The Weissach marque endured a disappointing 24 hours during which it not often matched the category leaders for the second 12 months in a row, however completed third and fourth in GTE Pro after the second entries from Ferrari and Corvette each hit issues.
It significantly struggled for straightline velocity, with each manufacturing facility vehicles 3.4km/h down on Ferrari and 5.2 km/h down on one of the best determine notched by the delayed #64 Corvette.
Although the manufacturing facility #92 entry of Kevin Estre, Neel Jani and Michael Christensen salvaged third, a most rating within the double factors spherical of the World Endurance Championship means Estre and Jani now sit 12 factors behind the #51 Ferrari of Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado.
Porsche escaped the Balance of Performance hits handed right down to Ferrari and had anticipated the race to be a a lot nearer affair.
Porsche’s head of WEC operations Alexander Stehlig mentioned the marque would search additional dialogue with the FIA and occasion organiser the Automobile Club de l’Ouest to make clear its efficiency deficit.
“The race wasn’t only difficult, it was also disappointing for us. We had expected to fight for victory,” Stehlig mentioned.
“Despite our good and systematic preparation, we didn’t have the lap-time efficiency and the highest velocity we’d hoped for in comparison with the competitors.
“We’ll now take some time to analyse everything once again with the FIA and ACO to see why we weren’t quite able to match the performance of our opposition in the race.”
Asked by Autosport whether or not Porsche had anticipated its deficit, Zurlinden mentioned: “Definitely we would have expected to be closer, we have to analyse it.”
Richard Lietz, who shared the #91 entry that completed fourth with Gianmaria Bruni and Fred Makowiecki, mentioned the “painful” efficiency was “not good enough”.
“If you don’t have any punctures at Le Mans, if the team does a flawless job, if you implement a good strategy and then only finish on third and fourth, then you have to take a good look at things,” he mentioned.
“This result is not good enough. Anyone who watched the race knows that it was a painful 24 hours for us. Now we have to look at why.”
#91 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR – 19 LMGTE Pro, Gianmaria Bruni, Richard Lietz, Frederic Makowiecki
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
Elaborating on the place the race acquired away from the group, Zurlinden cited Estre’s lap 4 spin that dropped him into the GTE Am pack and the timing of a security automobile simply earlier than midnight to get better Rui Andrade’s crashed LMP2 ORECA on the Dunlop Curve which break up each Porsches behind a distinct practice than the leaders.
Jani had been within the lead group when a badly-timed full course yellow coincided with its seventh cease – the principles stipulating that solely a five-second fill is allowed – which required the Swiss to pit once more two laps later for the complete complement.
“I would say there was two crucial moments,” mentioned Zurlinden.
“One was the spin of Kevin, as a result of on the finish we noticed most likely our poor in straight-line efficiency, he was struggling going by means of the Am vehicles.
“But if he would have been with the fellows on the entrance, he would have been driving freely and will have adopted them.
“And then I feel at one level we had a security automobile which additionally break up him.
“He was within the first group, then the protection automobile got here and he discovered himself with #91 of the second group which implies he misplaced 1/3 of a lap and that is at all times tough to get again.
“You must be a bit fortunate with gradual zones and with nonetheless different security vehicles, just like the final years. Sometimes it’s optimistic for your self, typically it’s destructive.
“I would say one was the spin at the beginning, the second moment was before midnight the safety car which split the GTE class.”
