24 Hours of Le Mans: Glickenhaus beats Peugeot and Porsche

HyperCarWEC

Jun 13

Both Glickenhaus sixth and seventh

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Le Mans. Both Glickehaus 007 LMH.

The positioning of the competitors on the starting grid was done without the Glickenhaus 007 LMH #708 of Romain Dumas, Olivier Pla and Ryan Briscoe which had a gearbox seal problem. She left from her pit after the leaders’ first lap when she was supposed to start from 12th place.

On lap 6 the #708 Glickenhaus came back ahead of the LMP2s but still 1 lap behind the leaders.

During the 5th hour of the race, a sudden downpour surprised Esteban Gutierrez in the Glickenhaus #709 at the entrance of the Porsche Curves. The #709 thus lost a lap allowing the #708 to enter the same lap. At the start of the 6th hour, the two were 12th and 13th, two laps behind the leaders.

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Le Mans. Sunday morning at Michelin Chicane, **Glickenhaus** #708 ahead of sister #709.

The withdrawal of Toyota #7 and Porsche #75 allowed the American prototypes to move up to 10th and 11th place at the end of the 8th hour. With the troubles of Ferrari #50 and Porsche #5 during the 10th hour, the two Glickenhaus moved up to 8th and 9th place.

Then it was the turn of the Peugeot #94 to spend several laps in the pits during the 11th hour. Halfway through the race, the two Glickenhaus were 7th and 8th, 3 laps behind the leaders.

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Le Mans. Glickenhaus #709.

During the 15th hour, the #709 lost a lap which allowed the #708 to take the leadership of both Glickenhaus in 7th place overall

An hour later, it was the turn of the #708 to lose 2 laps and become 9th, being overtaken by the #5 Porsche and the #50 Ferrari.

The troubles of the Porsche #5 and the Peugeot #93 during the last 2 hours of racing allowed the two Glickenhaus to finish 6th (7 laps from the winners) for the #708 and 7th (9 laps behind the Ferrari #51) for #709.

Peugeot deludes then sinks

The #93, driven by Jean-Eric Vergne, Mikkel Jensen and Paul Di Resta kept a consistent pace and climbed up the standings to take 6th place halfway through the race. The rest of the night and the morning passed without major problems for the Peugeot, which kept up the pace allowing the #93 to occupy 5th place. Just 2h30 from the finish, the Peugeot 9X8 #93 was forced to return to the box to solve a hydraulic problem dropping to P8 overall.

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Le Mans. Peugeot 9X8 #93.

The Peugeot 9X8 #94, driven by Loïc Duval, Nico Müller and Gustavo Menezes led the race during 4 episodes for a total of 34 laps, arousing the enthusiasm of the French public. During the 11th hour of the race, Gustavo Menezes was surprised and hit the slides in the 1st chicane of the Hunaudières. The car made it back to the pit and left it 20 minutes later, enough to lose contact with the leaders. As for sister #93, the Peugeot 9X8 #94 was forced to return to the box to solve a hydraulic problem. In the last hour of the race, the Peugeot 9X8 #94 had to return to the garage for an intervention on the engine. Loïc Duval, Nico Müller and Gustavo Menezes found themselves relegated to 27th place overall, penultimate in Hypercars class.

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Le Mans. 📷 © Luc Warnotte at Le Mans. Peugeot 9X8 #94.

Porsche Penske Motorsport works team struck with misfortune

All three Porsche 963 from Porsche Penske Motorsport as well as the Hertz Team Jota Porsche 963 suffered setbacks also leading 3 laps for the #5 and 5 laps for #75 entries from Porsche Penske Motorsport. #38 from Hertz Team Jota did spend 8 laps in the lead.

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Le Mans. Porsche #5 end 16th overall.

The three works drivers Dane Cameron, Frédéric Makowiecki and Michael Christensen secured sixteenth place overall (9th in class, 17 laps behind the winners) at the wheel of the #5 car and were ultimately the best-placed Porsche crew. The trio’s vehicle spent more than 20 minutes in the pits during the night for repairs on the cooling system, which threw them out of contention for overall laurels. On the last lap, Christensen virtually had to carry his car over the finish line due to a defective drive train.

