Top-6 finish and three cars over the line at Le Mans
Proton Competition’s 2026 Le Mans odyssey ended with a top-6 finish and three cars taking the chequered flag after 24 hours of hard racing in scorching temperatures (13 to 14 June). Although the desired top finish didn’t come for Christian and Michael Ried’s team on their 19th appearance at the famous endurance race, the drivers and the crew showed plenty of grit and determination to secure hard-earned results.
Horst Felbermayr Jr., Horst Felix Felbermayr and Lorenzo Fluxá mastered the challenges of the 94th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans with aplomb. The trio blending youth and experience put together a solid performance to bring their Oreca home in sixth position in the LMP2 Pro-Am category.
“You always come to Le Mans hoping to win, but finishing is actually a great achievement,” said Fluxá after the race. “We did a good job, performed to our best and the level was very high, so I would say we gave it our best shot. We’ll be back here next year, looking for the win.”
Fellow LMP2 entrants Jonas Ried, Harry King and Kaku Ohta made a spectacular start to the race in the #9 Oreca 07, making up many positions from their starting position on the grid and running in the top-6 for much of the first half of the race.
After some contact from another car and a technical issue as a direct result of that contact on Sunday morning, the crew were kept busy but rose to the challenge impressively, repairing the car and enabling the #9 squad to complete the race, with both Ohta and King gathering vital experience on their 24 Hours of Le Mans debuts.
“The result is frustrating, as we felt we had the pace to be on the podium,” said Ried. “And it hurts to see our chances of a top finish be dashed so late in the race. We will be doing everything we can to be back next year and finally reach that potential.”
The 94th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans was less kind to Proton Competition’s two LMGT3 entries, despite the best efforts of the team and drivers. Both the #77 and #88 Ford Mustang LMGT3 suffered technical issues during the race. While the #88 of Stefano Gattuso, Giammarco Levorato and Logan Sargeant was able to be repaired and finished 17th in class, the #77 of Eric Powell, Sebastian Priaulx and Ben Tuck was forced to retire early on Sunday morning.
The next round of the FIA World Endurance Championship is the 6 Hours of São Paolo on the weekend of 10 to 12 July. However, Proton Competition will be back in action one week prior at the third round of the European Le Mans Series in Imola on 3 to 5 July.
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Copyright: Proton Competition (Paola Depalmas)
