First laps at Le Mans for Team Peugeot TotalEnergies

The traditional “Pesage” (scrutineering) on Friday and the test day this Sunday launched the celebrations of this exceptional edition. The public welcomed with enthusiasm the brand-new livery of the two Hypercars, celebrating the Centenary and the 30 years of the PEUGEOT win at Le Mans.

The track action started this Sunday. The sun shone (27°C) on the test day and the crowds of fans came to witness the first laps of the 62 entries for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, 4th round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.

Mikkel Jensen/ Paul Di Resta on the #93 and Loïc Duval/ Gustavo Menezes on the #94 had the honour to do the first laps of the two hybrid-electric Hypercars on the mythical track. Jean-Eric Vergne and Nico Müller, that were in Jakarta for two rounds of the FIA Formula E, will hit the track on Wednesday.

The two cars showed consistency during the sessions allowing the teams to work on different setups, long stints, etc. The PEUGEOT 9X8 #93 (Mikkel Jensen) set its best time in 3:30.427 during the afternoon session. The PEUGEOT 9X8 #94 (Gustavo Menezes) set its best lap in 3:31.093.

The Team Peugeot TotalEnergies will now be back on track on Wednesday 7th June for the FP1, followed by the first qualifying session at 19h.

Jean-Marc Finot – Stallantis Motorsport Senior VP: « We are physically getting acquainted with the track even historically we have been here before. We were able to test the limit of the cars with some setups and we spent our day running the cars to see their behaviour based to the number of stints, with tyre wear for example, to collect as much data as possible before things get serious next week for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. We could run our plan despite an electrical problem on the #93 that we wanted to secure before going back on track.”

Mikkel Jensen – PEUGEOT #93: « It’s great to be back at Le Mans, it’s something I have been waiting for, for three years. It’s the best track and atmosphere in the world of racing. We just enjoy being here, for us and the car it’s the first time we drive in such a track whereas some teams have the advantage of having dome last year, so we just have to keep working, it was good to get the first laps in and we still have some time to get ready before the race.”

Loïc Duval – PEUGEOT #94: “We did not have any issues today; the car was working well. At the beginning I was not 100% happy with the balance of the car but then we found some things in the setup, and which felt better. We were consistent all day long, especially during the long stint which is positive. We still have a lot of work to do and aspects to understand but we are going in the right direction.”