Wrong place, wrong time: Why Peugeot’s "mixed" Spa race is a warning for Le Mans
- Ghazlan Atqiya Firmansyah
- 47 minutes ago
- 8 min read
Peugeot began the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps with an unexpected pole position. However, the French team met a harsh reality check during the race after an unfortunate collision with an LMGT3 car. The pace is finally there for the 9X8, but speed alone is not enough to survive the 24-hour challenge in Le Mans.
The high: A Friday to remember for Peugeot at Spa
Peugeot began the Spa qualifying session already with a headache. Piloting the No.94 car, Malthe Jakobsen spun at high speed at the top of Raidillon on his out lap. While the Danish driver avoided impact, he was obliged to return to the pits for a fresh set of tyres.
At this moment, the thought of making it to Hyperpole hangs in the balance. But the 22-year-old showed the team his worth by posting the second-fastest lap time, sandwiched between the two Alpine cars. Peugeot has another reason to be pleased as the No.93 car took fifth.
"It definitely wasn’t the ideal start to the session!
"A bump caught me out, and unfortunately, I had a spin. Luckily, I didn’t hit anything, but at times like that, your heart stops for a moment, and then I immediately felt some vibrations."
In the 10-minute Hyperpole shootout, Jakobsen had a tight battle with Cadillac Team JOTA's Will Stevens, as the Briton pushed him to the top of the timing sheet. However, Jakobsen managed to beat his rival to pole position by only 0.043 seconds, thanks to a break between the two sessions to take a deep breath and get his focus back.
Loud cheers were heard in the Lions' garage after the chequered flag was waved. That pole position marked the first pole position for Peugeot in 15 years in any international endurance racing series, and their first in world championship competition since 1992. The No.93 car came home in ninth.
"This is a great boost for everybody in terms of motivation to keep working hard.
"It really shows that even though we’ve had a challenging past couple of years, everything is possible, and you should never, ever give up."
Team Principal Emmanuel Esnault was predictably in a congratulatory mood before shifting the team's focus to Saturday's race, citing "tomorrow will be a different story."
To have one of your cars leading the pack heading to La Source brings tons of confidence for the team. Combined with the other car starting from ninth, Peugeot was hopeful to bring home a major haul of points from this round.
How wrong place and wrong time derail progress
No.94's Loïc Duval was overtaken in Les Combes as Stevens sailed through at the opening lap of the race. The 9X8 was solid during his double stint, before passing the controls to young compatriot Théo Pourchaire.
Around two hours and 12 minutes left in the race, Peugeot sent Jakobsen back to the field with fresh and cold tyres. A strong finish was still on the cards. However, a few corners later, disaster struck, revealing a harsh truth of multi-class endurance racing.
No.79 Iron Lynx's Matteo Cressoni had an untimely spin at Les Combes and collected the passing Jakobsen. As a result, the No.94 suffered catastrophic damage to the left side of his car, exposing the tyres completely.
On the radio, Jakobsen frantically said: "I'm on cold tyres, and this GT spins in front.
"I cannot go anywhere! Sorry, guys."
There was nothing Jakobsen could do to avoid the collision as he was unable to see the Mercedes. It was a sombre sight for the team and their fans as the No.94 car limped home to its retirement.
They were the king of the Ardennes on Friday, and it became apparent that Esnault's worst premonition came true: it is "a different story".
A silver lining with the sister car
Paul di Resta piloted the No.93 cleanly during the opening stint. Mid-race, it fell to 14th through the sequence of pit stops. Nick Cassidy took over from his British co-driver and found the rhythm after a disappointing Imola race. As the race goes, the New Zealander dragged the car into contention.
With the No.94 car out of the race, it was up to the No.93 car to salvage something for Peugeot in the Constructors' Championship. And it was here that Peugeot received the technical revelation of their 9X8.
After taking over from Cassidy's double-stint duty, home hero Stoffel Vandoorne stepped into the cockpit to finish the job.
With the temperature cooling as sunset looms near over the Ardennes, the 9X8 finally decided to "come alive", as it seeks to salvage valuable points.
Vandoorne unleashed a blistering sequence of laps, including a spectacular 2:04.177 — the fastest lap of the entire race. The 34-year-old took advantage of late incidents to cross the line in seventh, scoring Peugeot's first points of the year.
The homework: Why Spa's conclusion results in more questions for Le Mans
Ultimately, Esnault's team ends the weekend with mixed feelings: "We leave with mixed feelings after this weekend, with Saturday’s pole position and a strong opening phase with several fastest laps from the No.94, but also a big disappointment as we were in contention for a very strong result.
"We finished in seventh place for the No.93, which also recorded the fastest lap of the race. The focus now shifts to Le Mans, with still work to be done ahead of the event."
