Hugo comes an excellent 5th in LMP2 at Le Mans 24 Hours

At his second appearance at Le Mans 24 Hours
, Hugo once again did the United Autosports team proud. With the help of teammates Will Owen and Juan Pablo Montoya, the young Swiss driver was able to manoeuvre the Ligier #32 into fifth place in the LMP2 category and ninth place overall!

A successful year for Hugo and United Autosports

This year the expectations were high for the United Autosports team and its drivers at Le Mans! Although their remarkable 2017 race was the team’s first ever appearance at the event, they made quite an impact by achieving 5th place in the overall standings.

Having produced one of the best times last year at the legendary Circuit, during the qualifying rounds Hugo seemed to be on good form and was achieving times which looked encouraging for the rest of the weekend.

The Ligier #32 began 14th in the starting grid before having an eventful race. Hugo and his teammates were initially outside the top 10 but skilfully fought back to catch up with the race leaders. However, several twists of fate slowed their progress.

A frustrating end to the race

At the halfway point the team were in 10th place. With just five hours to go, they sped ahead to reach 7th place and, while the other United Autosports team was forced to retire, Hugo de Sadeleer, Juan Pablo Montoya and Will Owen continued to put pressure on the race leaders. With two hours remaining, the team were in 4th place but gaining ground at every turn. Sadly, with one hour to go an unfortunate flat tyre pushed them back into 5th place and destroyed any chance of reaching the podium.

Despite this disappointment at the end of the race, the Ligier #32 drivers can certainly be proud of their efforts and great skill they showed…

Moments after the finish, Hugo shared his thoughts : “It’s been a tough one and the puncture near the end was disappointing. But just finishing this race is hugely satisfying. I set the car’s quickest time in qualifying – in the first session on Thursday evening. I had a great feeling in the car but over-pushed it through the Porsche Curves and went a little wide losing time. But overall I was pleased with most of the lap, it was decent if on the edge. The race start was pretty crazy. Tyre management was difficult because of the traffic which affected the front degradation. I had a moment when I went to overtake an SMP car and got squeezed out on the outside and so as not to hit anything, I drove around the ‘roundabout’ so lost over 15 seconds. The night stints always feature tricky moments and you need to be fully focussed overtaking the GT cars and keeping an eye out for the LMP1s. I did a long four stints this morning and I was happy to get out of the car! In total I’ve probably driven for almost 10 hours here this year.”