As last year, Jean-Eric Vergne and Stoffel Vandoorne were tasked with qualifying the PEUGEOT 9X8 for the 1812 km of Qatar, the first round of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC). At 5:40 PM, under the lights and with the track at just 17°C, the 18 Hypercar prototypes set off for 12 minutes of qualifying.
After a few laps to warm up his medium compound tires, Jean-Eric Vergne posted a time of 1:39.963 before improving to 1:39.926 on his final fast lap, securing a top 10 spot, which earned him a place in Hyperpole.
Meanwhile, Stoffel Vandoorne posted his best lap at 1:40.032 behind the wheel of the PEUGEOT 9X8 #94, which had been rebuilt overnight and completed at 7:00 AM on Thursday. “We suspected the chassis was damaged, but we weren’t sure because we couldn’t scan or use ultrasound here at Losail”, explained Olivier Jansonnie, Technical Director of Peugeot Sport. “As a precaution, we decided to replace the chassis, and it was easier to do so between Free Practice 2 and 3 rather than between qualifying and the race. Congratulations to the entire team who did an incredible job last night.”
In Hyperpole, the top ten Hypercars from qualifying had ten minutes to secure the best positions on the starting grid. Six manufacturers were represented in this very intense Hyperpole session. Jean-Eric Vergne improved again to 1:39.674. The PEUGEOT 9X8 #93 will start from the 5th row of the grid tomorrow at 2:00 PM (12:00 PM French time) for the 1812 km of Qatar 2025.
Jean-Marc Finot, senior VP of Stellantis Motorsport.
“It was a great qualification for Team Peugeot TotalEnergies, an area where we didn’t often excel in 2024. This is the first time in a year that we’ve reached Hyperpole, which shows that the team continues to progress. Tomorrow is the race, an area where we are more comfortable, as we saw at the end of last season in Fuji and Bahrain. We usually have a good race pace and good strategies. But we know it will be tough.”
Jean-Eric Vergne (PEUGEOT 9X8 #93)
“My goal was to make it into Hyperpole, and that’s done. I think I’ve extracted the maximum from the car during this session. We know we have better race pace than in qualifying. We’re well placed on the grid, so it will be important to make a good start.”
