Phil Hanson, a racing car driver from Sunningdale Maidenhead, has won the famous 24 hour endurance race Le Mans.

The highly anticipated 88th 24 Hours of Le Mans took on the weekend of September 19th, after a three-month postponement due to the COVID 19 crisis.

While significantly condensed and held behind closed doors this year, the prestigious competition was just as intense. The 21-year-old racing driver, Phil Hanson finished in first place and his team United Autosports won the entire race.

Le Mans is won by the car that covers the greatest distance in 24 hours. Participating teams made up of three drivers must balance the demands of speed with the cars’ ability to run for 24 hours.

This year there was no official test day or driver parade due to the shortened schedule, however, the ACO introduced a new qualifying format called Hyperpole, where the top six in each class after the qualifying session on Thursday afternoon went on to a further qualifying shootout on Friday morning ahead of the race start on Saturday.

United Autosport’s Hanson came into the race leading both the World and European championships in LMP2 in #22 Oreca 07 with teammates Filipe Albuquerque and Paul Di Resta and they were eager to remain at the top of the victory board.