Peugeot Not Expecting Repeat of Spa Pole at Le Mans

Peugeot team principal Emmanuel Esnault says the French manufacturer is not expecting to be in contention for pole for this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, despite qualifying fastest at the previous FIA World Endurance Championship round at Spa.

Malthe Jakobsen has been one of the standout stars of qualifying so far this season at the wheel of the No. 94 Peugeot 9X8, having set the fourth fastest time at the Imola season opener and being just 0.073 seconds adrift of the pace, prior to achieving the car’s first pole at Spa.

However, the best lap from one of the Peugeots during the Le Mans test day on Sunday was a 3:27.208 that was 0.915 seconds off the ultimate pace and 11th on the combined times.

Esnault is therefore not expecting Peugeot to be fighting for another pole at the Circuit de la Sarthe, even while saying the test day was “positive” for the manufacturer “despite what you can see with the lap time sheets.”

When asked if another pole was possible, Esnault said: “No, let’s be very honest, we have to be reasonable. The target is to have one car in Hyperpole 2.

“We know that it will be tough; we have 18 very competitive cars. We prefer to set very sensible targets and to be close to them rather than expecting the moon, so that’s the plan.

“When we were at Spa we knew it was a more favorable one due to the specificities of the circuit.

“Here, we will see. It’s a question mark, we have to work and we need to continue to work seriously.”

Esnault also noted how the field had seemingly closed up compared to last year on the evidence of the times from the test day.

“When you look in the morning session [last year], when you consider the track was green, I think the 21 cars were within 4.8 seconds, and the 18 this year are within three seconds and it was even closer in the afternoon,” he said.

“It means that everybody has progressed, everybody knows better his car.”

Despite being pessimistic about Peugeot’s chances of success on home soil, Esnault still believed the Spa qualifying performance was an important achievement for the manufacturer.

“It brings a bit more confidence for people,” he said. “It means when all planets are aligned you can extract some performance from the car.

“Here it’s a different game. It’s a very long circuit, high speed, so we will see.

“It’s very difficult this year and for me, maybe I’m not optimistic enough, but to predict what will be the level of performance because the others are progressing, some are potentially hiding their game.”

Di Resta Setting “Realistic” Expectations on Peugeot’s Chances

Peugeot driver Paul di Resta echoed Esnault’s sentiments about a difficult race likely being in prospect, saying: “There are a few cars that look stronger than the field.”

When asked if he was pleased with how the Peugeot performed on the test day, di Resta added: “It’s pleasing in the sense we’ve had a pretty trouble-free day, but pleasing is when you qualify in the top two or three and you’re in a position to do that.

“We’re being very realistic about where we are and the challenges we’re going to have.

“So, as a team, we’ve done what we can. On top of that, we will carry on and see where that takes us.”

One of Peugeot’s key areas of focus for the test day was gaining a better understanding of how the new-for-2026 Michelin tires performed around the Circuit de la Sarthe, with Esnault describing seeing “interesting things.”

“It does not seem to grip up, the degradation seems lower than it was previously experienced with this car,” he added.