The start of the Le Castellet 240, Round Three of the 2020 European Le Mans Series was issued with revised grid due to safety, the changes resulted in the three classes gridded in qualifying time order in their class, but with the LMP2s starting ahead of the LMP3s, and then the GTEs.

Deteriorating weather conditions from the start of the qualifying sessions saw the GTEs qualify initially on a dry surface which progressively deteriorated through the LMP3 and finally LMP2 sessions as heavier rain arrived.

During the qualifying session in the morning the number 93 Proton Competition Porsche driven by Michael Fassbender was involved in a heavy impact with the tyer barrier after Fassbender lost control of the rear end sending him hard into the barriers. The team had six hours before the start of the race to fix the damaged car but unfortunately the car had sustained too much damage and the team had to withdraw the number 93 Porsche. The sister car number 77 driven by Christian Ried and Alessio Picariello qualified on pole with a 1:54.508, 2.5 seconds faster than the fastest car in LMP2 and almost 13 seconds faster than the pole setting car in LMP3.

After two laps behind the safety car the race went green and the number 77 Proton Competition Porsche of Christian Ried made the most of the pole position to move ahead of the rest of the LMGTE field. The number 74 Kessel Racing Ferrari of Michael Broniszewski moved up from fourth to second, while Duncan Cameron in the number 55 Spirit of Racing Ferrari also made progress from fifth on the grid.

As the track dried, Broniszewski came into the pits to fit intermediates, which proved to be the right move as the Polish drivers lap times were far quicker than the cars on full wets, so there was a flurry of activity as other drivers followed suit.

Christian Ried continued on wets and was well ahead of the rest of the field when the rain returned. The German driver continued to pull away and was nearly a minute ahead of the number 60 Iron Lynx Ferrari and the number 66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari fighting over the minor podium positions.

Ried handed the Porsche over to Michele Beretta, which handed the lead to the number 74 Kessel Ferrari, which held a 10 second advantage over Duncan Cameron in the number 55 Ferrari.

After 100 minutes of racing the second safety car was deployed when the rear tyre of the number 5 Graff LMP3 Duqueine exploded after being damaged in a collision with the number 16 BHK Motorsport Ligier spreading debris across the track on the Mistral Straight.

When the race went green the number 74 Ferrari was leading from the number 77 Porsche and the number 83 Iron Lynx Ferrari.

As the race approached the halfway stage the number 77 Porsche was hit by the number 2 Ligier at T9, dropping both cars out of contention in their respective classes. The number 83 Ferrari of Rahel Frey took the lead with a 23 second advantage over the number 55 Ferrari now driven by Aaron Scott.Scott started to close the gap and with 90 minutes left on the clock, the gap was down to 8 seconds. However, this then opened up again to around 15 seconds as Scott went into the pits to hand the car over to Matt Griffin. Frey continued for another 15 minutes, pitting after the final safety car period to hand the car over to Michelle Gatting.

Griffin now held a commanding 50 second lead with the number 77 Proton Competition Porsche of Alessio Picariello in second and Gatting’s Ferrari in third. While the gap was diminishing, with Griffin trying to save fuel until the end of the race, the Porsche was starting to close the gap slightly. But it wasn’t enough in the difficult conditions and at the chequered flag the number 55 Spirit of Race Ferrari was 25 seconds ahead of the number 77 Proton Competition Porsche, with the number 83 Iron Lynx Ferrari claiming the third podium position one lap behind the lead car.