Porsche Was “Fighting Whole Race” With Issues on Both 963s

“There was a number of things. For JOTA, it was not an easy race as well. They had the drive-through but they were better than us today and congratulations to them because they simply beat us today.”

The better-placed of the two factory entries, the No. 6 machine of Kevin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor and Andre Lotterer, suffered bodywork damage in the opening phase.

Although unrelated to the Turn 1 incident involving Toyota’s Mike Conway and Cadillac’s Earl Bamber, the damage eventually forced a nose change during the second pit stop.

Additionally, Kuratle indicated that both of its 963s were plagued by varying sensor issues throughout the eight-hour contest.

“We had a fuel pressure thing,” he said. “We had a torque sensor. There were a number of sensors we had to replace on both cars on various different occasions. It was one of those races which are not easy.

“If, when, [what] else doesn’t count, [as] we all know. But there was a real chance to go on the podium today. I think the 963 had the good pace today. We saw it with JOTA.

“We were able to fight the Ferraris, even with some drive-throughs. But we didn’t manage to bring it home.

“The same would go for JOTA because they could have been on the podium, if, when, else, blah blah blah.

“But P3 in the championship against Cadillac, which for a couple of races was our main goal actually to get this one because that was what was realistically achievable for us. That’s what we’ve done.”

Kuratle praised JOTA, which emerged as Porsche’s main podium threat in the second half of the race but had a run at the top three impacted by a drive-through penalty for an unsafe rejoin in hour six.

“I’m happy for JOTA,” Kuratle said. “What I’m not happy about is the performance that we did here today because we had too many mistakes.

“Also JOTA had some mistakes. The most important thing is that there’s a lot of Porsches in front, at times. If you look at who’s fastest on track at the time.

“The 963 today was a podium car. You can say it is but we simply didn’t manage it. This is what I’m not happy about. Also for JOTA, not at the end of the day, because the 963 could have done better.”

Daniel Lloyd contributed to this report