Porsche rules Le Mans

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The 6 Hours of Fuji marks a major milestone in the World Endurance Championship this coming weekend: The race in Japan will be the 100th since the FIA WEC’s debut at the start of the 2012 season. Porsche has competed at every round on the world’s premier endurance racing stage. Thanks to 21 outright victories and more than 50 class wins, the Stuttgart sports car manufacturer is among the most successful brands in the WEC.  Riding the momentum of the Porsche 963’s first overall win of the 2025 WEC season in Austin, Texas, the Porsche Penske Motorsport factory team heads into the penultimate round brimming with confidence. The squad has particularly fond memories of Japan: in 2024, Kévin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor and André Lotterer triumphed on Fuji’s Formula 1 circuit, securing their second win of the season and paving the way to the world championship crown. “We’re determined to build on that success and keep closing the gap in the manufacturers’ standings,” says Thomas Laudenbach, Vice President Porsche Motorsport.  The Porsche Penske Motorsport factory team will once again field two Porsche 963 prototypes. The number 5 car will be shared by Frenchman Julien Andlauer and his compatriot Mathieu Jaminet, who replaces Danish driver Michael Christensen. In the sister car, French driver Kévin Estre joins forces with Belgium’s Laurens Vanthoor. The Proton Competition customer outfit will also tackle the top Hypercar class with an identical hybrid prototype. In the LMGT3 category, Manthey 1st Phorm aims to take another step towards the title with the Porsche 911 GT3 R, while the Iron Dames are targeting their first podium finish of the season in another 911.

Transcript

00:00It's a little bit of a lonely place out there because you have a lot of time to think and you

00:07have to be very very careful not to get too far ahead of yourself. You have to really be

00:12disciplined. Well the night time is the most difficult time. You have to really focus on

00:19yourself and you have to manage traffic. It's where also you make the difference by pushing

00:24more by taking more race. It's intense, it's more difficult but it's also more fun.

00:31I think Le Mans is a lot different than every track by night. A lot of pleasure for sure even

00:36more because it's the first time. We are first so everything is fine. With P1 everything's

00:42running good. We have more than a minute 45 gap to the sister car so it feels good. Just

00:48finger press that stays like this. Get the most experienced driving and be as fast as you can.

00:57The guys want to win this race so they're going to do what they need to do to do that.

01:06We still have nine hours to go. Still leading with a very comfortable gap. It's still not easy,

01:11it's still not over. This is often what they call a happy hour where the times are quick because the

01:17track temperature goes up a bit but the air is still cold so the engine goes quick.

01:25Two and a half hour I think and we are still first. We just have to continue with the same

01:29pace and I think we'll maybe see the Czech red flag within this position, I hope.

01:3570 years and now victory in Le Mans. It's very good.

01:4170 years and we had also a win. I was crossing the fingers for so many years for Chris and his team,

01:48now he finally did it. It's the longest day of my career and the best one. Every driver wants to

01:53win Le Mans and we made it. The driver is unbelievable. Yeah, now finally we won.

01:59I don't have any words to be honest. Mega, yeah, we won Le Mans. Next year we will be here with the GT and

02:06Le Mans Porsche.

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