After two additional formation laps, the track quickly dried, with track temperatures exceeding 40°C, allowing the field to take the start on slick tyres.
Starting from 12th and 16th on the grid, the two PEUGEOT 9X8s made a strong start to the race. Loïc Duval (#94), running on medium tyres, and Paul di Resta (#93), starting on hard tyres, both gained four positions during the opening stint. After the first pit stops, Paul remained behind the wheel of the #93, while Théo Pourchaire took over the #94, which was fitted with four new medium tyres.
To maximise its chances, Team Peugeot TotalEnergies then adopted different strategies for its two Hypercars. The #93 brought forward its second pit stop and handed the wheel to Nick Cassidy in an attempt to position itself as strongly as possible ahead of the potential showers expected during the race. The uncertain weather conditions influenced several strategic decisions for the #93, leaving the car at risk of going a lap down.
As the race approached its halfway point, a Virtual Safety Car created a strategic opportunity for the #94 to make its pit stop and driver change, allowing Malthe Jakobsen to take over. Meanwhile, the #93, now driven by Stoffel Vandoorne, gradually moved back towards a strategy similar to that of its competitors, but was unable to recover the lap it had lost.
In the final quarter of the race, another Virtual Safety Car created a strategic opportunity for the #94 PEUGEOT 9X8. Running in seventh place at the time, Malthe Jakobsen made his final pit stop on lap 138 before embarking on a final stint of almost 50 minutes to the chequered flag. The ensuing restart led to several on-track battles. The Dane delivered a strong performance during a fiercely contested final hour to secure a top-10 finish after completing a triple-stint of more than three hours. Stoffel Vandoorne, meanwhile, brought the #93 PEUGEOT 9X8 home in 16th place.
Emmanuel Esnault, Team Principal, Team Peugeot TotalEnergies
“We anticipated a difficult race weekend with the specifies of the track andthe region. A very demanding race week for the drivers, the staff and the cars of course with such heat and humidity. We explored after qualifying two different ways to approach the race in terms of stint length and tyre compound to start. Some rain was expected at a certain point and influenced some decisions on the #93 which consequently was exposed to be lapped. The #94 could have expected reasonably a P7 and the battle the last hour of the race was quite intense. There is still some work to do to perform across the whole race weeks and extract decent results.”
Loïc Duval (PEUGEOT 9X8 #94)
“I had a good opening stint with some great battles. It was extremely hot in the car, so I handed over to Théo for the second stint. Unfortunately, we had to change our tyre strategy which complicated things for Malthe towards the end of the race and wasn’t able to defend seventh place all the way to the finish.”
Stoffel Vandoorne (PEUGEOT 9X8 #93)
“When you’re a lap behind the leader for a large part of the race, it’s not easy. But we kept pushing all the way to the finish. The pace wasn’t too bad towards the end of the race. It’s a frustrating weekend for us, and we hope things will be different at Fuji.”
