Mikkel Jensen narrowly misses out on WEC podium in Texas

The Danish Peugeot factory driver secured his best result of the FIA WEC season so far, crossing the finish line in fourth place after six challenging hours of racing at Circuit of The Americas in Texas.

Mikkel Jensen came agonizingly close to a podium in the sixth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship, held at Circuit of The Americas in Texas this past weekend. The Dane finished fourth, just over five seconds shy of the podium, in a tough race marked by heavy rain and numerous laps behind the safety car.

And the weekend certainly didn’t start easily for Jensen and his teammates, Jean-Éric Vergne and Paul Di Resta, who were forced to start from the back of the 18-car Hypercar grid after being disqualified from what had initially been a strong P3 qualifying result.

“It was a crazy race. The first hour was spent in the rain behind a safety car before the race was red-flagged. When it finally got underway, we knew the goal had to be survival, because the car was performing well – but with so many safety cars and restarts, it became a real fight to make progress through the field,” Mikkel Jensen explained.

Towards the end of the race, as the sun came out and the track began to dry, it became clear that the French prototype had the potential to deliver a top result. Taking over the car in tenth place, Jensen began to climb steadily through the order.

In the end, however, it was the sister car that claimed third place and the trophy – but with Jensen just over five seconds behind in fourth, the French squad celebrated its best race result in the program’s history.

“Of course, I’m naturally disappointed not to be the one standing on the podium, but at the same time I’m very happy for the entire team. It’s no secret that this has been a challenging season for us, and weekends like this really help boost confidence and motivation. Now we’re looking forward to resuming the fight at Fuji.”

While the seventh round of the FIA World Endurance Championship takes place on September 28 at Fuji Speedway in Japan, Mikkel Jensen will already be back in action in two weeks’ time at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where he will contest the sixth round of the American IMSA LMP2 Championship with TDS Racing.