Some important learnings gathered about the circuit during the free practices
Jean-Eric Vergne and Gustavo Menezes at the wheel of the two PEUGEOT 9X8 for the qualifying session
Stoffel Vandoorne, Peugeot Sport reserve driver, came to support the team during the qualifications
The first weekend of the Team PEUGEOT TotalEnergies at Spa-Francorchamps started with three free practice sessions where the engineers and mechanics gathered important data and information about this legendary track loved by passionate fans and drivers.
As often at Spa, the weather was unstable today and it’s under the sun that the PEUGEOT 9X8 #93 and #94 ran the 15-minute qualifying session.
Jean-Eric Vergne at the wheel of the #93 9X8 and Gustavo Menezes onboard the #94 took part in the session that was interrupted with one red flag at the very beginning. At the restart, the two Peugeot Sport drivers, despite all their efforts, could not get one clean lap.
As a result, they could not get the full potential out of their Hybrid Hypercar despite good consistency on this very demanding circuit. The Team PEUGEOT TotalEnergies 9X8 will start tomorrow’s race from the 5th and 6th row.
Stoffel Vandoorne, Peugeot Sport reserve driver is at Spa-Francorchamps this weekend, at home, to cheer for the team and bring his experience of the track.
The two PEUGEOT 9X8 will start the TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, third round of the FIA World Endurance Championship, tomorrow at 12h45 and you will be able to follow the race live on the FIA WEC platforms.
WHAT THEY SAID
Jean-Marc Finot – Stellantis Motorsport Senior VP:
“Our position in the classifications matches with the performance we had during the free practices. We are still getting acquainted with the track, so we don’t have the perfect setup yet, but we are constantly improving. Concerning the qualifications, we chose to have a safe strategy to make sure to set times in case of an incident. We raised the tyre temperature quite quickly and then we could not benefit from the drying track at the end of the session. For tomorrow, the goal is to have 6 hours of racing without any issues for both cars.”
Jean-Éric Vergne – PEUGEOT #93:
“This qualifying was a little bit messy. I wish I could have had one clear lap, but did not because of the yellow flag, the traffic and then the tyres were not at their best anymore. I did not get the chance to tap into the best of the car. I’m very happy with the car, it felt good. The team did a very good job to give me a good setup today and I felt quite confident. Hopefully we could have a race with no issues, make no mistake and try to carry on the momentum in terms of reliability. We will also try to get better as a whole team in terms of preparation, and understanding of our car and I think it will be a good race if we can manage all of these factors tomorrow.”
Gustavo Menezes – PEUGEOT #94:
“Obviously it was not the best qualifying as we are still very far from fighting for pole. My pushed lap was compromised by the Ferrari that spun and was in the middle of the track and for my next lap the tyres were already not at peak anymore. It’s a bit unfortunate as I could have maximised my first lap. As everyone already knows starting with cold tyres is extremely complicated and it’s not an easy situation, especially in Spa where it’s cold but in the end we did what we could. For tomorrow we know we have a lot of work ahead of us but we will do our best and try to benefit from the various opportunities that we can have here in Spa.”
