JS217.

"Our form is a surprise given it's our first year here with the ORECA," says Dean. "We thought it might take longer to get on top of the car."

Dean is playing down the team's strengths, there. United has an impressive record at Le Mans. It was fourth in class — and fifth overall — on debut in 2017, third in LMP2 in 2018 (admittedly after a couple of disqualifications) and fourth last year.

Sorry Deany, but with two strong cars, you're favourites - like it or not.

All bets are off in the LMP2 tyre war

By Jamie Klein

One of the main talking points of the LMP2 battle this year has been the tyre war, in the final year of Michelin vs Goodyear competition before Goodyear takes over as the class's sole supplier in 2021.

Michelin boasts numerical superiority, with 19 of the 24 entries, but what Goodyear lacks in quantity it makes up for in quality, with four of its five cars starting in the top 10. The best of those is the #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing entry in sixth, followed by the sister #38 JOTA Sport car and the Algarve Pro-operated #16 G-Drive Racing machine.

Former Audi LMP1 star Oliver Jarvis, who shares the #16 car with Nick Tandy and Ryan Cullen, is unsure of his team's prospects, with a brake issue in practice compromising their running.

But he thinks Goodyear still has the potential to challenge for honours in the race, despite Michelin-shod cars sweeping the top five in qualifying.

"It's tough to tell," Jarvis told Autosport. "Making it into qualifying is based on single lap pace and Goodyear and Michelin both have a couple of different compounds. You can't draw too many conclusions on a single lap. It could be that some Michelin or Goodyear runners missed out [on Hyperpole] due to traffic."

It was thought pre-race that cooler conditions could favour the Goodyear cars, but so far Le Mans has been unseasonably warm for September, making it even harder to draw any firm conclusions for the race.

"It's not like we got to night and suddenly the Goodyear runners were suddenly much quicker," Jarvis added. "But the night running we did the air temp was still 29 degrees. So we're not exactly talking about cooler temperatures.

"But likewise we saw a Goodyear runner in the top six. There's been Goodyear cars up the front, so it's not that the Goodyear's not competitive. A Goodyear runner has a chance to win the race."

Hyperpole format receives seal of approval

By Filip Cleeren

The ACO's new Hyperpole qualifying format, with the quickest six cars in each class advancing to a short shootout on Friday, was a hit amongst the teams and drivers up and down the pitlane.

Because only 23 cars took part in the 30-minute session, all with elite drivers behind the wheel, finding clear air and staying out of traffic was much easier. It also afforded drivers the opportunity to use two fresh sets of tyres, just for the Hyperpole session.

"I think [Hyperpole] was a good idea, because at Le Mans normally there are so many [cars] that you almost never get a clear lap," said poleman Kobayashi.

"It was mega to go on the track with a bit of free air," said di Resta.

"I'm relatively new to Le Mans, but I can say it's something I think it's good because you don't have to deal with traffic - it's all about the driver and the car's performance. Equally, the stress is still there to progress into that last bit."

Although Michael Christensen was wrong-footed in Hyperpole by a set-up that he felt was too safe, which leaves the #92 Porsche starting sixth in GTE Pro, he explained that it made qualifying "less of a coincidence about whether you get a free lap or not."

"You can kind of plan it out better," he said. "From my side, I just chose to follow the LMPs out of the pit as early as possible just to make sure I had no Ams in front of me, and that way normally there's not going to be any traffic, at least on one lap.

"It was a big improvement just in terms of consistency of the qualifying.

AF Corse's Sam Bird added: "It's quite exciting actually, I think I bought into that quite well. We were running on the Friday so it's been interesting, different, it's a new challenge."

Porsche's new steed is up for the fight

By James Newbold

All signs were pointing to Aston Martin taking pole position in the GTE Pro division after it bolted quickly out of the blocks on Thursday, but it was Porsche's Gianmaria Bruni who took top spot on the 911 RSR-19's first visit to the Circuit de la Sarthe.

Along with team-mates Richard Lietz and Fred Makowiecki, the Italian expressed surprise at the result given its lack of a test day while Lietz labelled it "unexpected" after the oversteering #91 car had languished 3.482s off the pace in FP1, its drivers unable to trust the machine.

"I didn't expect that it's such a big issue to not have the test day," says Lietz, "but I'm quite sure that, from now on, we only can test for Le Mans in Le Mans."

But both cars improved from session to session - the sister #92 car topping FP2, FP3 and FP4 - and Bruni's 3m50.874s effort, while 0.002s slower than the time set by Aston Martin's Marco Sorensen in qualifying practice, was good enough for pole.

"From yesterday [Thursday] at 10pm until today at 11:30 when we started Hyperpole, we changed the car so many times," Bruni explained. "It was not an easy task and honestly the mechanics, I think they slept four hours or something like this because they worked until 3am in the morning."

While Makowiecki said the Aston's drop-off in Hyperpole "didn't make sense" and Bruni admitted to being "surprised by the performance of the others that they were not faster like yesterday", there can be no arguing with the fact that Porsche's pace has improved with every session.

"I'm really happy with how the car is now," says Makowiecki. "We have a strong baseline, the car is well-connected and we can have fun with the car which is important."

The main unknown remains how the car will perform in the rain forecast on Saturday. But don't be surprised if the Weissach marque's latest weapon delivers the goods.

