Credit: Julien Delfosse / DPPI
Julien Andlauer had an exceptional performance for Proton Competition in the FIA World Endurance Championship, at the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. The Frenchman, who is only 24 years old, competed in the Hypercar category alongside his teammate Neel Jani in the Proton Competition #99 Porsche 963. Despite finishing fifth in the category, Andlauer and Jani showed their dominance in the first half of the race.
The race took an unexpected turn when a red flag was raised due to an incident involving Earl Bamber and Sean Gelael. Bamber, driving the Cadillac V-Series.R #2, made contact with the left front of Gelael’s WRT BMW M4 LMGT3 #31 on the Kemmel straight. This incident occurred while Bamber was battling for the lead with Jani.
Andlauer expressed his satisfaction with the performance of the Proton Competition Porsche 963, stating: “This was the best weekend so far for the Proton Competition Porsche 963. Our preparations were very good in the practice sessions for the first time this season. The setup, tires, strategy, and energy management were all perfect. The rest was pure racing.”
After the red flag, Andlauer and Jani initially dropped from third to ninth position. However, Andlauer made a remarkable effort to regain positions in the final two hours of the race. Despite their best efforts, they could only finish in fifth place. However, the team is now highly motivated for the next highlight of the year.
Andlauer had a good start, overtaking Alex Lynn’s Cadillac #2 and Frederic Makowiecki’s Porsche Penske 963 #5. He built a comfortable lead in front of the pack, showing promising pace compared to the official Porsches. The team faced a setback when Jani struggled to close his door during the second hour of the race. However, the problem was resolved with the help of the Proton team.
The recovery of #99 was further hindered by a safety car period, but Jani made a good restart, holding off James Calado’s AF Corse Ferrari 499P #51. As the race progressed, the gap at the front narrowed, and the Ferrari team, represented by Antonio Fuoco in car #50, posed a strong challenge for second place.
Jani set the third fastest lap of the race, while Andlauer’s impressive form was evident in his lap time of 2:06.459. During the latter part of the race, Andlauer made several bold overtakes, passing cars in the Eau Rouge-Raidillon section. He successfully passed Paul-Loup Chatin’s Alpine A424 #35 for P7, Brendon Hartley’s Toyota GR010 Hybrid #8, and James Calado.
The final part of Andlauer’s race was particularly notable as he climbed from P12 to P5 after stopping to change the left side tires. This allowed him to overtake several cars that had not yet pitted before the red flag.
