The 24 Hours of Le Mans is the queen race of the season for endurance racing, but not only. This year marked the centenary of the race, which started in 1923. Now in its 91st edition, one hundred years after the first year it was held, the weekend of the French classic has garnered an incredible attendance of around 325,000 people during the event.
Porsche showed up with no less than four Hypercars at the start. The #5 and #6, which usually race in the FIA WEC, the #38 entrusted to Hertz Team Jota, which made its debut at Spa, and finally a third LMDH entrusted to Penske Motorsport, which wore the #75 in honour of the German manufacturer's anniversary. The Porsche 963s of the American team also sported a celebratory livery, which instead of red, had stripes bearing the colours of the main victories obtained in the 75 years of the Stuttgart brand.
Unfortunately, the results on the track were not what was hoped for. A mix of bad luck and problems turned qualifying into a nightmare for the German cars, which had performed well in the Hyperpole on Thursday, but failed to materialise between Saturday and Sunday.
In official practice Felipe Nasr's #75 963 had placed 4th behind a Toyota and the two Ferraris. Seventh was the #5 Porsche of Frédéric Makowiecki, while the #6 started ninth and the #38 16th.
Three out of four cars drove at least once during the 24 Hours. The Porsche of Dane Cameron, Frédéric Makowiecki and Michael Christensen finished 9th and was the best-placed of the entire fleet fielded by Porsche in the Hypercar class. Despite stopping for more than 20 minutes in the pit lane due to a problem with the cooling system, which had to be repaired the #5 car dropped in the overall standings, dropping out of the fight for the podium. In addition, on the last lap the Danish driver suffered a transmission failure that threatened to cause a retirement before the chequered flag.
For the #75 it was an uphill race despite starting from the second row. After leading the race for a few laps and proving to be fast, the car driven by Nick Tandy, Felipe Nasr and Mathieu Jaminet stopped at the side of the track around 11pm and due to a loss of power caused by a lack of pressure, it was not possible for the French driver to restart.
The #6 was also in contention for the podium on several occasions, but after several runs off the track and contacts with the barriers, it took the mechanics in the pits around 30 to 40 minutes to repair the damage sustained as well as having to change the hybrid battery. Because of this once back on track, the car of André Lotterer, Kévin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor was far from any useful result and finished the 24 Hours in 11th position.
The Porsche 963 driven by Felix Da Costa, Yifei Ye and Will Stevens managed by Team Hertz Jota led a very good first part of the race with a comeback from 60th place on the grid to the top ten. On Saturday evening around 9pm, when the Chinese driver took the wheel, the #38 was involved in an accident that required minutes of pit work. In addition to this, the replacement of a particular sensor also took a long time and consequently the comeback faded.
It was a difficult weekend full of setbacks for Porsche, which can now try to make up for it in the IMSA round at Watkins Glen at the end of the month and then at Monza for the WEC 6 Hours.