The Road to Le Mans is the highlight of the Michelin Le Mans Cup where the teams and drivers get to race on the full 13.6km circuit at La Sarthe in front of 250,000 fans who have gathered to watch the world’s greatest endurance race, the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
There are several differences between the Road to Le Mans and the other five events of the 2018 Michelin Le Mans Cup calendar.
A normal Michelin Le Mans Cup race is 120 minutes but the Road to Le Mans features two 55 minute races, one on Thursday afternoon (17h30) and one on Saturday morning (11h30).The reason for the change is there is no refuelling of the cars at Le Mans so the maximum duration allowed is for one tank of fuel.
The points awarded for each 55 minute race are different to the points awarded following a 2-hour Michelin Le Mans Cup round. Instead of 25 points for a win, the victors will receive 15 points, second place 9 points (instead of 18) right down to 1 point for 9th place and 0.5 points for all other competitors finishing the race.
There is an additional point for pole position in each of the qualifying sessions.
All competitors taking part in the Road to Le Mans will score series points, even if they are not full season entries for the 2018 Michelin Le Mans Cup.
Usually only the bronze driver is allowed to qualifying but for Road to Le Mans either driver is allowed to take part in the first qualifying session. However only the bronze driver is allowed to take part in the second session.The result of Q1 will determine the grid for race 1 and the result of Q2 will be for race 2.
As well as the full season entries from the Michelin Le Mans Cup, entries are invited from other series featuring LMP3 and GT3 cars including ELMS, Asian Le Mans Series and Weathertech Sportscar Series.
The grid for the 2018 Road to Le Mans will feature a capacity of 50 cars for the first time.
Minimum driving time per driver: 20 minutes.
A mandatory pit stop of 2 minutes (pit entry loop – pit exit loop) is mandatory during the race between 22 minutes 00 second and 32 minutes 00 second of the race.
The winners of the 2017 Road to Le Mans races were
Race 1 : LMP3 - John Falb and Sean Rayhall - United Autosports
GT3 - Ahmad Al Harthy / Tom Jackson - TF Sport
Race 2: LMP3 - Alex Toril / Jean Glorieux - DKR Engineering
GT3 - Ahmad Al Harthy / Tom Jackson - TF Sport
The 2018 Road to Le Mans will be Round 3 of the 2018 Michelin Le Mans Cup following round 1 at Le Castellet and round 2 at Monza.
