2020 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual

The Automobile Club de l'Ouest, the FIA World Endurance Championship and Motorsport Games organised the race as a placeholder for the 2020 24 Hours of Le Mans that was postponed from June to September as a result of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in France.

Loek Hartrog took the category lead for the Dempsey-Proton Racing team by passing Tandy at the start and maintained it until the R8G Esports crew of Mathias Beche, Erhan Jajovski.

Aston Martin Racing's Manuel Biancolilla, Lasse Sørensen, Nicki Thiim and Richard Westbrook finished one lap behind in second and R8G was third following two accidents involving the crew during the event.

[1] In place of the postponed race, the automotive group the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO), the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) and Motorsport Games elected to organise a simulation event called the 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual rendering the 13.626 km (8.467 mi) Circuit de la Sarthe on the rFactor 2 gaming platform on the original dates.

[2][3] The event received support from developers Studio 397;[4] its sponsor was the Saudi Arabian Federation for Electronic and Intellectual Sports initiative.

Race control could impose a full course yellow flag ordering competitors to slow to 60 km/h (37 mph) to enable circuit repairs or the clearing of an incident.

ESPN broadcast the race throughout the United States as well as Australia, Brazil, the Caribbean, the Pacific Islands and Spanish-speaking Latin America.

[14] The commentary crew consisted of Ben Constanduros and Martin Haven, with expert analysis by Tom Kristensen, Allan McNish and two esports commentators of Lewis McGlade and Chris McCarthy.

[21] Joshua Rogers, the Porsche Esports Supercup championship winner, set the session's fastest lap of 3 minutes, 46.550 seconds to put the No.

[9] Former professional basketball player Tony Parker waved the French tricolor to begin the proceedings,[24] led by Tom Dillmann's pole sitting No.

The ByKolles team was demoted to 17th after serving the penalty and promoted E-Team WRT's Kelvin van der Linde to the race lead, closely followed by Vandoorne's No.

[28] This had entailed a one-second stop-and-go penalty for Alonso before he made a subsequent pit stop for repairs lasting 30 minutes, dropping the entry ten laps behind the overall race leader.

14 FA/RB Allinsports entry of Alonso, that had dropped out of contention because of damage and the penalty, stopped on the circuit entering the Mulsanne corner with no fuel.

[30] This resulted from no fuel being added to the car because the game's software prevented Alonso from changing his pitstop settings and dictating he serve the penalty inside the pit lane.

7 Toyota Gazoo Racing team to third overall before co-driver Kamui Kobayashi drove the car and received a drive-through penalty for an incident.

[35] This gave yet-to-pit teams the opportunity to receive a fresh set of tyres and fuel when the race restarted prior to the six-hour mark.

At the restart, Güven overtook Catsburg at Mulsanne turn for second and Beche on the inside into the first right-handed corner for the GTE class lead in the No.

52 AF Corse car on a kerb into Tetre Rouge corner just after beginning his second driving stint because of a glitch and fell to fourth in GTE.

[42] On the tenth hour, server glitching problems lowered Verstappen's frame rate,[33][41] causing him to hit the barrier off-track at Arnage corner.

20 Team Redline entry, but further technical issues caused the car to be driven by artificial intelligence before becoming the event's first official retirement just before half distance.

[43] Porsche continued to lead the GTE category by nearly half-a-lap ahead of the second-placed R8G team that was recovering from an earlier collision with Legge's Richard Mille Racing LMP car at the second Mulsanne Straight chicane.

3 car sustained heavy damage and Keithley was required to complete a full lap as the incident occurred after the pit lane entry, dropping him to sixth.

93 entry in the pit lane because André Lotterer could not connect and required Neel Jani's services for a longer additional stint.

In GTE, Tandy's 21⁄2 minute gap over Risto Kappet's R8G car was reduced to 30 seconds as he was the only driver on the same lap as the class leader.

13 Rebellion entry to second place and maintained it until Pedersen lapped faster and reclaimed the position for the ByKolles squad by slipstreaming past Gassner, leaving Tetre Rouge corner at the beginning of the 21st hour.

92 Porsche held third position in GTE until just before the 23rd hour's end,[54] when the team experienced a server connection problem causing a disconnection dropping the car down the class order.

[37][55] During the final hour, the Rebellion team decided they had the incorrect strategy and opted to conserve fuel usage by switching off the engines on occasion and relying heavily on slipstream.

This promoted the ByKolles team to the lead for one lap before Rebellion's cars returned to first and second when Simončič made a pit stop.

[37][55] They were 1 minute, 20 seconds ahead of the third-placed R8G crew of Beche, Jajovski, Daniel Juncadella and Kappet after their car needed repairs in the pit lane as a result of the No.

Graham Goodwin of DailySportsCar wrote: "The event had real worth in many areas, will certainly have brought new viewers and fans to both virtual and real-world racing.