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Fifth and seventh place for Porsche Penske Motorsport in Monza
09/07/2023
The Porsche Penske Motorsport works team has finished the 6 Hours of Monza in fifth and seventh. The Porsche 963 fielded by the Hertz Team Jota customer outfit crossed the finish line on the Italian Grand Prix circuit in ninth place. At their debut outing in the Hypercar class, Proton Competition delivered a strong performance but had to retire early. Thanks to different pit stop strategies, all four hybrid prototypes from Weissach had at times led the field at round five of the FIA World Endurance Championship season. In the GTE Am category, the Porsche 911 RSR locked out the first three spots, with class victory going to Dempsey-Proton Racing.
Porsche 963, Porsche Penske Motorsport (#5), Dane Cameron (USA), Michael Christensen (DK), Frederic Makowiecki (F), Monza, 2023, Porsche AG
Fifth and seventh place for Porsche Penske Motorsport in Monza
09/07/2023
The Porsche Penske Motorsport works team has finished the 6 Hours of Monza in fifth and seventh. The Porsche 963 fielded by the Hertz Team Jota customer outfit crossed the finish line on the Italian Grand Prix circuit in ninth place. At their debut outing in the Hypercar class, Proton Competition delivered a strong performance but had to retire early. Thanks to different pit stop strategies, all four hybrid prototypes from Weissach had at times led the field at round five of the FIA World Endurance Championship season. In the GTE Am category, the Porsche 911 RSR locked out the first three spots, with class victory going to Dempsey-Proton Racing.


The Race
In midsummer temperatures of around 34 degrees Celsius, Porsche Penske Motorsport’s two works cars lined up on the grid for the six-hour race in eighth and tenth position. The Porsche 963 campaigned by the customer team Hertz Team Jota had started from ninth position, with Proton Competition’s hybrid prototype on P12. By the first corner, all four had gained one position due to a collision in front of them. When a first safety car period ended after just under 30 minutes of racing, Porsche Penske Motorsport opted for different strategies for both race cars: The No. 6 car driven by Laurens Vanthoor pitted early only to refuel, while the No. 5 sister car completed its first stint as scheduled. Jota also called António Félix da Costa in early.

From that point on, the positions in the overall standings swapped constantly depending on the pit stop rhythm. The 506 kW (688 PS) Porsche 963 cars at times managed to maintain the pace of the leading pack and repeatedly appeared among the frontrunners. The No. 5 car shared by the works driver trio Fréderic Makowiecki (France), Michael Christensen (Denmark) and Dane Cameron (USA) battled to the end for fourth place on the 5.793-kilometre Grand Prix circuit but missed out by almost 14 seconds.
Luck was not on the side of Frenchman Kévin Estre, André Lotterer (Germany) and Laurens Vanthoor (Belgium). When Estré attempted to pit for a routine stop after a good two hours of racing, the lights at the entrance to the pit lane switched to red a few seconds earlier due to a full course yellow – caused by the accident with an LMP2 car. In order not to run out of fuel, the Frenchman had to make a so-called emergency stop. However, only a small amount of fuel is allowed as a bridging measure and tyre changes are prohibited. This made a second stop necessary, costing valuable time, one lap and the contact to the top. The No. 6 ultimately took the flag in seventh place.

“Fifth and seventh place reflect what we can currently achieve with our performance,” emphasises Urs Kuratle, Director Factory Motorsport LMDh. “We delivered a flawless race, and we were also very good from a technical and strategic standpoint. However, the yellow phases had their snags for us. Our customer team Jota had to deal with some difficulties during the race. Congratulations to Proton Competition: they were even able to lead for a short period at their maiden start in the big class. Then, they encountered technical hiccups, which we now need to analyse in greater detail.”