'Low maintenance' Ford refugees settle into Aston Martin support roles

By James Newbold

Back in 2019, Harry Tincknell and Richard Westbrook were two of the leading lights in Ford's Le Mans attack. But once the Blue Oval's four-year programme concluded, the British duo swiftly became highly attractive free agents and were duly snapped up by Aston Martin in a Le Mans-only third-driver role.

"When you're the third driver, you don't know the tools that you're working with as well as the main drivers, and there's pressure to get up to speed straightaway, particularly in a format like we've got this week," says Westbrook, who performed the role at Le Mans as part of the Corvette Racing roster between 2011 and 2014. "There's nowhere to hide, you've got to be on your game straightaway, so it's a real challenge for me and Harry. We're straight into the deep end."

Like Westbrook, who also has the added pressure of sharing the championship-leading #95 car with Marco Sorensen and Nicki Thiim, Tincknell's in-car preparation was "drastically affected" by the pandemic. But having been joined by a different third driver in each of his four Le Mans appearances with Ford - Marino Franchitti, Pipo Derani, Tony Kanaan and Jonathan Bomarito - Tincknell knows what his team-mates Maxime Martin and Alex Lynn will be expecting from him.

"My role really is to sit in and be low-maintenance, do the job on the track and hand the car over for the big stints at the start and at the end," says Tincknell. "I'm enjoying the challenge of not having the experience and having to just jump in and get on with it."

PLUS: Why Aston Martin is ready to win Le Mans again

In challenging circumstances, both have met the challenge head-on, and Westbrook is confident that the improvements made during the intense Thursday running will put Aston in the hunt.

"Sometimes you need a night to think about things after a run and then come back the next day stronger, and there was no time for that," says Westbrook. "With a format that doesn't give you much preparation, we feel pretty prepared."

"I think we've shown good performance in all the different conditions," adds Tincknell. "You never really know where you are until the race, but all the signs point to us being competitive and at the sharp end."

Condensed schedule causes headaches in the paddock

By Filip Cleeren

This year's delayed edition of Le Mans features a highly compressed schedule. With no traditional test day in the current coronavirus affected climate, on-track action started on Thursday with 11 hours of running, following by fourth practice and a Hyperpole session on Friday.

The relative lack of running is something most professional teams and drivers can handle, but it causes a lot of headaches for the many amateurs in the race. The 2020 edition features a bumper LMP2 and GTE Am grid with 24 and 22 cars respectively, many of which are amateurs and Le Mans rookies.

"A professional driver when he gets to Le Mans starts at a very good level, but the amateurs haven't had the test day and been able to think about it before they come back," says Toyota's Sebastien Buemi.

The leading LMP1 team has specifically instructed its drivers to take extra precaution around slower traffic, in particular during the long night.

Porsche Factory Motorsport boss Pascal Zurlinden echoed Buemi's concerns: "At the start of the race we'll be surviving with so many new drivers in LMP2 and in GTE Am, you have to stay out of any accidents."

GTE Pro polesitter Bruni pointed out the condensed schedule also put a huge strain on all the teams.

"I like it, but if you ask a mechanic he will say no, also the engineer," he says.

"Maybe it's a bit too much compressed, in 28 hours you have more than 12 hours of testing and qualifying.

"But at the end it's good. You come here with more focus, you don't lose time to think about something you don't have to think about.

"For the conditions of this year, the COVID-19, it was a good call from the ACO and WEC to make as short as possible and intense as possible to be able to be in Le Mans."

His team-mate Estre adds: For me [Thursday] was way too busy driving-wise and for everybody very stressful, you could see if cars would crash they would lose all their track-time.

"So for me it's something the ACO have to think about if something like this happens again, that we need a bit more times between the sessions."

Peugeot is back with a Hypercar

By Gary Watkins

Peugeot announced on Friday that it will join the WEC in 2022 with a Le Mans Hypercar. If you think you've read that before, you'd be right. The French manufacturer revealed its return to the top-flight of endurance racing with an LMH contender in November last year.

In between times, however, it wavered. Not in its commitment to the programme, just how it was going to do it. It opted to review its plans after the announcement in January of the new LMP2-based LMDh class that offered a cheaper way for Peugeot to make a return to the Le Mans 24 Hours for the first time since 2011.

Now it has settled on the LMH route. Among the reasons behind the decision are the freedom the LMH rules allow Peugeot to impart its styling values into the car and that it will be four-wheel-drive. The LMH prototype rules require the car to be a hybrid with a front-axle energy retrieval system, just like a range of Peugeot Sport Engineered road cars it is launching.

What we still don't know, however, is when Peugeot will join the WEC over the course of the 2022 season. That decision will be made at the beginning of the year after the new car, which as yet doesn't have a name, has started testing.

ACO settles on firm identity

By Gary Watkins

When the fans hopefully arrive back at Le Mans next June, they'll be watching a new breed of car battling it out for glory at the front of the world's greatest motor race. The class was given its definitive name when race organiser the Automobile Club de l'Ouest held its traditional Friday press conference - in the virtual realm this time, of course. It will simply be known as Hypercar.

That's got to be good news for endurance racing. The alphabet soup of acronyms that bubbles through every paddock in the sportscar world does it no favours. Just saying LMH and LMDh is difficult enough; explaining what those names mean to the layman is even more tricky.

The top class needed a name and Hypercar will do the job just nicely.