This past weekend, German-Irish actor Michael Fassbender finished the 4 Hours of Portimão, the 2020 European Le Mans Series finale, in fourth place in the LMGTE class. With teammates Richard Lietz and Felipe Laser, he ended the season in sixth place in the Drivers classification and fifth in the Teams standings with Proton Competition. It was a successful endurance racing rookie year, especially for someone hoping to participate in the 24 Hours of Le Mans down the road.

In an interview given to the championship organisers, he described why the legendary race is so special to him. Michael Fassbender: "It's the history of the place. And I didn't really know exactly what it was like in terms of driving it until I went there this year. I did a race in the GT3 Cup car and I just can't wait to get back there. It does something, there's something about the track that's very specific, very special, very hard to describe actually. There's an atmosphere there, the fact that you're racing on part road circuit and part track circuit, it's just a very, very unique place. And also the fact that you're racing for 24 hours, the attrition of the race itself, the fact that the whole team is there working so hard and you know anything can happen in the last lap of the race. You know it's happened in the past where the lead car falls apart in the last lap. So yeah, it's the challenge of the whole thing."

Fassbender's 2021 sporting programme will be revealed in the next episode of the Road to Le Mans web series to be released on 6 November. Meanwhile, check out Season 2, Episode 2 below.

For Fassbender's full interview given to the European Le Mans Series, click here.