WEC News: No. 6 Penske Porsche disqualified from Le Mans qualifying

Team Penske can’t seem to avoid for getting nailed trying to circumvent the rules. After getting hammered in IndyCar last month, today the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 has been disqualified from Wednesday evening’s Le Mans 24 Hours Qualifying session for failing to meet the minimum weight in post-qualifying technical checks.

As a consequence, defending FIA World Hypercar Endurance Champions Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor, and co-driver Matt Campbell, will start from the rear of the Hypercar class grid on Saturday.

The Stewards’ decision reads: “After having examined the Technical Delegate report, the Stewards considered the minimum car weight did not comply with the relevant regulations.

“During the hearing, the Team Manager confirmed and accepted the procedure of the scrutineering and the measurements. Consequently, the Stewards decided to impose the disqualification of car No. 6 from the qualifying session. The car 6 will start at the back of the grid of his category according to the Article 10.2.2 of 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans supplementary regulations.

The No. 6 Porsche originally qualified fourth with Estre at the wheel. He was also last year’s Le Mans pole sitter.

It also states: “As a result, the Stewards decided that the competitors classified behind car 6 at the end of the qualifying session will be moved up in the classification in accordance with article 12.19 of FIA Sporting Code.”

This means that the No. 009 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie, which had originally finished 16th in first Qualifying after being bumped outside the top 15 at the checkered flag, will move back into the top 15 and participate in Hyperpole qualifying.

With the addition of one Aston Martin, seven of the eight Hypercar manufacturers will have at least one car in the first Hyperpole session, which begins tomorrow at 21:05 CET.