Porsche 963
A total of four Porsche 963s appeared at the test day
The works team, Porsche Penske Motorsport, will be entering the third generation 963. Four 963s, including the No. 99 car from Proton Competition, will be racing at Le Mans.
For the first time this season, Porsche Penske Motorsports will enter a three-car field at Le Mans, fielding the regular No. 5 (Julien Androel, Mikael Kristensen, Mathieu Jaminet) and No. 6 (Kevin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor, Matt Campbell) alongside the No. 4 (Felipe Nasr, Nick Tandy, Pascal Wehrlein).
In addition, customer teams Proton Competition’s #99 car (Neel Jani, Nico Pinot and Nicolas Barone) and Manthey Racing, which competes in the GT3 class, also carried out intensive running during the official test day.
The city of Le Mans was hit by heavy rain on Saturday, but the weather improved on the 8th. Under thin clouds, Porsche Penske Motorsports used the three hours of free practice to the fullest to fine-tune the setup of the 963. The three 963s completed a total of 194 laps, covering a total distance of 2,643 km.
Jaminet, who is aiming for the overall victory in car number 5, commented as follows ahead of the 24 Hours of Le Mans:
“This was my first run of the Le Mans race week, and the Porsche 963 ran without any problems. However, as expected, our times are very close to our rivals, so it’s difficult to predict where we’ll finish. The 963 felt good, but I think there’s still room for improvement.”
Time difference with rivals
In the second free practice, car number 6 recorded the fifth fastest time, and car number 4 recorded the sixth fastest time. The time differences between the top cars are close, so a tough battle is expected in the final.
Urs Crathre, Director of Factory Racing LMDh at Porsche, reflected on the first run at the Circuit de la Sarthe:
“We were able to do everything we needed to do with all three cars and it was a very productive test day. We were able to evaluate various setup options and try out components on the actual circuit in preparation for race week. This is the first time we’ve run three cars at the same time since last year, and I think we were able to make good use of the lessons we’ve learned. These experiences are worth more than lap times.”
Nasr, who will be driving the number 4 car, will be making his first appearance in the WEC this season, but he emphasized that preparations for qualifying and the final race went smoothly.
“We were able to accomplish a lot in the first free practice. First of all, we worked on installing components such as the brakes and attaching the body parts for the race. In the afternoon, we focused on the setup and were able to make good progress. It will be important to continue to work steadily during the race week.”