Frédéric Makowiecki (Porsche 963 #5): “It was a very difficult event for us, we’re proud nonetheless. We knew that we wouldn’t quite be at the top in terms of performance. Nevertheless, we were able to rattle the competition at times. It’s quite clear where we still need to improve to have a real chance of winning at Le Mans in 2024. We no longer want to be the challenger but the hunted.” Source: Porsche

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Le Mans. Porsche #6 end 22nd overall.

André Lotterer, Kévin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor ended up off the track several times with their #6 Porsche 963 and even crashed into the barriers twice. Repairs in the pits took over 40 minutes. Subsequently, the crew lost another half an hour when the hybrid battery had to be changed. The #6 entry crossed the finish line in twenty second place (11th in class), 22 laps behind the winners.

Kévin Estre (Porsche 963 #6): “Over the 24 hours we were repeatedly struck by bad luck. After three hours we suffered a puncture that cost us a whole lap. We then went on the attack to catch up – but I slid into the gravel and the barriers in the process. The repair took quite a long time, so the race was over for us. We learned a lot. Our car was fast, that’s the good news. I’m proud of our team.” Source: Porsche

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Le Mans. Porsche #75 retired.

#75 Porsche 963 shared by works drivers Nick Tandy, Felipe Nasr and Mathieu Jaminet led the field during 5 laps. However, bad luck hit late in the evening at 10:44 pm: Jaminet rolled to a stop on the track without power. A lack of fuel pressure made it impossible to continue – heralding an early end for this team. Source: Porsche

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Le Mans. Porsche #38 end last..

The Porsche 963 fielded by Hertz Team Jota gave a stunning performance in the opening phase of the race. Factory driver António Félix da Costa catapulted the #38 car from 60th overall to the top 10 in a short space of time, followed by Yifei Ye with his blistering charge. Around 9:00 pm on Saturday, Ye even took the lead. A short time later, however, the first setback came with an accident in the fast Porsche corners. The repairs took over 40 minutes, and the replacement of a defective FIA sensor used to measure the torque on the rear axle also cost precious time. Another accident on Sunday morning kept the team busy with even more work and increased the deficit.
After 24 hours, the first customer Porsche 963 in the FIA WEC, shared by Félix da Costa, Yifei Ye and Will Stevens, crossed the finish line last, 98 laps behind the winners (13th in the hypercar class).

The three Cadillac V-Series.R crossed checkered flag

The #311 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-Series.R sustained damage in a Lap 1 incident at the exit of the Daytona Chicane. The crew quickly and seamlessly worked to return the car to the racetrack, and Alexander Sims, Pipo Derani and Jack Aitken soldiered on to place 10th in class, 17th overall 18 laps behind the leaders.

Alexander Sims: “It’s been a massive experience for the whole Whelen Engineering Cadillac. Their first time here at Le Mans and it’s a huge learning curve for all of us. Shame that it turned out the way it has. It would have been cool to stay out in the fight and see what we could do. Quite quickly, our focus shifts back to the IMSA championship where we will all join back together at Watkins Glen shortly. We’re right in the championship at IMSA, take the track time we got here, take the learnings from it and get straight back into IMSA.”

Pipo Derani: “It’s been a great experience. Being here with the team for the first time we’ve accomplished so much together. We knew that coming into this race was going to be a massive learning curve for the first time. Le Mans is no easy task. There are so many things to learn, and I think we did learn a lot. Unfortunately, there was an incident in the beginning of the race. But we still used the 23 hours of the race to learn and learn things that perhaps will be beneficial for us whether in IMSA at Watkins Glen in two weeks time or if we come back here next year. Proud of the team, proud of crossing the finish line after such a difficult race. No one gave up and I’m proud of the 311 Whelen Engineering Cadillac.”

Jack Aitken: "It was a very traditional Le Mans. We knew that going in. When you throw the weather in as well, it was a pretty classic Le Mans. After that first lap, I think we did a pretty good job. The whole operation has been impressive. It's fantastic to see a Cadillac on the podium on the first attempt. Thre are manufacturers that have been doing this the last decade and it's no easy task at such a unique track and event. We can be proud of the achievement. Personally, we're sad that we couldn't be in the fight. Hopefully we can come back next year and challenge and be right up there with the other guys." Source: Cadillac Racing