The scrutineering sessions for the 24 Hours of Le Mans finished yesterday in Le Mans city centre and were as popular as ever. All teams are now back at the circuit ready for the briefs, official photo and eagerly-awaited afternoon autograph session.

24H Le Mans

Le Mans Series

24 Heures du Mans

FIA WEC

Formula 2 champion Felipe Drugovich will take the start in the 92nd running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans (12-16 June) at the wheel of Action Express Racing's #311 Cadillac V-Series.R.

Action Express Racing has announced that 2022 FIA Formula 2&nbsp;champion Felipe Drugovich will join Pipo Derani and Jack Aiten in the #311&nbsp;Cadillac V-Series.R for the 92nd 24 Hours of Le&nbsp;Mans, fourth round of the 2024 FIA World Endurance&nbsp;Championship.

For the past two seasons, Drugovich (age 23) has served as a test and reserve driver for&nbsp;Aston Martin&#39;s&nbsp;Formula&nbsp;1&nbsp;team. He will continue&nbsp;in that role in addition to representing Vector Sport in the European Le Mans Series&#39; LMP2 category.

Action Express Racing team manager Gary Nelson: Felipe has been on our radar for a couple of years. After watching him race a sports car in the ELMS recently, we finally got a chance to meet him and work with him in some simulator testing. We were impressed by his maturity, discipline and knowledge. Next, we took Felipe to a track test, where he shared our car with Pipo and Jack. We are very excited to take the next obvious step and enter Felipe alongside Pipo and Jack at Le Mans. His record speaks volumes.

In F2, Drugovich (of Austrian decent with&nbsp;dual citizenship in Brazil and Italy) scored eight wins and five&nbsp;pole positions in 73 starts, winning&nbsp;the championship in 2022 with five victories, four&nbsp;poles and&nbsp;11 podiums. He earned 14 wins in 16 races to clinch&nbsp;the&nbsp;2018 Euroformula Open trophy&nbsp;and was also crowned&nbsp;MRF Challenge Formula 2000 champion in 2017 and 2018 with 10 victories in 16 races. Drugovich has&nbsp;competed in the FIA Formula 3&nbsp;championship and in Spain&#39;s F3 championship.

<h2>Two-Time Virtual 24 Hours of Le Mans&nbsp;Winner</h2>

Felipe Drugovich: I am only 23 years old, and I am having the most important opportunity in my racing car career until now thanks to Action Express and Cadillac.&nbsp;The 24 Hours of Le Mans is impossible to define in words, such is its magic and importance for cars in general and motor racing in particular. I am having the opportunity to live this 100-year&nbsp;history for the first time with AXR and Cadillac.&nbsp;I barely touched the magic of the 24 Hours of&nbsp;Le Mans, winning twice the Virtual editions. Now I am going to plunge into it for real with the #311 Cadillac of Action Express Racing&nbsp;with my fellow Brazilian Pipo Derani and Jack Aitken. What a privilege having another dream coming true.

Action Express Racing&#39;s&nbsp;#311 Cadillac is participating&nbsp;in its second&nbsp;24 Hours of Le&nbsp;Mans. The American team finished 10th in the&nbsp;Hypercar category last year after Jack Aitken left the track early in the race at the&nbsp;Michelin chicane.

Cadillac finalises driver line-ups with Felipe Drugovich

The 2024 edition of the 4 Hours of Le Castellet certainly provided plenty of entertainment for the thousands of spectators that travelled to the Circuit Paul Ricard. They witnessed a dramatic race that saw the no43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca-Gibson take the chequered flag for the Polish team's first ever LMP2 victory in the ELMS.

The reigning 24 Hours of Le Mans LMP2 championship winning team started 12thon the grid, with Sebastien Alvarez making his way up the field to hand over to Vlad Lomko, who led for most of his stint before handing over to Tom Dillmann to secure the victory at his home race.

Dillmann took the chequered flag, with the no28 IDEC Sport Oreca finishing second on the road but a penalty for excessive weaving during the race dropped the car down to 4th.The no47 COOL Racing and the no14 AO by TF Orecas took second and third respectively.

