Starting a fresh thread for this year’s Le Mans 24 hrs which is this weekend. As I did last year, I’ll just kick off a thread to get things going and start posting resources for watching at home (a lot of this is copy and paste from last year)
Free practice:
UK times:
P1: Thursday 17th 9:00am-12:00pm.
P2: Thursday 1:00pm-4:00pm
P3: Thursday 7:00pm-11:00pm
P4: Friday 9:00am-10:00am
Qualifying:
Slightly different quali format this year. New format called Hyperpole, according to Wikipedia. One single 45-minute quali session late Thursday afternoon will determine the field, except for 24 cars, the top six cars in each category. Top six cars in each class participate in a 30-minute shootout on Friday morning, known as "Le Mans Hyperpole". The shootout will determine the top six in each category.
Quali times:
Q1: Hyperpole session 4:15pm-5:00pm UK time Thursday
Q2: Shootout 10:30am-11am UK time on Friday
Race:
Race starts Saturday 19th September 2:30pm Central European Time, or 1:30pm UK time. NOTE THE EARLIER START TIME THAN NORMAL
Morning warm up session 9:30am-9:45am UK time / support race 10:15am-11:10am
Coverage:
Eurosport and through the FIA WEC app as usual.
Highest quality 24 hr commentary is through Radio Le Mans broadcast online. It’s usually best to watch one of the race feeds with the sound muted and Radio Le Mans playing over the top.
Resources:
Will continue to add links as I find them.
Main site: http://www.24h-lemans.com/en/
Background and entry list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_24_Hours_of_Le_Mans
Spotters Guide (to ID car entry numbers, liveries etc - click the pic in the link for the big PDF): https://spotterguides.com/portfolio/20_lm/
Best Le Mans 24hrs commentary is Radio Le Mans: http://www.radiolemans.co/
^ Try http://radiolemans.0157.org/nplayer.php if the listen live link is broken. RS1 is usually the main channel.
Watch online (not free to watch in the UK):
FIA site and app: https://www.fiawec.com/en/live €9.99 (I think, check this) for race weekend with excellent resources. Used this in 2019 and it was excellent coverage, no adverts and ability to flick between team onboards. Streams to TV no problem on Chromecast. Official J69 recommendation.
Eurosport and Eurosport Player. Just a warning, I got the 7 day free trial of Eurosport Player in 2018 and the feed was terrible and it cut off every hour or so. When I paid for it a few years ago it was a bandwidth hog. Both times I ended up using an illegal feed instead, to either get rid of the stuttering or whatever the other reasons were that I’ve forgotten about. Reminder that the repetitive Eurosport adverts become UNBEARABLE. I’m not sure I can recommend it. Eurosport available through Amazon Prime for £6.99 in 2020.
MotorTrend On Demand (they do Roadkill etc on subscription) broadcast the race in 2019 but I think it might be geoblocked in the UK this year. Check before paying... There is a 14 day free trial which included the race in 2019. American viewers last year said quali was included too. Download the app and sign up; may also be broadcast direct on their website, though still behind the paywall/geoblock. Don’t forget to cancel the trial...
There is always a feed on Race Department. I’m still not sure if this is legal or hooky, but they host it every year: https://www.racedepartment.com/
Most of the teams broadcast live onboards from their cars for free for the full 24 hrs and are well worth a look. Easiest ones to find are Porsche and Corvette. As last year, I’ll post links if I have time to find them.
There are probably loads of mistakes here so please reply with corrections and I'll fix this post.
Free practice:
UK times:
P1: Thursday 17th 9:00am-12:00pm.
P2: Thursday 1:00pm-4:00pm
P3: Thursday 7:00pm-11:00pm
P4: Friday 9:00am-10:00am
Qualifying:
Slightly different quali format this year. New format called Hyperpole, according to Wikipedia. One single 45-minute quali session late Thursday afternoon will determine the field, except for 24 cars, the top six cars in each category. Top six cars in each class participate in a 30-minute shootout on Friday morning, known as "Le Mans Hyperpole". The shootout will determine the top six in each category.
Quali times:
Q1: Hyperpole session 4:15pm-5:00pm UK time Thursday
Q2: Shootout 10:30am-11am UK time on Friday
Race:
Race starts Saturday 19th September 2:30pm Central European Time, or 1:30pm UK time. NOTE THE EARLIER START TIME THAN NORMAL
Morning warm up session 9:30am-9:45am UK time / support race 10:15am-11:10am
Coverage:
Eurosport and through the FIA WEC app as usual.
Highest quality 24 hr commentary is through Radio Le Mans broadcast online. It’s usually best to watch one of the race feeds with the sound muted and Radio Le Mans playing over the top.
Resources:
Will continue to add links as I find them.
Main site: http://www.24h-lemans.com/en/
Background and entry list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_24_Hours_of_Le_Mans
Spotters Guide (to ID car entry numbers, liveries etc - click the pic in the link for the big PDF): https://spotterguides.com/portfolio/20_lm/
Best Le Mans 24hrs commentary is Radio Le Mans: http://www.radiolemans.co/
^ Try http://radiolemans.0157.org/nplayer.php if the listen live link is broken. RS1 is usually the main channel.
Watch online (not free to watch in the UK):
FIA site and app: https://www.fiawec.com/en/live €9.99 (I think, check this) for race weekend with excellent resources. Used this in 2019 and it was excellent coverage, no adverts and ability to flick between team onboards. Streams to TV no problem on Chromecast. Official J69 recommendation.
Eurosport and Eurosport Player. Just a warning, I got the 7 day free trial of Eurosport Player in 2018 and the feed was terrible and it cut off every hour or so. When I paid for it a few years ago it was a bandwidth hog. Both times I ended up using an illegal feed instead, to either get rid of the stuttering or whatever the other reasons were that I’ve forgotten about. Reminder that the repetitive Eurosport adverts become UNBEARABLE. I’m not sure I can recommend it. Eurosport available through Amazon Prime for £6.99 in 2020.
MotorTrend On Demand (they do Roadkill etc on subscription) broadcast the race in 2019 but I think it might be geoblocked in the UK this year. Check before paying... There is a 14 day free trial which included the race in 2019. American viewers last year said quali was included too. Download the app and sign up; may also be broadcast direct on their website, though still behind the paywall/geoblock. Don’t forget to cancel the trial...
There is always a feed on Race Department. I’m still not sure if this is legal or hooky, but they host it every year: https://www.racedepartment.com/
Most of the teams broadcast live onboards from their cars for free for the full 24 hrs and are well worth a look. Easiest ones to find are Porsche and Corvette. As last year, I’ll post links if I have time to find them.
There are probably loads of mistakes here so please reply with corrections and I'll fix this post.
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