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.

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.

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.