So, when was Duval’s last race in 2020? “The 24 Hours of Daytona at the end of January! With Bourdais and Barbosa, we finished third in Dpi. The last time I went this long without racing? In the last millenium! It must have been in the 1990s, when I was kart racing. In more normal times, us drivers are used to packing our case and heading off somewhere every week. Admittedly, over the last few weeks I’ve been able to do things that I never get time for the rest of the year, but I missed the adrenaline of the racetrack!"   The 2013 Le Mans winner spent lockdown in Switzerland with his family and managed to keep himself busy. He took care of his two sons, helping them with their home schooling and maintained his fitness by road cycling, setting himself a “’challenge” after breaking his collar bone in May in a fall from his mountain bike not far from home and requiring an operation. He also obtained his boating licence, ''pressured into it by the kids!”

Today, wearing a mask and fully recovered from his injury, he is settled in the paddock at Le Castellet, where the 4 Hours of Le Castellet will be held on Sunday. The official test sessions start today. In fact, Le Castellet was the last racetrack he drove on with his Algarve Pro Racing LMP2 at a test session just days before lockdown in March. “I’m really keen to get back behind the wheel, even keener than usual. 2020 has been a strange season. We’re starting in July with just four months to complete it, plus our other programmes. We’re returning in bizarre circumstances too, racing behind closed doors, wearing masks, with medical certificates for everyone on the team, social distancing and so on."

The 4 Hours of Le Castellet will be Duval’s first post-lockdown race. He returned to the track in mid-June with two days of testing of an Audio DTM at Nürburgring, for the works programme he is involved in, in addition to the long American endurance races. “LMP2 is the top class in the European Le Mans Series so you compete for overall victory. On paper, a number of teams stand out, but our crew has been bolstered over winter and we run on Goodyear tyres. As for strategy, I also need to understand and interpret the principles behind the driver classification. Lancaster delivers an excellent performance and Enqvist has great potential."    

With three programmes on the go, Duval will be racing for 14 of the next 16 weekends. He would love to spend the weekend of 19–20 September at Le Mans for the 88th 24 Hours. Audi, with whom he competes in DTM, will release him for the weekend if he is offered a seat.    

The 4 Hours of Le Castellet will be held on Sunday 19 July. See the website  for more details.