The highly anticipated 88th 24 Hours of Le Mans took place this past weekend (19-20 September), after a three-month postponement due to the global health crisis. While held behind closed doors and significantly condensed this year, the prestigious competition was just as intense and 21-year-old racing driver, Phil Hanson did not disappoint by finishing 1st place and his team United Autosports winning the entire race!!
This year there was no official test day or driver parade due to the shortened schedule, however, the ACO introduced a new qualifying format called Hyperpole, where the top six in each class after the qualifying session on Thursday afternoon went on to a further qualifying shootout on Friday morning ahead of the race start on Saturday at 14:30 (local time).
United Autosport’s Hanson came into the race leading both the World and European championships in LMP2 in #22 Oreca 07 with teammates Filipe Albuquerque and Paul Di Resta and they were eager to remain at the top of the victory board. In the car anywhere between just over an hour to three hours at a time for this intense endurance test, the trio shared the driving close to a third each and pulled out the coveted win on race day.
Hanson raced his first Le Mans when he was just 17 in 2017, and every consecutive year since. As one of the youngest drivers racing, this marked his fourth Le Mans. For more information and highlights on Phil Hanson and Le Mans, please visit @philhansonracing and philhanson.racing.
Phil said: “It sounds crazy and it hasn’t really sunk it yet. It feels like such a relief as I thought we had thrown it away in the last 30 minutes with everything kicking off with the safety car and the slow zones, so it’s rewarding to get it done and to win the championship as well.
“These are the two goals we set out to achieve at the start of the year and you are never 100% confident that you can achieve them as the grid is so competitive and anything can go wrong at Le Mans, especially in the style we did it in too – pitting right at the end and not knowing if we would make it out in the lead again or of the other car had to pit. It makes it even more of a rewarding feeling. I’m speechless.”
