A new dawn is upon the world of FIA World Endurance Championship with Peugeot and their 9X8 hypercar which recently got some competitive mileage at the 6 Hours of Monza in Italy over the weekend.
The French team representing Team Peugeot TotalEnergies’ ran two of its 9X8 hypercar on the famed Temple of Speed for Round 4 of the 2022 campaign of the Championship as part of their schedule for next season.
Prior to the race weekend, the 9X8 hypercar had achieved 15 000 km of private testing before taking to the strenuous and uniquely demanding Italian circuit that requires full throttle for the majority of the lap.
Piloting the novel and wingless Peugeot 9X8 hypercar was Jean-Éric Vergne, Mikkel Jensen and Paul Di Resta sharing the #93 car, with team-mates Loïc Duval, James Rossiter and Gustavo Menezes teaming up in the #94.
Both cars Sunday race onboards can be viewed directly here for the #93 car and the #94 car.
The #94 Peugeot managed 169 laps after the 6 hours had elapsed with a best lap of 1:38.364, not too far behind the 1:37.760 best lap of the winning Alpine Elf Team #36 which crossed the chequered flag ahead of a duo of Toyota Gazoo Racing hypercars. The latter 9X8 hypercar only managed to cover 148 laps over just under three and a half hours. See the standings here.
Considering it was only the first running of the 9X8 hypercar, we can imagine that Team Peugeot TotalEnergies primary focus was data collection and less on overall standings. Ahead of the 2023 season we can expect to see more of the endurance hypercars from Ferrari and Porsche take to the racetrack too as part of their testing schedule and requirements to collect competitive mileage.
