Race-leading pace and podium battles on 100th FIA WEC appearance
Proton Competition celebrated a century of races in the FIA World Endurance Championship with strong performances across both classes. Facing multiple interruptions and other challenges during the 6 Hours of Fuji (28 September), Michael and Christian Ried’s crew spent considerable portions of the race amongst the leading pack in both Hypercar and LMGT3.
It was a story of what might have been for Neel Jani, Nicolas Pino and Nicolás Varrone in the #99 Porsche 963. The Hypercar contenders catapulted themselves into the lead thanks to a smart pit strategy and some good timing with the safety car.
The Proton Competition crew continued to lead the race at the halfway stage and looked well in contention for a top finish. However, a collision with a Ferrari – with Varrone entirely the innocent party – caused a spin and some damage to the car, causing a loss of pace. Ultimately the #99 car crossed the line in twelfth position.
“It was an eventful race for us,” said Jani. “The team made a great strategy call to get us into the lead. But then the incident with the Ferrari gave us some floor and nose damage, which didn’t help our race. But it was definitely a step forward for us compared to the last race.”
The pair of Proton Competition Ford Mustang LMGT3 also looked to be making a step forward at the penultimate round of the 2025 FIA WEC season, with both cars in the running for a big points haul or even a podium at times.
The #88 machine of Stefano Gattuso, Giammarco Levorato and Dennis Olsen started the weekend on the front foot by maintaining their excellent qualifying record – with the trio now having made it through to Hyperpole at all but one race this season. A strong start by Gattuso and Levorato brought the Ford Mustang LMGT3 into contention as the race progressed, before unavoidable contact with another car in the final stint led to retirement.
“We did a really great job this weekend,” said Levorato. “Stefano had a fantastic stint, and I looked to pick up where he left off for mine and was able to make up quite a lot of positions. Dennis was running really well until the incident, so it was sad to end the race this way. However, we showed that the car has lots of potential and now we are looking ahead to the season finale.”
For Ben Tuck, Ben Barker and Bernardo Sousa, the 6 Hours of Fuji was all about seeing what was possible after a technical issue meant that the trio were unable to participate in qualifying. The #77 crew put in a mighty effort to come back from one lap down to fight for the top 5 towards the end of the race. Despite saving as much fuel as possible in the final stint, a last-minute splash-and-dash was unavoidable, and the car crossed the line in twelfth.
Proton Competition will travel to Sakhir for the season finale of the FIA WEC, the 8 Hours of Bahrain, taking place from 6 to 8 November. Before that, the team faces the final round of the European Le Mans Series at Portimão on 18 October.
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Copyright: Proton Competition (Paola Depalmas)
