Three o’clock in the morning. No sleep. Couldn’t sleep. Should have slept. But it’s too late because it’s time to race again. Out into the pitch dark, driving at up to 200mph. You have to adjust immediately.
This is what makes the 24 Hours of Le Mans so special, says two-time winner Will Stevens.
“It’s very difficult to adapt to the night-time but once you’re in it you feel very much in the zone,” he told Game Changers for BBC Local Radio.
“As much as you don’t want to drive in the night in these things, it’s actually the best part of the race.
“The adrenaline is running and it’s hard to switch off when you’re out of the car, it’s an iconic race because of it.”
Ex-Formula 1 driver Stevens, 32, has won Le Mans in two of the main categories and this year he is aiming to add a third title in the fastest and most prestigious, the hypercar.
The Surrey-based driver, who grew up in Essex, won the GTE Am category, an amateur race now known as LMGT3, in 2017, before winning the LMP2 category two years ago.
Last year he moved up to race in the hypercar in the World Endurance Championship with the Hertz Jota team.
He will drive the Jota Porsche 963, along with fellow Brit Callum Ilott and Frenchman Norman Nato, with former Formula 1 world champion Jenson Button in the team’s other car.
Stevens goes into this year’s race on the back of victory in the 6 Hours of Spa in Belgium last month, as well as a second-placed finish in Qatar in March.
