Pista – TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps: a disappointing but unsurprising result for Peugeot Sport

Some 88,180 fans (a record attendance for a WEC event other than Le Mans) came to watch this year’s 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps and were treated to glorious sunshine as the action unfolded at the “Roller-coaster of the Ardennes”. The race was stopped for long periods following a number of on-track incidents.
After qualifying 13th and 15th, the PEUGEOT 9X8 2024 aimed to move back up the standings and above all, finish the Spa event in order to gather as much data as possible before the 24 Hours of Le Mans. They finished in 9th and 14th places.

Nico Müller (no. 93 PEUGEOT) and Paul Di Resta (no. 94 PEUGEOT) were tasked with the opening stint for this, the third round of the championship. Unfortunately, the no. 94 PEUGEOT 9X8 had to come back into the pits after four laps for a reset after a hybrid system error alert went off at the start. Towards the end of the race, a rear left-hand puncture further held up the no. 94 car, which has had poor luck since the start of the season.

Meanwhile, Nico Muller stayed out on track for more than three hours before handing over to Mikkel Jensen for a double stint.

At 5.12pm, the race was red flagged after a heavy crash involving the no. 2 Cadillac and the no. 31 BMW. The race resumed at 7.10pm behind the safety car for another hour and 44 minutes. At the restart, an offset strategy enabled the no. 93 car to gain a few positions, whilst managing to stay on the same lap as the leader. Mikkel Jensen was then able to hold onto a top-ten spot and secure another manufacturers’ point for PEUGEOT.

Team Peugeot TotalEnergies is now looking forward to seeing its fans and all Endurance enthusiasts in a month’s time in northern France for the 92nd edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans (15/16 June).

Olivier Jansonnie, Peugeot Sport WEC Technical Director
“It was a difficult race in terms of pace but we knew that would be case after free practice. We did our very best. No one expected the race to restart after being red flagged for two hours, but we adapted as well as we could… On the no. 94 PEUGEOT 9X8, we had a minor problem with the hybrid system, which required a reset. There were no issues on the no. 93 PEUGEOT 9X8 and we managed to stay on the same lap as the leader until a few laps from the end. We had a good strategy and there were no errors on the pit stops. That augurs well for Le Mans, but we’ll need to find more pace.”

Nico Müller (no. 93 PEUGEOT 9X8)
“The race lasted a bit longer than expected, but I’m pleased for the fans that they got to see a proper end to the race. The atmosphere was incredible around the track! We had a good race and P10 was the best we could have hoped for, I think. I made a good start to the race. We didn’t make any bad calls, but we perhaps weren’t as fortunate as we could have been either. The car worked well and we’re getting to understand it better now, so that’s a big step forward. We have a lot of data to analyse for Le Mans.”

Paul Di Resta (no. 94 PEUGEOT 9X8)
“I had an alarm so I had to come into the pits for a reset. Just four laps in and we were already a lap behind the leaders, so it was very difficult, like it was in the last two races as well. But you have to move on and look ahead to the next round, it’s the most important race of the year. Team Peugeot TotalEnergies is well prepared and we need to build on the momentum we had at Le Mans last year. The countdown is on, there’s just over a month to go now.”