The LMP2 Pro/Am victory went to the no29 Richard Mille by TDS Racing Oreca after a race long fight back after a collision at the start put Rodrigo Sales down the order on lap 1.The American pushed hard to get back in contention, handing over to Gregoire Saucy in a good position, with Mathias Beche able to bring the car home to claim the class victory.

It was another superb fight back from the crew of the no15 RLR M Sport Ligier, which had started on pole but ended up down the order.Michael Jensen, Nick Adcock fought their way back to hand the car to Gael Julien, with the French driver getting out in front to take the win ahead of the no4 DKR Engineering Duqueine and the no35 Ultimate Ligier.

The LMGT3 victory went to the no55 Spirit of Race Ferrari 296, with Duncan Cameron starting on the front row and briefly holding the lead.Contact with another car spun the British driver around, delaying the car.

Matt Griffin took over the second stint to move the car up the field, before handing back to Cameron to finish his driving time, the British driver holding his own against the silver and gold drivers that were now out on track. David Perel brought the car home to score the team&rsquo;s first victory since 2021.The no63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini was second, 4.9 seconds behind Perel at the chequered flag, with the no59 racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin Vantage in third.

<a href="https://www.europeanlemansseries.com/race/4807" target="_blank">CLICK HERE</a>&nbsp;for the provisional result from the 4 Hours of Le Castellet.

Round 3 of the 2024 European Le Mans Series is the 4 Hours of Imola will take place on Sunday 7 July but before that some of the teams and drivers will be heading to Le Mans for the 92nd&nbsp;edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans on the 15/16 June.

Extended highlights | 4 Hours of Le Castellet 2024 | ELMS

ELMS : les principaux faits de course des 4 Heures du Castellet 2024

Inter Europol Competition score first ELMS LMP2 victory at Le Castellet

In an ideal world, one's passion, hard work and commitment would guarantee success. But, talent also plays a complex and crucial role in winning. Olivier Gendebien's track record is proof positive of that fact. Though he never considered himself a professional, he nevertheless built a career that countless great drivers envy.

<h2>From One Horse to Another</h2>

It&#39;s nothing new:&nbsp;a young man helps his dad in his garage&nbsp;and falls in love with cars. Eventually, he ditches uni to devote himself to learning the science of racing. That is not how things happened&nbsp;for&nbsp;Olivier Gendebien.&nbsp;Born into an affluent Belgian family in 1924, he wasn&#39;t particuarly interested in cars, at least not more so than any&nbsp;other of his hobbies.&nbsp;After WWII, in which he actively participated,&nbsp;Gendebien&nbsp;lived in the Belgian Congo for four years working as an agricultural engineer, far from racing&nbsp;circuits.

In&nbsp;Africa, he met&nbsp;fellow countryman Charles Fraikin. The two hit it off and began&nbsp;planning to participate&nbsp;in the Li&egrave;ge-Rome-Li&egrave;ge rally sometime in the distant future. Having returned to his native soil, Gendebien&#39;s&nbsp;interest in racing increased, but horses remained&nbsp;his real passion at that time, in addition to skiing and&nbsp;tennis. Still, Gendebien&nbsp;took the start in the 1952 Fronti&egrave;res Grand Prix in Chimay, France. He&nbsp;was a&nbsp;revelation.

His reputation continued to&nbsp;soar&nbsp;after every race he entered. At the age of&nbsp;28 and on the heels of his success in rally, he tried his luck at&nbsp;circuits, proving&nbsp;just as fast. Gendebien&nbsp;thoroughly enjoyed endurance racing, taking the start in his rookie&nbsp;24 Hours in 1955 at the wheel of &Eacute;curie Nationale Belge&#39;s&nbsp;Porsche 550 RS 1500 with&nbsp;Wolfgang Seidel. The duo finished second in its category and fifth overall! Sure, his career got a late start, but wow did it&nbsp;kick&nbsp;off with a bang.

After yet another stellar&nbsp;performance in Italy, Gendebien was personally recruited&nbsp;by Enzo Ferrari for&nbsp;both Formula&nbsp;1 and&nbsp;endurance races. His pairing with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.24h-lemans.com/en/news/who-was-phil-hill-the-legend-who-shunned-the-spotlight-58307" target="_blank">American driver Phil Hill</a> at the&nbsp;1000 km Buenos Aires was perfect given&nbsp;the&nbsp;two&nbsp;preferred racing at&nbsp;one&#39;s&nbsp;own pace&nbsp;without overdoing it to reach&nbsp;to the chequered flag&nbsp;in a good position.

