A second ELMS race is added in Le Castellet

Paul Ricard

Due to the evolution of the current Covid-19 situation in Catalunya, the decision has been taken to move the 4 Hours of Barcelona to Le Castellet at the end of August.

The event, which will be Round 3 of the 2020 European Le Mans Series, will take place on the same weekend, with the race being held on Saturday 29 August. The meeting will last two days, on Friday and Saturday, with the collective tests held on the Thursday.

Gerard Neveu, CEO of the European Le Mans Series, said, “After discussions with the ELMS teams, the organization teams in Barcelona and Le Castellet, we have taken the difficult decision to replace the 4 Hours of Barcelona with an event of identical duration in Le Castellet.

“These are complicated and uncertain times which call for us to react to guarantee the safety for everyone who works in the ELMS paddock, which is our top priority. The current situation with regards to Covid-19 in Spain has logically led us to take this course of action. The level of risk in Catalunya is high enough to justify the restrictive return travel measures. The teams would not be able to apply those measures (such as quarantine) only a few weeks before the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Nobody enjoys these kinds of changes but once again the health situation to date is imposing on us some exceptional conditions.

“We would like to first thank the staff at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for their understanding, and we can’t wait to go back in 2021 to Barcelona. We would like also to thank the team at Circuit Paul Ricard for allowing the ELMS to have the possibility of holding another meeting behind closed doors at short notice and with the same conditions as last month."