More than 300 000 spectators got here on the observe all weekend lengthy to have fun the Centenary of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, 91st version of the legendary race and 4th spherical of the FIA World Endurance Championship. After 24 hours of racing, and to have fun its come again to Le Mans, the 2 Team Peugeot TotalEnergies hybrid-electric Hypercars crossed the finish line within the 8th (#93) and 12th (#94) positions of the Hypercar class.
Action-packed weekend for Team Peugeot TotalEnergies
Beyond the end result, it’s primarily the execution of the race that we are going to bear in mind. After a tough week, the place the crew had to take care of a number of incidents, Team Peugeot TotalEnergies had a implausible race that was filled with surprises. It was an action-packed occasion, with loads of accidents on observe and lots of cars had to retire from the race. The altering climate situations, with moist and dry sections made it extra sophisticated for the drivers. The race was neutralised thrice with a Safety Cars altering the orders each time.
Paul Di Resta, on the wheel of the #93 PEUGEOT 9X8 and Nico Müller within the #94 took the beginning given by Lebron James, NBA dwelling legend. The two PEUGEOT 9X8 have been within the rhythm and involved with the opposite opponents, managing the security cars procedures. The #93 went off observe in the long run of the afternoon on Saturday and was down the classification after 6 hours.
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During the next hours, an audacious technique with the dynamic qualities of the 9X8 and its drivers allowed the #94 PEUGEOT 9X8 of Loïc Duval to take the lead of the 24 Hours of Le Mans and which held the entrance of the pack for greater than 4 hours because of Nico Müller and Gustavo Menezes. The followers of PEUGEOT have been thrilled. Unfortunately, after 11 hours, Gustavo Menezes hit the boundaries on the first chicane within the Hunaudières. Thanks to the superb job of the entire crew, the automotive was again on observe solely 20 minutes after it got here again within the field. In the meantime, the #93, pushed by Jean-Eric Vergne, Mikkel Jensen and Paul Di Resta was working persistently and made its method via the classification to face 6th midway via.
For the remainder of the evening and early morning no main incident are to declare for the 2 PEUGEOT that held their tempo because of the main focus of the drivers and crew. This consistency will lead the #93 as much as the 5th place and the #94 on 10th place after 18 hours of racing.
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However, with 2h30 to go, both cars have been compelled again to the storage on account of an hydraulic drawback. Once once more, the crew confirmed its reactive talent, already confirmed in the course of the pitstop problem gained earlier within the week. Thanks to this superb teamwork, the 2 cars can return on observe. And will probably be the identical over the past hour of racing when the #94 had to pit for an intervention within the engine.
Paul Di Resta and Nico Müller crossed the finish line of the 24 Hours of Le Mans Centenary facet by facet, beneath the eyes of Linda Jackson, Peugeot CEO and Carlos Tavares, Stellantis CEO that got here to help the crew throughout this lengthy week of racing.
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For this Centenary, the Team Peugeot TotalEnergies obtained such a terrific help from its companions, public, followers medias… and we need to sincerely thank them for it. Finally, our companions, with out whom this journey could be potential, whom have been current at Le Mans with the crew to point out their help.
The PEUGEOT 9X8 will likely be again on observe in just a few weeks, in Monza for the 5th spherical of the FIA WEC. This spherical will likely be adopted by the one in Fuji and the ultimate in Bahrain.
What the crew stated
“I’m very proud of this successful comeback at Le Mans after standing in all steps of the podiums, we surprised everyone by leading the case for several hours during the night. Our two cars crossed the finish line including the #93 that finishes 8th. This shows our determination, our savoir-faire in terms of reliability, quality, and commitment. Emotion is our energy and excellence our obsession. PEUGEOT and Le Mans are linked by their heritage and we are building strong foundations for the future. I want to thank the whole PEUGEOT team and our partners for their hard work, all the fans for their support, this 2023 edition definitely has had Allure! See you in La Sarthe in one year and in Monza in one month.”