<h2>Enzo Ferrari&#39;s Right-Hand Man</h2>

Gendebien quickly became indispensable within the&nbsp;Scuderia Ferrari. At the 1956&nbsp;24 Hours, he and&nbsp;Maurice Trintignant finished third, but the following year, a broken piston forced the duo to retire.

Hill rejoined Gendebien for the 1958&nbsp;24 Hours. Torrential rain flooded the circuit for&nbsp;15 hours, but that didn&#39;t stop the pair&nbsp;from going for&nbsp;a first win together. The&nbsp;Jaguar Type D just couldn&#39;t hold its own against the&nbsp;Ferrari 250 TR 58 and its powerful&nbsp;V12 engine.

In 1959, things got complicated. Stirling Moss with&nbsp;Aston Martin took the start like a bat out of hell. His competitors could barely keep up, including Gendebien/Hill in a&nbsp;Ferrari 250 TR 59. The car managed to hold its own,&nbsp;but was then forced to throw in the towel&nbsp;in the 20th hour due to an overheating engine.

The 1960 24 Hours provided&nbsp;a new career milestone:&nbsp;Gendebien mastered the fragile&nbsp;Ferrari TR59/60 along with&nbsp;Paul Fr&egrave;re,&nbsp;dominating&nbsp;the race as&nbsp;the other Ferraris struggled. The Belgian duo scored a stunning win with a four-lap lead.

Gendebien proved his mettle in single-seaters as well, but found himself confined to endurance racing. Frustrated by his&nbsp;situation, he left the&nbsp;Scuderia to take the wheel of a&nbsp;private Cooper-Climax in&nbsp;Formula&nbsp;1, and the move paid off. Gendebien finished third at the 1960 Belgian&nbsp;Grand Prix and second at the French GP in Reims.

However, it was clear the&nbsp;Belgian driver and&nbsp;Ferrari needed each other if they wanted to win Le Mans. They teamed up again for the&nbsp;1961 season, which turned out to be Gendebien&#39;s last in Formula&nbsp;1.

<h2>The Right Man for the Job</h2>

Hill/Gendebien quickly set a&nbsp;staggering&nbsp;pace at the 1961 24 Hours, forcing their opponents to pull out all the stops. The&nbsp;lead&nbsp;cars eventually gave up the breakneck pace, but two Ferraris emerged: one the official car shared by the American/Belgian pair, the other a private entry by North American Racing Team (NART) driven by Mexican brothers&nbsp;Pedro and&nbsp;Ricardo Rodr&iacute;guez. The drivers delivered a breathtaking duel until NART&#39;s&nbsp;Ferrari broke down, paving the way for another Hill/Gendebien victory (the latter&#39;s third).

If it ain&#39;t broke, don&#39;t fix it. The two shared the wheel of&nbsp;a monster 330 TRI/LM at&nbsp;the&nbsp;1962 24 Hours, its&nbsp;4-litre&nbsp;V12 the only one on the starting grid. The car&#39;s&nbsp;performance was mind-blowing, dusting&nbsp;the&nbsp;Maseratis and&nbsp;Aston Martins by several seconds each&nbsp;lap. The Rodr&iacute;guez brothers remained Hill/Gendebien&#39;s only real competition until dawn on Sunday, but Gendebien went on to clinch his fourth win at Le Mans, a new&nbsp;record at the time.

After narrowly avoiding contact with&nbsp;a slower car at&nbsp;Tertre Rouge the following year, Gendebien&nbsp;retired from racing at the request of his wife without ever truly&nbsp;considering&nbsp;himself a professional driver.

He was perhaps never the fastest, nor the most incisive behind the wheel, but his track record made&nbsp;him one of the best drivers in the history of the world sports car championship.&nbsp;Gendebien&nbsp;also won the&nbsp;12 Hours of&nbsp;Sebring in&nbsp;1959 and&nbsp;1961 with the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fiawec.com/en/team/6293" target="_blank">Scuderia Ferrari</a>, and with&nbsp;Porsche in 1960.

