Sunningdale's Hanson claims maiden Le Mans 24 Hour race victory

Sunningdale’s Phil Hanson claimed his maiden Le Mans 24 Hour race victory on Sunday, a dominant win which earned him the 2019-20 FIA World Endurance Championship LMP2 class title with one race remaining.

The 21-year-old Berkshire-based Briton along with Paul Di Resta (Scotland) and Filipe Albuquerque (Portugal), won the annual twice-around-the-clock endurance sportscar race in France by almost 33seconds.

Their United Autosports Oreca started from pole-position on Saturday afternoon and was in contention for victory throughout, ultimately clocking 3,134-miles at an average speed of 130mph to earn the trio a comfortable LMP2 victory and fifth place overall. Hanson, who had the honour of taking the chequered flag in the car, was competing in his fourth Le Mans 24 Hours aiming to improve on a previous best fourth-place finish achieved last year.

Hanson earns the prestigious world LMP2 title in his first full WEC season having scored five podium top-three finishes in the previous six races – including consecutive wins in Bahrain, North America and Belgium. The final round of the eight-race series takes place in Bahrain on November 14.

“I’m obviously hugely delighted to win the world’s greatest sportscar race at only my fourth attempt and at the same time, claim the LMP2 FIA World Endurance Championship title in my first full WEC season,” said Hanson.

“I was in the car for the final couple of hours had to battle right up until the closing minutes to achieve our victory which makes it all the sweeter and kept it very exciting almost up until the chequered flag.”