User:SmackJam/sandbox/2020 AXA 4 Hours of Le Mans

The 2020 4 Hours of Le Mans, known as the AXA 4 Hours of Le Mans for sponsorship reasons, was the fourth and final round of the 2020 Championnat AXA Alpine season. It took place at Circuit de la Sarthe on August 1st, 2020.

The Circuit de la Sarthe, where the race was held

Background

The race date was announced, like the second and third races, on the first day of the season. This, combined with the premier status of the event, led to the most entries the series had seen at a single race so far. The race was also the first in which a traditional qualifying structure was utilized instead of the random draw that had been used for the first three races of the season. Whereas all other events had been single-day affairs, this race was spread across the entire weekend, with qualifying on Thursday and Friday, track events on Saturday, and the race on Sunday.

Entry list

The entry list, as previously mentioned, was the largest the series had seen at a single race so far. 32 entries were registered to take part; 12 in LMP, 8 in GT, and 12 in Production. Renault added an LMP entry alongside Signatech, and the Russia-based SMP Racing made their debut in the competition. Fresh off the completion of the GT4 European Series, CMR entered two cars in the race. Last race's GT winner Compass Racing elected not to return for this round. Many local French entries returned after skipping the Montreal round, including Mountain Racing and Equipe Vitesse.

Qualifying

For the first time in the competition's history, a traditional qualifying structure was used to determine the starting grid. However, each car would only be awarded one hot lap to register a time. LMP and GT qualified on Thursday night, with Guanyu Zhou putting the #3 Renault entry on the pole. Nicolas Lapierre was a quarter of a second back in second. Pierre-Alexandre Jean nabbed the GT class pole for CMR over Grégoire Demoustier, while the championship-leading IMSA Performance #75 had its time expunged for breaking Parc fermé. Production class qualifying was held Friday morning, with Jacques Nicolet and Sébastien Bourdais sharing the front row. The #5 JDC entry failed post-qualifying inspection and also had its qualifying time expunged.

Qualifying results

Pole positions in each class are indicated in bold.

Pos.	Class	No.	Entry	Driver	Time	Gap	Lead	Grid
1	LMP	3	Renault DP World Team	Guanyu Zhou	3:26.555	—	—	1
2	LMP	36	Signatech Alpine	Nicolas Lapierre	3:26.785	+0.230	+0.230	2
3	LMP	31	Renault DP World Team	Daniel Ricciardo	3:26.866	+0.311	+0.311	3
4	LMP	131	Rebellion Racing	Thomas Laurent	3:27.078	+0.523	+0.523	4
5	LMP	35	Signatech Alpine	Pierre Ragues	3:27.329	+0.774	+0.774	5
6	LMP	55	Multimatic Motorsports	Jean-Éric Vergne	3:27.704	+1.149	+1.149	6
7	LMP	03	Renault DP World Team	Carlos Sainz Jr.	3:27.872	+1.317	+1.317	7
8	LMP	113	Rebellion Racing	Neel Jani	3:28.007	+1.452	+1.452	8
9	LMP	28	TDS Racing	Loïc Duval	3:42.165	+15.610	+15.610	9
10	LMP	34	Signatech Alpine	Nico Jamin	3:42.468	+15.913	+15.913	10
11	LMP	48	IDEC Sport	Memo Rojas	3:42.556	+16.001	+16.001	11
12	LMP	17	SMP Racing	Mikhail Aleshin	3:42.594	+16.039	+16.039	12
13	GT	9	CMR	Pierre-Alexandre Jean	4:34.918	—	+1:08.363	13
14	GT	88	Team Speedcar	Grégoire Demoustier	4:34.919	+0.001	+1:08.364	14
15	GT	09	CMR	Eric Mouez	4:35.118	+0.200	+1:08.563	15
16	GT	18	Team Prémat	Kyle Marcelli	4:35.282	+0.364	+1:08.727	16
17	GT	76	IMSA Performance	Jean-Karl Vernay	4:35.309	+0.391	+1:08.754	17
18	GT	23	Panis-Barthez Compétition	Will Stevens	4:35.353	+0.435	+1:08.798	18
19	GT	50	Larbre Compétition	Romain Grosjean	4:35.468	+0.550	+1:08.913	19
20	GT	75	IMSA Performance	Patrick Pilet	DQ	Expunged	Expunged	20
21	PRO	25	OAK Racing	Jacques Nicolet	5:40.723	—	+2:14.168	21
22	PRO	85	JDC MotorSports	Sébastien Bourdais	5:40.790	+0.067	+2:14.235	22
23	PRO	46	Graff Racing	Nicolas Minassian	5:41.017	+0.294	+2:14.462	23
24	PRO	1	Course de Dragon	Sylvain Tremblay	5:41.297	+0.574	+2:14.742	24
25	PRO	67	Team Luxembourg	Bruno Probst	5:41.446	+0.723	+2:14.891	25
26	PRO	52	OAK Racing	Gabriel Aubry	5:41.550	+0.827	+2:14.995	26
27	PRO	99	Equipe Vitesse	Renée Neri	5:53.703	+12.153	+2:26.321	27
28	PRO	7	Mécanique Alpine de Magny-Cours	Benoît Delafose	5:54.050	+12.500	+2:26.668	28
29	PRO	10	Course de Dragon	Noel Vernier	5:54.457	+12.907	+2:27.075	29
30	PRO	2	Mountain Racing	Daniel Bruneau	7:13.385	+1:32.562	+3:46.830	30
31	PRO	98	Equipe Vitesse	Davy Bonnel	7:13.586	+1:32.763	+3:46.931	31
32	PRO	5	JDC MotorSports	Romain Dumas	DQ	Expunged	Expunged	32

