2020 24 Hours of Le Mans


The 88th 24 Hours of Le Mans will be an automobile endurance event at the Circuit de la Sarthe, Le Mans, France. It will be the 88th running of the 24 Hour race organised by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest, and the penultimate round of the 2019–20 FIA World Endurance Championship. The event is scheduled to be held from 19 to 20 September 2020.

Schedule

The traditional scrutineering events in the city centre itself has been cancelled, and all scrutineering will take place at the circuit. The traditional test day has also been cancelled.
DateTime Event
Wednesday, 16 September08:00 - 18:00Administrative and technical checks
Thursday, 17 September10:00 - 13:00Practice
Thursday, 17 September14:00 - 17:00Practice
Thursday, 17 September17:15 - 18:00Qualifying 1
Thursday, 17 September20:00 - 00:00Practice
Friday, 18 September10:00 - 11:00Practice
Friday, 18 September11:30 - 12:00Qualifying 2 - Hyperpole
Saturday, 19 September10:15 - 11:00Warm-up
Saturday, 19 September14:30Start of the 88th 24 Hours of Le Mans
Sunday, 20 September14:30Finish of the 88th 24 Hours of Le Mans

Entries

Automatic entries

Automatic entry invitations were earned by teams that won their class in the 2019 24 Hours of Le Mans, or won championships in the European Le Mans Series, Asian Le Mans Series, and the Michelin Le Mans Cup. The second-place finishers in the European Le Mans Series in LMP2 and LMGTE championships also earned an automatic invitation each. Two participants from the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship were chosen by the series to be automatic entries by the ACO regardless of their performance or category. As invitations were granted to teams, they were allowed to change their cars from the previous year to the next, but not allowed to change their category. The LMGTE class invitations from the European and Asian Le Mans Series were allowed to choose between the Pro and Am categories. European Le Mans Series' LMP3 champion is required to field an entry in LMP2 while the Asian Le Mans Series LMP3 champion were permitted to choose between LMP2 or LMGTE Am. The Michelin Le Mans Cup Group GT3 champion was limited to the LMGTE Am category.

Entry list

Reserve entries

In addition to the sixty entries given invitations for the race, ten entries were put on a reserve list to potentially replace any invitations that were not accepted or withdrawn. Reserve entries are ordered with the first reserve replacing the first withdrawal from the race, regardless of the class of either entry.
ReserveClassEntrantCarTyreSeriesDriver 1Driver 2Driver 3

Qualifying

Hyperpole - New Qualifying Format

The new qualifying format for the Le Mans event, which had been three qualifying sessions, will reduce qualifying to one single session. The 45-minute Thursday late afternoon qualifying session will determine the field, except for 24 cars, the top six cars in each category.
The top six cars in each class participate in a 30-minute shootout on Friday morning, known as "Le Mans Hyperpole". The shootout will determine the top six in each category.

Starting Grid - by Class

Cars will be placed on the starting grid, first by category / class order:
  1. LMP1
  2. LMP2
  3. LMGTE Pro
  4. LMGTE Am
Then, within each of the categories above, the cars will be placed in following order: the 6 cars that qualified for Hyperpole by best Hyperpole session lap time, and then followed by the rest of the cars in the class that did not qualify for Hyperpole by best lap time set during first qualifying session.