Proton Competition can feasibly lay claim to being the most improved team on the Hypercar grid over the second half of the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship campaign, following a brace of stellar recent outings at COTA and Fuji.
After the German outfit registered its first points-scoring result of the season with a tenth-place finish in São Paulo before the summer break, former LMGTE Am champion Nicolás Varrone then stole the show in qualifying in Texas, unleashing a truly heroic effort to put the privately-run Porsche 963 at the top of the timesheets in the initial part of the session prior to securing an excellent sixth on the grid in the high-stakes Hyperpole shootout.
The Argentine ace was similarly impressive in the race – running confidently and comfortably inside the top five until an error in the treacherous conditions pitched him off the track and into retirement – and he produced another eye-catching performance in Japan.
The #99 hybrid prototype lined up last on the grid for the six-hour contest in the headlining Hypercar category, but gained a lucky break when Raffaelle Marciello dramatically crashed the #15 BMW two hours in – prompting one of the race’s multiple safety car interventions. Prior to the neutralisation, Nico Pino had just pitted to hand over to Varrone, and the combination of that smart strategy and fortuitous timing catapulted the Proton Competition entry into the lead once the action resumed.
Looking in his element at the front of the field, Varrone initially edged away from the pursuing Jean-Éric Vergne (Peugeot) and Nyck de Vries (Toyota), and even when they closed him down, the rising star artfully held the experienced pair at bay until the Frenchman finally forced his way past shortly after mid-distance.
Varrone was still in the mix when an attack by Ferrari’s Alessandro Pier Guidi sent him into a spin 12 laps later, with the consequent damage and delay restricting the car to 12th at the chequered flag in FIA WEC’s milestone 100th event.
Despite that disappointment and lingering feeling of what-might-have-been, the customer Porsche squad – helmed by Michael and Christian Ried – nonetheless took away plenty of positives from its second consecutive giant-killing display.
“It was an eventful race for us,” reflected 2016 world champion Neel Jani, who was in the cockpit for the final stretch following team-mate Varrone’s marathon 94-lap run. “The team made a great strategy call to get us into the lead. The incident with the Ferrari gave us some floor and nose damage, which didn’t help, but overall, it was definitely a step forward for us.”
“It was an intense race,” echoed Pino. “We were fortunate at times, which allowed us to take the lead during a safety car period, but bad luck hit too, for example with an emergency pit-stop under yellow. Overall, we lacked the pace to fight our way back to the front but, looking at the weekend as a whole, we made encouraging progress once again.”
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