The year 2020 may even be atypical in many ways, however, it is being historic for Portuguese motorsport. After António Félix da Costa's title in Formula E and the return of Formula 1 to Portugal, Filipe Albuquerque won the LMP2 category at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
In addition to this historic victory of the No.22 Oreca 07 driver, his compatriot and defending Formula E champion, António Félix da Costa, took second place in the same category, driving an Oreca 07 that he shared with Anthony Davidson and Roberto Gonzalez .
After the victory, Filipe Albuquerque, who also leads the FIA Endurance World Cup and European Le Mans Series, stated: “I am so happy that I cannot describe this unique feeling. It was the longest 24 hours of my life and the last minutes of the race were crazy (...) We had done a 24 hour sprint, the pace was mind-blowing. And there was so little left to end the failure of six years without being able to win”.
In case you don't remember, this victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans comes in the seventh participation of the Portuguese driver in the most famous endurance race in motorsport. In the overall standings, Filipe Albuquerque was 5th and António Félix da Costa 6th.
the remaining race
For the rest of the race, first place in the premier class, LMP1, was once again smiling at Toyota with the Toyota TS050-Hybrid driven by Sebastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Brendon Hartley crossing the finish line first to stamp the third consecutive victory for the Japanese brand at Le Mans.
In the LMGTE Pro and LMGTE Am categories, victory smiled in both cases to Aston Martin. At LMGTE Pro victory was achieved by the Aston Martin Vantage AMR piloted by Maxime Martin, Alex Lynn and Harry Tincknell while at LMGTE Am the winning Aston Martin Vantage AMR was piloted by Salih Yoluc, Charlie Eastwood and Jonny Adam.
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This victory of the Oreca 07 of Filipe Albuquerque, Phil Hanson and Paul Di Resta joins the victory achieved by Pedro Lamy in the LMGTE Am category in 2012.