Adding to Porsche’s impressive roster of endurance racing triumphs that is quite simply unequaled, the German sports car manufacturer’s #6 963 Hypercar run by Porsche Penske Motorsport clinched a second place finish at this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. Kévin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor and Matt Campbell trailed the winning Ferrari 499P by only 14.084 seconds, following an intensely exciting battle for overall honours. Meanwhile, the factory team’s other pair of identical 963 hybrid prototypes finished seventh & ninth respectively, after running 387 laps in total.
Widely renowned as one of the motorsport world’s greatest challenges for cars and teams alike, the 2025 24-hour endurance classic at La Sarthe drew over 332,000 spectators with a thrilling top class competition right until the race’s very end. The #6 Porsche 963 ended up starting from the Hypercar grid’s rear in this year’s warm summery conditions, however this proved to be no hindrance for its experienced trio of factory drivers. Weissach’s hybrid prototype overtook seven of its rivals on the very first lap itself, and established a strong position in the leading group after the two hour mark. From then on it battled determinedly to the finish line, holding second overall to bring home another podium finish.
Driving the #5 sister car, Julien Andlauer managed to take the lead on the opening lap after starting P3, a precursor to this 963 also contesting for the race lead over long stretches. However the Frenchman, along with his teammates Michael Christensen & Mathieu Jaminet were set back by tyre damage and penalties through the race’s night stages, with the trio ultimately finishing seventh overall.
The #4 Porsche 963 took the chequered flag just two places behind them, driven by Nick Tandy, Felipe Nasr, and reigning Formula E world champion Pascal Wehrlein who drove an impressive Le Mans debut with consistently fast lap times.
Thomas Laudenbach, Vice President Porsche Motorsport said, ‟Pioneering spirit, courage and sportsmanship are part of Porsche’s self-conception. That’s why we never gave up and fought with determination right to the end. We did a lot of things right in the final phase. That made it very exciting once again. We got the absolute maximum out of our number 6 Porsche and certainly have nothing to hide. During the night nobody would have expected us to finish on the podium. We can be very proud of that. Of course, we also look back on the result with a teary eye: in the end, we were just 14 seconds short of overall victory. But the joy and the thanks to everyone who was involved outweigh this. Congratulations to our Manthey customer team on their second Le Mans class victory in a row!”
‟With three cars in the top ten, we clearly showed what this organisation is capable of. Our factory team never gave up in the battle for overall victory. A big thank you to everyone in the WEC team in Mannheim, the IMSA team from the USA and our top people in Weissach – it was great work from everyone together. A big thank you also goes to our chassis partner Multimatic and all the other partners who make this programme so strong. Anyone who finishes second after 24 hours with a deficit of just a few seconds certainly has nothing to be sorry about. Our Porsche 963 has once again underlined its status as the most successful LMDh car since the introduction of the regulations,” added Urs Kuratle, Director Factory Motorsport LMDh.
Speaking for Porsche Penske Motorsport, with which Porsche has also conceived a rather special road capable 963 variant, the team’s Managing Director Jonathan Diuguid remarked, ‟An absolutely incredible race: it stayed dry throughout, there was almost always a clear run and everyone put the pedal down like crazy. Our three factory cars ran without any technical flaws. We had to take care of car number 6 the least in the pit lane, which is why it achieved the best position within our team. We performed flawlessly, we just lacked a little speed in certain phases of the race. We’ll be back even stronger next year.”
Meanwhile, in the LMGT3 class, Team Manthey celebrated a second consecutive class triumph with the Porsche 911 GT3 R, driven by factory driver Richard Lietz, Ryan Hardwick & Riccardo Pera. Making his 19th start at Le Mans, this marked Lietz’s sixth GT class victory with Porsche, which remains Le Mans’ most successful manufacturer having scored 112 class wins under its belt now.
Sebastian Golz, Project Manager Porsche 911 GT3 R joyfully stated, ‟I’m overwhelmed. An outstanding team has grown together. The decisive factors included perfect cooperation, proven routines and the unbridled belief in success – this was the only way Manthey could realise the second Le Mans victory in a row with the 911 GT3 R. Congratulations and many thanks to everyone! I’m already looking forward to next weekend: then the next 24-hour race is on schedule at the Nürburgring.”