Rich in his own right, he lived in the South of France until&nbsp;he passed&nbsp;away&nbsp;in 1998, receiving the Order of the Belgian Crown that same year.&nbsp;With his death ended&nbsp;a bygone era&nbsp;focused on values ​​and conduct&nbsp;beyond driving. Gendebien was a true artist, every bit as talented as those &quot;professionals.&quot;

Olivier Gendebien, the "amateur" four-time Le Mans winner

Starting from Saturday, May 25, 2024, the 24 Hours of Le Mans Museum is set to welcome a new temporary exhibition: Alpine Tricolore Mind.

The exhibition, highlighting the Alpine brand and its history with the Le Mans race, will be available for exploration starting from Saturday, May 25. It&#39;s an opportunity for families and enthusiasts to discover or rediscover the history, as well as the numerous connections with the 24 Hours of Le Mans: from the first participation to the era of the Hypercar.

Several themes will be addressed in this exhibition:

R&eacute;d&eacute;l&eacute;: Driver and Constructor The Renault Charles Deutsch Barquette, based on a 4CV, is a car driven by Jean R&eacute;d&eacute;l&eacute; (who participated twice in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1952 and 1953). Jean R&eacute;d&eacute;l&eacute; is one of the first drivers to embark on a career as a constructor to obtain a vehicle capable of leading him to victory. Other drivers will follow the same path, such as Jean Rondeau or Yves Courage.

Overall Victory! In 1978, the A442B secured a victory in the overall classification, in the top category with two French drivers, Didier Pironi and Jean Pierre Jaussaud (at that time, only two drivers shared the wheel). Subsequently, no French manufacturer would achieve victory until Peugeot in 1992.

From the Olympics to the 24 Hours of Le Mans The Alpine A210, featured in the exhibition, participated three times in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. In 1969, the Alpine A210, driven by Jean-Claude Killy (world ski champion and triple Olympic champion), helped create a link between the Olympic Games and Le Mans!

From the Track to the Screens The Alpine A210 and A220 have frequently appeared in cinema. The Alpine A210 was presented as a prototype of the Vaillant team. The most famous appearance is undoubtedly the A110 Berlinette in the TV series &quot;Les aventures de Michel Vaillant,&quot; broadcast in 1967 on ORTF channel. Henri Grandsire played the role of Michel Vaillant and was a driver in the Alpine-Renault team in the early 1960s, in endurance and single-seaters.

Alpine Spirit Tricolore: A New Exhibition at the 24 Hours Museum

24 Heures du Mans 2018

Track action may not start until tomorrow but that doesn&rsquo;t mean there&rsquo;s nothing going on at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. On the contrary! After the briefing by race director Eduardo Freitas and the official photo, drivers will take up their places in front of their garages for the traditional autograph session, always popular with fans.

It&rsquo;s the ideal opportunity for fans to chat with drivers, take another look at the cars and collect autographs or selfies. The sun has even promised to make an appearance for the occasion!

Ford fans will be pleased to hear that the Ford GTs are the main focus of the R&rsquo;Hunaudi&egrave;res event in the village of Ruaudin, close to the Mulsanne Straight today. The village will be closed to traffic bewteen 15:00 and 23:00 to accommodate the event. Entrance is free!

&nbsp;

Schedule for Tuesday 12 June 2018

10:00&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Drivers&#39; and Team Managers&#39; briefing

10:30-11:00&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Official photo

15:00-23:00&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Les R&#39;Hunaudi&egrave;res (Facebook)

17:00-18:30&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Drivers&#39; autograph session

&nbsp;

See you back here tomorrow for the day&rsquo;s schedule!

Photo: The autograph session in the 24 Hours of Le Mans pit lane always draws a crowd.

&nbsp;

24H LE MANS

2018 24 Hours of Le Mans - What’s happening on Tuesday 12 June

Related News

Cadillac finalises driver line-ups with Felipe Drugovich

Inter Europol Competition score first ELMS LMP2 victory at Le Castellet

Olivier Gendebien, the "amateur" four-time Le Mans winner

Alpine Spirit Tricolore: A New Exhibition at the 24 Hours Museum

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