Misfiring engine hurt Glickenhaus' chances at Le Mans

With Alpine’s solo grandfathered A480 LMP1 car hit with a major power reduction late on Friday afternoon, Glickenhaus was expected to be the only team realistically capable of challenging the mighty Toyotas for victory in the five-car Hypercar class.

However, a battle between the two squads never materialised in what was the 90th running of the race, with Glickenhaus' #709 entry ultimately finishing a distant third and five laps down on the race-winning #8 GR010 Hybrid. The sister #708 car ended up more than 10 laps off the lead in fourth.

Pla, who was sharing the team’s #708 full season WEC contender with Romain Dumas and Pipo Derani, explained that a sensor issue meant that the Pipo-engined Le Mans Hypercar was not able to unleash its true pace for the majority of the race.

“We've been battling from the middle of the night with some misfire on the engine in our case,” the Frenchman told Autosport. “Sometimes it was okay, sometimes we were losing a lot of time.

“There was a problem related not to the engine actually, but to a sensor. There was a sensor from what I understood between the engine and the chassis so there was no way we could have fixed it during the race. 

“We tried to finish for [team owner] Jim [Glickenhaus], for all the Podium [Advanced Technology] guys. They did a fantastic job. In the end, I wish I would have been on the podium but I'm happy for the #709. They did a great job and it's good for Glickenhaus.”

#708 Glickenhaus Racing Glikenhaus 007 LMH Hypercar of Olivier Pla, Romain Dumas, Felipe Derani

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

The #708 Glickenhaus dropped off the lead lap in the eighth hour when Pla spun at Tertre Rouge on an out lap, requiring a lengthy trip to the pits for repairs.

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