Peugeot ‘scratching their heads’ after unhappy Imola WEC qualifying in new-eye 9X8
Jean-Eric Vergne insisted that he and the Peugeot Sport team left nothing on the table on 15th spot within the opening qualifying session, five areas off the within the reduction of-off for the Hyperpole final.
He added that easiest a minute enchancment would personal been that you simply would imagine without the crimson flag two minutes sooner than the discontinue of the preliminary interval of qualifying.
“As a team we did a genuinely exact job and we extracted the most from the vehicle,” he told Autosport.
“With out the crimson flag, we would personal had two or three tenths, but nowhere shut to what we mandatory to be in Hyperpole.
“It was a roughly a moment the build you exit the vehicle and it is doubtless you’ll presumably very successfully be scratching your head on what to bolster to trail faster.
“The vehicle balance was mighty, the team did an ideal job all weekend to present me a exact vehicle in quali – in phrases of driving it felt very exact.”
The 2 Peugeot 9X8 2024 Le Mans Hypercars were a 2d and a half off the hobble of Antonio Fuoco within the pole-winning Ferrari 499P LMH within the opening 12-minute session.
That gap grew to bigger than two seconds as soon as Fuoco improved by seven tenths within the 10-minute Hyperpole session.
Stoffel Vandoorne was a minute the faster of the two Peugeot drivers, his 1m31.651s, a tenth up on Vergne’s, 1m31.748s, striking him 14th.
The inference from Vergne’s comments is that there may be soundless work to create on the Balance of Efficiency for the revised 9X8 making its debut this weekend in Italy.
#93 Peugeot Totalenergies Peugeot 9X8: Mikkel Jensen, Nico Muller, Jean-Eric Vergne
Tell by: Paul Foster
It follows an admission of shock from Peugeot Sport technical boss Olivier Jansonnie at the BoP for the 9X8 at Imola.
He described the BoP for the 9X8 as “sophisticated”, while stressing that Peugeot trusts within the processes of the guideline makers, the FIA and the Automobile Club de l’Ouest.
Vergne wired that Peugeot’s job in Sunday’s Imola 6 Hours will seemingly be to discontinue the ideal bustle.
“No matter the performance we must discontinue the bustle and teach we personal done all the pieces supreme, made the ideal calls, had exact pitstop intention, and as drivers made no errors, been exact on tyre administration and aggressive when we mandatory to be,” he stated.
“We have to resolve this bustle very severely for the reason that day we personal the vehicle to ranking we must be ready and we must be supreme.
“We will take a look at out to bustle perfection the following day no matter the build we discontinue up.”
