Vandoorne and Peugeot dream of a podium in Belgium

In great form at Spa-Francorchamps, Peugeot will start from fourth place on the grid this Saturday. While victory seems certain for Ferrari, a podium finish could be on the cards for the French manufacturer.

Published 09/05/2025 à 19:23

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Behind the Ferraris, Vandoorne and Peugeot dream of a podium in Belgium

Stoffel Vandoorne - Photo Frédéric Le Floc'h / DPPI

Peugeot is filling up with confidence at the right time. A little over a month before the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the French manufacturer achieved a great performance in Hyperpole at the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps this Friday with fourth place for Stoffel Vandoorne at the wheel of the No. 9 8X94. A result that places the Lion in the top 5 hoped for by Jean-Eric Vergne at the start of the weekend. On the Toboggan des Ardennes, only the untouchables Ferrari overtook the Belgian.

« Finishing 4th behind the three Ferraris is a good performance, Vandoorne smiled, delighted to have achieved such a time in front of his home crowd. We had some issues with the car in Free Practice 3, which put me on the back foot a bit before qualifying. That's why I narrowly made it into Hyperpole, but I knew I had to maximize my time after that. I was able to nail the lap I wanted and get the time we needed. »

With Vergne's seventh place, Peugeot achieved a much better overall performance than last year in the qualifying exercise (14th and 16th in 2024). The new surface helped us, it's less bumpy, and our car doesn't love bumps, explains Vandoorne. There's a bit more grip, it's more pleasant to drive than last year. »

Starting from the foot of the podium, finishing in the top three seems like a logical objective, but it will probably be necessary to count on a failure of one of the three Ferraris to make this possible.

« I hope the podium is a possible result, we need a clear race, perfect execution, Vandoorne replied on this subject. The conditions will probably be clear with the weather, there shouldn't be any action on that front, no strategy because of the rain. I don't know if it will be enough for a podium, but we'll give it our all. Ferrari were untouchable at Imola, they seem to be here too, but they make mistakes sometimes. It's up to us to take advantage of it if that ever happens. »

A podium finish this Saturday would be all the more important for Peugeot as the brand's new director, Alain Favey, is present with his team this weekend.

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