Porsche factory driver Pascal Wehrlein brought the #4 Penske Motorsport 963 Hypercar to the chequered flag in ninth place in the 93rd edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the fourth round of the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship, held at the Circuit de la Sarthe in France.
MIM-contracted Wehrlein, who teamed with Brazilian Felipe Nasr and Briton Nick Tandy, was making his debut in the challenging French endurance race in a third factory-entered Porsche. He was also taking part in his third endurance race this year following Daytona and Spa-Francorchamps, added to his Formula E World Championship commitments, where he is defending the title that he won last year.
Starting from fifth place on the grid out of a field of 21 Hypercars, Pascal began his driving with a triple stint in the car approximately four hours into the race and despite running out of sync for the pitstops compared to the others due to a tyre issue, by the mid-point of the race the trio had worked their way up to a very respectable P4.
At one point during the night however the front of the car got damaged, leading to a few vibrations and a lower top speed on the straights, which set them back a bit, but Pascal was able to record the car’s fastest time of the race in 3m27.077s in the perfect morning conditions on lap 284, not far off the pace of the top 6. In the final few hours, the #4 Porsche continued to run well, always remaining inside the top 10, and Pascal was given the job of bringing the car home to the finish line.
“It was a long race, which in the early stages looked good for us,” declared Pascal, “but a couple of situations with the Full Course Yellow put us on the back foot, and we were never able to get back into contention. So, in the end P9 was OK and that was the best that we could do. For me, it was a great experience, a lot of fun obviously and very exhausting in the end. I did a lot of driving so now I’m looking forward to some rest. The team wanted me to do it and I also did the last two hours to the chequered flag. I set the fastest lap of the #4 car this morning and I felt comfortable and confident. For sure I was getting better and better throughout the weekend with more time in the car and I really enjoyed it. Now I’m leaving for Indonesia, two days at home and then it’s back to Formula E!”
The factory Porsche Penske Motorsport team did have a good result to celebrate however as all three of its 963 machines proved to be extremely competitive throughout the race and the #6 car of Estre/Vanthoor/Campbell came home in second place to prevent a Ferrari 1-2-3 finish.
Photos: Courtesy of Porsche