Race report

Hour One

The race began at 8:00 AM local time, and a fantastic start by the outside lane meant Zhou dropped to third by Dunlop bridge, letting Nicolas Lapierre jump into an early lead. Daniel Ricciardo jumped his teammate into second, while Thomas Laurent inherited third. The first race was relatively quiet, with the only major lead change from there on out being Grégoire Demoustier who snuck into the GT class lead. The A450 of SMP Racing struggled with an undiagnosed mechanical issue, and they sat well off the pace of the LMP field throughout the contest. Just before the hour concluded, the GT lead traded hands, giving way to Kyle Marcelli to temporarily take the class lead.

Hour Two

Fifteen minutes into the second hour, the Signatech #35 retired with an electrical issue, officially the first retirement of the race. This capped off a relatively poor season for the duo of Ragues and Panciatici, who entered with title aspirations and left with just one podium the entire season. It would go from bad to worse for Signatech, as a failed gun nearly tripled the length of a pit stop and caused them to relinquish the lead to Rebellion Racing. Shortly thereafter, the IDEC Sport prototype suffered a horrific incident in the Porsche curves after a run-in with a Production car. After connecting front right with left rear, Chatin's car veered left into the guardrail, junking the car and flattening the Production car's tire. Chatin walked away unharmed, and all that resulted was a short safety car period.

Hour Three

Shortly after the turn of the hour, Julien Canal took the GT class lead for Panis-Barthez, the fourth class leader of the race. Not seconds afterwards, Sergey Sirotkin was handed a drive-through penalty for constant abuse of track limits, derailing the Renault LMP's good run. He was running third at the time, but he wouldn't recover from the penalty and went on to finish sixth. The remainder of the hour was relatively calm, with lead changes in Production and LMP, taken by Graff Racing and the Renault #31 respectively, being the only noteworthy moments.

Hour Four

The length of the race began to take its toll on both cars and drivers, with the #7 of Herve Delaunay suffering from an undisclosed mechanical failure. With 15 minutes to go, Enzo Guibbert spun coming out of Indianapolis, and was promptly slammed into by Sylvain Saunier. Guibbert was able to limp around to the pits, but Saunier wasn't so lucky. Thanks to the resulting slow zone, Lotterer got the jump on Esteban Ocon, and was able to hold onto the lead, claiming class and overall victory. The championship-leading IMSA Performance #75 team, after painstakingly working their way through the field, took the GT class victory, their third of the season. Simon Trummer reclaimed the lead from the Graff Racing car in Production with forty minutes remaining, and held that to the end of the race.