Linda Jackson – PEUGEOT CEO
“As competitors we cannot be satisfied with our standings with our first car in 8th position. But we have to look past the classifications and this has been a big event and a big commitment from the whole team. We can see race after race that we made progress and those 24 Hours of Le Mans were a step further for our performance. We were able to fight against the best teams and even take the lead for more than 4 hours for the greatest pleasure of the fans of PEUGEOT and endurance racing. It was an intense moment with the team. We also had to manage the incidents on track, even if we tried to avoid them, some of them delayed us. About the reliability, we can see that since Sebring we made a lot of progress. The 24 Hours of Le Mans are a really demanding race and we can see that we still have work to do. I’m really proud of our first attempt at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the Hypercar class. I’m really happy to share this moment with the team and our fans.”
Jean-Marc Finot – Senior VP Stellantis Motorsport
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“Our joy is reflecting the work that everyone that has been behind this project for over a year, and the goal was to get to Le Mans 2023. We were criticized for lacking performance, results and reliability. We did not show performance as best as our competitors, but we were really close at some points, and we managed to counterbalance with an audacious race strategy and a huge involvement from the team. Of course, if you saw the last three hours of the race, you were able to witness the commitment from the team to keep the cars in the race. In the end, we are exhausted but happy. Our level of preparation when we arrived was way better than for a 6-hour race. That is an element that will be key for the preparation of the next races.”
Olivier Jansonnie – Peugeot Sport technical Director
“I’m happy to end this race and also to be part of this team. We’ve had a great comeback and I think that everyone did a fantastic job. We made a huge step forward and it will give us more confidence. With the #94 sister car, we even led the race so we can see that the performance is going in the right direction and I’m sure that we have a team that can win. I’m super proud of all the guys, the mechanics, the engineers, as the preparations they put in, and they put down an amazing race, so congratulations.”
Jean-Eric Vergne – PEUGEOT #93
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“I think that when you get to the end you have to be happy, given the start that we had at the beginning of the year. We still have a lot of hard work to go to race some of our competitors. I’m super proud of the team, it’s been 6 weeks that they have been working very hard and also the week here was a bit of a challenge. For me I have the easiest job so a big thank you to the team, well done to them. The countdown begins again for next year. We have to look forward too, to challenge ourselves. We will be in Monza soon so we will have to move on to the next one soon. Now we have to enjoy our results with everyone.”
Paul Di Resta – PEUGEOT #93
“It’s been an amazing experience. The 100 year anniversary with the Hypercar class, it was super competitive. I think the team did an amazing job staying on track without issues for more than 20 hours and then at the end things started to go wrong but it’s still super positive. We have more races to work and to come back stronger so I cannot wait to push even more.”
Mikkel Jensen – PEUGEOT #93
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“It’s nice to say that up until 3 hours before the end we had no issues on both cars so it’s extremely positive. After 11 hours of racing, we were leading which is another positive point. We still don’t have the performance or reliability of the best competitors, but we can see interesting things and it’s important to remember the positive. When you think of our first race in Sebring or even to the mechanical problem that we had earlier in the week we were in the unknown. Finishing with the result is really important for everyone and for the future.”
Loïc Duval – PEUGEOT #94
“A lot of emotions. I think that finishing the race with both cars is fantastic. Especially the performance during the race, the team worked really well, and it was amazing. We took out everything we could from the car, we were good in terms of strategy so it’s very positive. I’m really happy and well done to the team, it was a pleasure to do this race with them!”
Nico Müller – PEUGEOT #94
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“It was a very intense Le Mans, it never fails to surprise everyone. In the end it was a very positive step. Even if we did not get the dream result of winning, we came here humble, it was our first time, we knew it was going to be very difficult. Having led several hours and to get to the halfway mark in the lead was a great feeling. I’m super proud of all the team, unfortunately we had an incident and some issues but the mechanics and the whole team did an amazing job to come back as soon as possible.”
Gustavo Menezes – PEUGEOT #94
Published by Stellantis on Quickpic
For extra information concerning the distinctive 24 Hours of Le Mans Centenary, observe our motorsport web page.
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