Peugeot have confirmed the #93 Peugeot 9X8 ran out of fuel on the final lap of the Qatar 1812km, with Jean-Eric Vergne driving it back to the pits on electrical power only.
Due to this, the car was later disqualified, as it was unable to join parc ferme conditions.
“It’s just unbelievable, to run out of fuel on the final lap, undoubtedly due to some issue during the last refuelling pit stop,” said Nico Muller, teammate to Jean-Eric Vergne and Mikkel Jensen.
“We have to analyse what happened. It’s a hard one to take, as we really deserved to finish second today. We wanted to secure a final good result for the 2023 PEUGEOT 9X8.”
The car had run in second position for much of the race. Muller started the car sixth on the grid and moved up to third at the start, behind Miguel Molina in the #50 Ferrari 499P and Michael Christensen in the pole-sitting #5 Porsche 963.
Muller subsequently passed both cars to take the lead. After the first round of pitstops, however, Laurens Vanthoor in the sister #6 Porsche moved up to second. He then caught Muller, and after the Swiss driver made a mistake at turn 1 while passing traffic, Vanthoor took the lead — a lead the #6 Porsche would not relinquish for the rest of the race.
The #93 Peugeot, meanwhile, remained in second until the very end. Callum Ilott, in what was the third-placed #12 JOTA Porsche 963, was catching Vergne in the closing laps. Ilott was also being caught by Matt Campbell, who’d so excellently qualified the #5 Porsche on pole the previous day.
Disaster then struck when the Peugeot appeared to lose power as Vergne crossed the line to start the final lap of the race. He eventually brought it home seventh — only to later be disqualified, as described above.
“Everyone at Team Peugeot TotalEnergies had a very good race for the final outing of the PEUGEOT 9X8 in its 2023 version,” said Jean-Marc Finot, Stellantis Motorsport boss.
“We showed the potential of the car and the team really delivered a great performance. We were right in the mix. Unfortunately, there was a refuelling problem at the last pit stop, something we still need to investigate, but it meant that Jean-Eric had to finish the race with the electric motor.
“We’ll take the positives from this race and focus on the next round. We’re looking forward to Imola and building on today’s performance in the 2024 version of the PEUGEOT 9X8.”
The new version of the 9X8 is slated to make its debut in Imola and is expected to feature a rear wing and standardised wheel/tyre sizes, the same as the other LMH-rules Hypercars. The 6 Hours of Imola will take place Sunday 21st April.
