Estre: Porsche Was “Very Unlucky” in FCY Timing

Photo: Porsche

Kevin Estre said his and Michael Christensen’s chances of taking the fight to AF Corse in Saturday’s 8 Hours of Bahrain was “over” after being caught out on two early Full Course Yellow pit sequences.

The No. 92 Porsche 911 RSR-19 finished third in the FIA World Endurance Championship season finale and final race for the GTE-Pro class, only three points behind the No. 51 Ferrari 488 GTE of James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi, who scored their second consecutive GTE world championship in dramatic fashion.

While Porsche GT Team’s sister No. 91 entry started on the class pole, two early FCYs put the Ferraris and the No. 64 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R ahead in the early stages, with neither Porsche able to make up lost ground due to pitting under green conditions.

“We feel very sad and not good that we didn’t make it,” Estre told Sportscar365.

“But to be honest, we finished where we finished because we were desperate and tried a very different strategy than the others to try and achieve something and be lucky, and we were very unlucky.

“Twice we had a Full Course Yellow happening like two laps after we pitted. It brought us 40 seconds [off] the others [twice] and we lost a lot of time. From that moment the race was over.

“Then with the 51 we had a bit of hope that if they have an issue that we might win.

“In the end we lost the championship here, but we lost too many points in Monza, Fuji and Le Mans of course for our car.

“For Porsche, for us, for the drivers in Fuji and Monza where we were way too slow and here as well. We had no chance to win the last three races.”

Estre said he believed they could have finished ahead of the Corvette on pace, which ironically would have been enough for the Porsche pairing to take the world title following gearbox issues for Calado and Pier Guidi that relegated them to a fifth-place finish.

“But this is just if we would have done a normal race and with a normal race we would not have won the championship,” he explained.

“So we went all in to try to win and we could not count on 51 having issues.

He added: “If they would have stopped on track we would have won the championship.

“The hope was there to have the luck back that we didn’t have last year, but in the end, in terms of pace, they had the pace we did not in this race.

“In the end, they were unlucky to have the issue but very lucky to finish and didn’t lose so much time. That’s the way it is.

“They won the championship twice, I guess they managed their season better and they were faster than us the last three races for different things.

“For sure BoP has a role, tires have a role. But that’s the way it is.

“We have no regrets, really. It’s just a shame that it did not go our way.”

Daniel Lloyd contributed to this report

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John