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08.10.2020
The 24 hours of Le Mans is without doubt a spectacular race but it’s often hard to understand as an outsider to the event. However, there is no better way to quantify something than the cold hard facts. So, here are some spectacular numbers about this year’s race.
The number that haunted this race the most is zero, signifying the amount of fans and spectators allowed during the event. The 2020 24 Hours of Le Mans will go down in history and will always be remembered as (hopefully) the only iteration of the race that ran behind closed doors.
5.272,46km is the distance travelled by the winning Toyota #8 over 387 laps, 10 laps short of the 2010 Audi R15+ TDI record holder, which covered 5.410,73km, which equals the distance from Morocco to Moscow.
During the race the fastest speed in LMP1 was recorded by the Gibson-powered Rebellion R13, which managed to set a top speed of 349kph, which equals almost a soccer field per second. It’s still a long way off the overall record of 405kph set in 1988. However, it’s unlikely this record will ever be beaten again as it was set the year before the introduction of the chicanes on the Mulsannne straight. The fastest LMP2 car was the Ligier JSP217 #35 from Eurasia Racing, recording 338kph. In GT, both top speed honours went to the Ferrari 488 GTE Evo, with the #82 Risi Competizione machine clocking 305.6kph and the AF Corse #53 car closely following with 303.9kph.
31 is, maybe, the most spectacular number. This was the amount of leader changes in the LMP2 category, and a great insight into how close the battle was. This was overshadowed by a whopping 44 leader changes in GTE Pro.
17 of the 24 LMP2 starters made it to the end of this race. With only 10 retirements counted throughout the entire field, making this year’s race one of the most reliable events to date. Last year 11 cars threw in the towel and in 2018, 16 failed to finish.
During the entire race weekend and practices that preceded it, all of the LMP2 cars combined ran for no less than 665 hours and 12 minutes, covering a mind boggling 133,970 kilometres.
If you are thinking that this was an impressive LMP2 number, engine partner Gibson technology just reported that their entire LMP2 engine fleet, consisting of 56 V8 engines, has covered over two million kilometres to date! Which equals five flights to the moon.
And we'll leave you with one last number: the Le Mans 24 Hours race started in 1923, making it the oldest and longest-running sports car race of all time. Here's hoping that for its next birthday, we'll be able to watch it again in person!
