After Lining up on the second and third rows of the grid, both PEUGEOT 9X8s got off to an excellent start in the 6 Hours of São Paulo. Loïc Duval (#94) fiercely defended his fourth place (1:25.520 on lap 5), while Mikkel Jensen (#93) gained one position to finish the opening lap in fifth. Before the first pit stop, scheduled after 40 laps, the PEUGEOT 9X8s were running in third and fourth positions.
Loïc and Mikkel stayed behind the wheel for an intense second stint, which had to be cut short by about ten laps due to high tire degradation on the newly resurfaced Interlagos circuit. After the second pit stop, the PEUGEOT 9X8s managed to maintain their starting positions.
Malthe Jakobsen and Paul Di Resta, who had delivered excellent qualifying performances the day before, then took the wheel of cars #94 and #93 fitted with new medium compound tires. Following a double stint driven at full pace through traffic, Loïc Duval and Mikkel Jensen returned to the track to take the cars to the finish, as the Team Peugeot TotalEnergies ran a two-driver lineup this weekend.
After six hours of fierce battles, the PEUGEOT 9X8 #94 crossed the finish line in sixth place, with #93 close behind in seventh. Following a frustrating 24 Hours of Le Mans, Team Peugeot TotalEnergies immediately bounced back with its best result of the season.
After an eight-week summer break, the FIA World Endurance Championship will resume at the Austin circuit (Texas, USA) in early September.
Olivier Jansonnie, Peugeot Sport Technical Director :
“Our race pace was as expected, but we may have underestimated the speed of our three direct competitors, who were very fast. We could have finished P5 and P6 — it’s a shame, but we lost time under FCY. We’ll need to analyze why. The gaps are getting tighter, and there will be more opportunities to perform well before the end of the season.”
Mikkel Jensen (PEUGEOT 9X8 #93):
“The advantage of a two-driver lineup is that you learn a lot from the first double stint and can adjust accordingly at the end of the race. In this race, tire degradation management was crucial, and I did a better job of that during my final stint. Overall, it was a good weekend for the team, with strong performances in qualifying and a solid final result. Now we need to focus on tire degradation.”
Loïc Duval (PEUGEOT 9X8 #94):
“A pretty calm start for me and a good first stint. I struggled more in my second stint due to heavy rear tire degradation, which forced us to bring our pit stop forward. As a result, our final stint was a bit longer than that of our competitors, and on top of that, we were unlucky with the FCY, which cost us around fifteen seconds.”