There were promising signs by the end. But for Peugeot, Spa exposed several critical problems they urgently need to address before tackling Le Mans next month.
While the No.94 was able to start in first place, the No.12 Cadillac passed them for the lead quickly before the first lap even reached its conclusion. The V-Series.R's slipstream, combined with its straight-line speed, allowed Stevens to pull alongside Duval before they reached the braking zone.
To succeed in WEC, teamwork is an absolute must. With the No.93 car starting further back in the order, it left its sister car isolated at the front without protection. As a result, the No.93 car was mostly stuck behind the dirty air of its rivals, and unable to guard the contending 9X8, or be used in an alternate strategy to disrupt Cadillac or BMW's strategies.
The 9X8 also struggles to generate heat for its tyres. Jakobsen had already given the team a massive scare by spinning on cold tyres during qualifying earlier. This is one of the bad quirks the rivals are taking note of: whenever the Peugeot cars receive new tyres, they are at their most vulnerable. That is why the other teams were not afraid to pounce while Peugeot's tyres were still cold.
Spa's narrow and blind corners make traffic management a lottery, and for Peugeot, they drew the worst possible ticket. The ultimate collapse of the pole-sitter has nothing to do with pace and simply being there at the wrong time. Jakobsen had nowhere to go, and instead of taking the No.94 to the finish line, he had to bring the car home early.
Jakobsen himself was already pretty much explaining the cause of their downfall: "A GT spun in front of me in Turn 5, and I had no way to avoid it.
"I was on my outlap on cold tyres and had no option. The impact was quite heavy, and there was too much damage to continue. A frustrating day."
Vandoorne may have secured the fastest lap, but it also came with a cost: "We scored our first points of the season, so it’s not too bad.
"Overall, it was a tough race; we were stuck in traffic, and the pace was difficult to show. In the final part, with cooler temperatures, the car came alive and felt much stronger, which allowed me to set the fastest lap at my home race."
In Le Mans, things would only get harder from here. Not only is it the ultimate test of the season, but Peugeot's weakness could be even more exposed.
Statistically, Peugeot often struggled in their home race, only finishing in the points during the 2023 edition.
Last year, they were disappointing during Test Day, and neither car made it to Hyperpole. During the race, they moved up the ranks due to race incidents and extended stints as long as possible, including triple stints on the same set of tyres. It saved them a pit stop after a few hours, despite resulting in slower lap times to conserve fuel.
But the horrors did not end. The No.93 car had to go off track to avoid an LMGT3 car stopping on the racing line at the Porsche Curves, resulting in a pit stop for front and rear bodywork repairs. Later in the night, it encountered a steering issue. The No.94 car was running well before a spin following contact with another Hypercar disrupted the strategy.
The team executives had differing opinions on the race. Jean-Marc Finot, Senior VP of Stellantis Motorsport, criticised the lack of pace, while Oliver Jansonnie, Technical Director, Peugeot Sport, maintained an optimistic outlook.
Finot said: "We knew, given the regulations, that we would be at a disadvantage in terms of pace for this race.
"We saw it clearly in qualifying [and] no one was surprised. So we developed a strategy to account for that: energy saving, longer stints, and fewer overall stops. It worked with the No.94, which was battling the front-row-starting Cadillac after six hours.
Jansonnie said: "Team Peugeot delivered an impressive performance with very few mistakes, unlike some of our rivals who were frequently penalised.
"To achieve a respectable result here, we needed to be perfect. We were nearly perfect, from the engineers to the mechanics to the drivers. Kudos to everyone. The most important thing is to maintain this level of commitment. It will pay off when conditions improve."
But "nearly perfect" is not enough when it comes to Le Mans. Circuit de la Sarthe is set to welcome 186 drivers, comprising 18 Hypercars, 19 LMP2s, and 25 LMGT3 cars this year, and the stakes have never been higher.
One LMGT3 car was already enough to cause trouble; now add LMP2 cars into the mix. A Hypercar may blitz past everyone in the Mulsanne Straight between 343 km/h and 349 km/h, but the Mulsanne-to-Arnage sector presents danger due to the track narrowing dramatically. Traffic is sure to cause trouble for the Hypercars.
The 9X8 coming alive only when it is cold and in free air presents another challenge for the team. Racing under the French summer heat meant another engineering challenge to ensure the Lions can manage the high-temperature midday track surface and dirty air.
Not everything is doom and gloom for Peugeot, fortunately. Compared to their previous experimental years, they have now understood the 9X8 better than ever and identified its strengths and weaknesses. The lineup stayed relatively similar to last year, adding another layer of familiarity to the team.
The 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps historic pole position was just another chapter in Peugeot's history. But as the race showed us, there was still much homework to do to avoid similar problems in Le Mans.
Comments