The Peugeot Sport team recognised their trouble-free reliability experience for the 9X8 Hypercar, alongside disappointment after an uncompetitive 6 Hours of Fuji, the penultimate race on the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship calendar.
After qualifying towards the rear of the Hypercar field, in positions 10th and 11th, Peugeot secured seventh and eighth after the six-hour race at Fuji Speedway.
This race last year, it was the team’s second race in the WEC with a relatively new Peugeot 9X8, which showcased gearbox reliability issues after running in the podium positions.
Their #93 and #94 entries made it to the chequered flag with no mechanical issues, although there was a moment when the #60 Iron Lynx had tapped Paul di Resta in the #93 into a 360 degree spin after the Dunlop Chicane.
Olivier Jansonnie, Peugeot Sport technical director, said: “It was a difficult race for us, especially because of the rhythm, that was pretty much the same during the free practices.
“The performance of Porsche surprised us a lot and we were not expecting them at this level, they had a really good race.
“Both our cars ended the race without any mechanical issues which is very satisfying.
“Now we have to find our rhythm, for example, here, we were behind especially in the 3rd sector which prevented us from fighting at the front.
“We will keep working for Bahrain, we have one test session left to try to improve our performance and make progress for the next race.”
“It was quite a frustrating race as we did not have the performance we were expecting today, especially in our car, the #93,” added Mikkel Jenson.
“We need to understand why we were lacking so much rhythm during the race as during the free practices earlier in the week.
“We have a lot of work to do now to improve our performance before the last race of the season.”
At the 6 Hours of Monza, the team had just claimed their maiden World Endurance Championship podium, but were unable to carry their form in Japan.
Porsche Penske were an unexpected rival to Toyota, although their #5 Porsche 963 suffered a power steering failure, in which the power steering unit needed to be replaced.
With Toyota having claimed the 2023 WEC Hypercar Manufacturers’ championship, Peugeot’s attention will be towards a redeeming performance in Bahrain, 4 November, where their #94 9X8 finished fifth in last year’s season finale.
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