Results

Pos	Class	No.	Team / Entrant	Drivers	Chassis / Car	Laps	Time/Retired
					Engine
1	LMP	131	Rebellion Racing	Thomas Laurent Nathanaël Berthon André Lotterer	Alpine A470	69	4:01:46:581
					Gibson GK428 4.2L V8
2	LMP	31	Renault DP World Team	Daniel Ricciardo Esteban Ocon Fernando Alonso	Alpine A470	69	+5.575
					Gibson GK428 4.2L V8
3	LMP	36	Signatech Alpine	Nicolas Lapierre Pierre Thiriet Pierre Gasly	Alpine A470	69	+17.478
					Gibson GK428 4.2L V8
4	LMP	113	Rebellion Racing	Neel Jani Nicolas Prost Mathias Beche	Alpine A470	69	+24.020
					Gibson GK428 4.2L V8
5	LMP	55	Multimatic Motorsports	Olivier Pla Jean-Éric Vergne Oliver Jarvis	Alpine A470	69	+45.833
					Gibson GK428 4.2L V8
6	LMP	03	Renault DP World Team	Carlos Sainz Jr. Jolyon Palmer Nico Hülkenberg	Alpine A470	69	+1:03.830
					Gibson GK428 4.2L V8
7	LMP	3	Renault DP World Team	Guanyu Zhou Sergey Sirotkin Sean Gelael	Alpine A470	68	+1 lap
					Gibson GK428 4.2L V8
8	LMP	28	TDS Racing	Loïc Duval François Perrodo Matthieu Vaxivière	Alpine A450	64	+5 laps
					Gibson GK428 4.2L V8
9	LMP	34	Signatech Alpine	Nico Jamin David Zollinger Andrea Pizzitola	Alpine A450	64	+5 laps
					Gibson GK428 4.2L V8
10	LMP	17	SMP Racing	Stéphane Sarrazin Tom Dillmann Mikhail Aleshin	Alpine A450	61	+8 laps
					Gibson GK428 4.2L V8
11	GT	75	IMSA Performance	Patrick Pilet Kévin Estre Kuno Wittmer	Alpine A110 GT4	52	+17 laps
					Renault TCe M5P 1.8L I4
12	GT	23	Panis-Barthez Compétition	Julien Canal Will Stevens René Binder	Alpine A110 GT4	52	+17 laps
					Renault TCe M5P 1.8L I4
13	GT	76	IMSA Performance	Jean-Karl Vernay Raymond Narac Christophe Bourret	Alpine A110 GT4	51	+18 laps
					Renault TCe M5P 1.8L I4
14	GT	50	Larbre Compétition	Erwin Creed Romano Ricci Romain Grosjean	Alpine A110 GT4	51	+18 laps
					Renault TCe M5P 1.8L I4
15	GT	18	Team Prémat	Alexandre Prémat Stephen Vajda Kyle Marcelli	Alpine A110 GT4	50	+19 laps
					Renault TCe M5P 1.8L I4
16	GT	88	Team Speedcar	Grégoire Demoustier Alain Ferté Laurent Coubard	Alpine A110 GT4	49	+20 laps
					Renault TCe M5P 1.8L I4
17	GT	9	CMR	Soheil Ayari Guillaume Roman Pierre-Alexandre Jean	Alpine A110 GT4	49	+20 laps
					Renault TCe M5P 1.8L I4
18	PRO	85	JDC MotorSports	Tristan Vautier Sébastien Bourdais Simon Trummer	Alpine A110	43	+26 laps
					Renault TCe M5P 1.8L I4
19	PRO	5	JDC MotorSports	Romain Dumas Frédéric Makowiecki Alex Labbé	Alpine A110	43	+26 laps
					Renault TCe M5P 1.8L I4
20	PRO	46	Graff Racing	Tristan Gommendy Nicolas Minassian Austin Cindric	Alpine A110	43	+26 laps
					Renault TCe M5P 1.8L I4
21	PRO	25	OAK Racing	Jacques Nicolet Jean-François Yvon Matthieu Lahaye	Alpine A110	42	+27 laps
					Renault TCe M5P 1.8L I4
22	PRO	1	Course de Dragon	Patrick Ponce Paul Girardot Sylvain Tremblay	Alpine A110	41	+28 laps
					Renault TCe M5P 1.8L I4
23	PRO	67	Team Luxembourg	Bruno Probst Antoine Hansen Maurice Becker	Alpine A110	41	+28 laps
					Renault TCe M5P 1.8L I4
24	PRO	99	Equipe Vitesse	Renée Neri Veronique Bourdon Roxane Neri	Alpine A110 1600S	39	+30 laps
					Renault Cléon-Alu 1.6L I4
25	PRO	10	Course de Dragon	Frédéric Rochette Christian Picard Noel Vernier	Alpine A110 1600S	39	+30 laps
					Renault Cléon-Alu 1.6L I4
26	GT	09	CMR	Stéphane Lémeret Pierre Sancinéna Eric Mouez	Alpine A110 GT4	38	+31 laps
					Renault TCe M5P 1.8L I4
27	PRO	52	OAK Racing	Gabriel Aubry Enzo Guibbert Simon Pagenaud	Alpine A110	37	+32 laps
					Renault TCe M5P 1.8L I4
28 DNF	PRO	7	Mécanique Alpine de Magny-Cours	Benoît Delafose Aaron Gauthier Hervé Delaunay	Alpine A110 1600S	33	Steering Column
					Renault Cléon-Alu 1.6L I4
29	PRO	2	Mountain Racing	Daniel Bruneau Maximilien Bourcier David Genin	Alpine A310 V6	32	+37 laps
					2664cc PRV V6
30 DNF	PRO	98	Equipe Vitesse	Dany Courtial Davy Bonnel Sylvain Saunier	Alpine A310 V6	28	Crash
					2664cc PRV V6
31 DNF	LMP	48	IDEC Sport	Paul-Loup Chatin Paul Lafargue Memo Rojas	Alpine A450	27	Crash
					Gibson GK428 4.2L V8
32 DNF	LMP	35	Signatech Alpine	Nelson Panciatici Pierre Ragues André Negrão	Alpine A470	22	Electrical
					Gibson GK428 4.2L V8