6 Hours of Imola: The PEUGEOT 9X8 2024 secures first points for Team Peugeot TotalEnergies

·       On its world championship début, the no. 93 PEUGEOT 9X8 2024 (Jensen/Müller/Vergne) finished ninth overall at the 6 Hours of Imola

·       The no. 94 PEUGEOT 9X8 2024 (Di Resta/Duval/Vandoorne) was hit by bad luck before finishing in 15th place

·       73,600 fans braved the changeable weather to watch six hours of intensive racing

The PEUGEOT 9X8 2024 had a real baptism of fire on its competitive début in tricky conditions at Imola’s Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, but Team Peugeot TotalEnergies showed courage and determination to put their first points on the board in the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship.

Having qualified in 14th and 15th places on the starting grid, the PEUGEOT 9X8 2024 began the race right in the middle of a 37-strong field at the narrow Imola circuit. Whilst Nico Müller (no. 93) managed to find a way through the Hypercars, Paul di Resta (no. 94) was hit from behind and sent into the gravel trap on the opening corner.

Indeed, the no. 94 PEUGEOT 9X8 was short on luck throughout the race, with a collision on the first corner that caused extensive damage and then a puncture just after the half-way stage. Despite their misfortune, Paul di Resta, Loïc Duval and Stoffel Vandoorne refused to give up and managed to fight back to finish 15th overall. “It was tough today. I began my stint at the worst possible time, on slicks in the rain. It was a bit crazy with cars sliding off into the gravel everywhere,” commented Stoffel at the finish. “Getting the slicks up to temperature was quite tricky. We had nothing left to play for, so we tried different things to collect data for the future.”

Meanwhile, the no. 93 car moved up the standings thanks to the highly consistent double stints completed by Nico Müller, Mikkel Jensen and Jean-Eric Vergne. In the rain, “JEV” won his head-to-head battle with the no.2 Cadillac and then overtook the no. 38 Porsche to claim ninth place. “The start of my stint on the wet track was very tricky. I thought I was going to lose the car at several points on the straight! My pace improved afterwards and I looked after my wet weather tyres well on the drying track. The team brought me into the pits at the right time to put on the slicks” claims the Frenchman.

The no. 93 PEUGEOT 9X8 2024 finished the race in ninth place, securing Team Peugeot TotalEnergies’ first points this season. Although it was not fully reflected in the standings, the 2024 version showed real progress in Italy. Finishing in the points was just reward for all the efforts made by the team on development of the car and throughout the weekend at the iconic Imola racetrack.

Olivier Jansonnie, Team Peugeot TotalEnergies Technical Director

“The no. 94 car was hit from behind at the start. There was a lot of damage to the bodywork. We conducted repairs in two stages, one of which whilst the safety car was out on track to try and stay on the same lap as the leader for as long as possible. There wasn’t much left to play for at that point from a sporting point of view. On the no. 93 car, we had a clutch issue during the race that we will need to investigate and which undoubtedly cost us a few places in the overall standings. We managed the strategy well to finish in the top ten, especially in terms of the tyre changes. For Spa-Francorchamps, obviously, we’ll need to do better in qualifying.”

Nico Müller (no. 93 PEUGEOT 9X8)

“At the start, some drivers in the main field really took too many risks. But luckily, I was able to keep out of trouble. I then had to perform a reset on the car and that meant we lost a lot of time. My pace was good. Our goal was to finish in the points and that’s what we managed to do. The weather was difficult to manage but the team stayed focused and we made the right call on tyre strategy.”

Loïc Duval (no. 94 PEUGEOT 9X8)

“We had an accident on the opening lap and that inevitably impacted the rest of the race. I completed a double stint. The first stint went well despite there being a lot of blue flags. My pace was good. During my second stint, I had trouble overtaking. I locked up under braking at one point and got a flat spot on the front left tyre, which then punctured. It was a very complicated race for us. There are positives from the weekend in terms of the balance of the car and our consistency on the stints.”

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