The car shared by Jean-Eric Vergne, Nico Muller and Mikken Jensen was provisionally qualified seventh after Vergne had managed to crawl to the finish line on electrical power, a lap down on the winning #6 Porsche.
However, following a lengthy investigation that went into the early hours of Monday, Peugeot was found guilty of breaching both the sporting and technical regulations by the stewards.
It was noted that Vergne was unable to return to the pits after taking the chequered flag, with his Peugeot having stopped on the start/finish straight soon after reaching the finish.
Consequently, the car also did not make it to parc ferme on its own power, leading to a double violating of rules.
"The competitor committed a breach of the technical regulation (art. 5.3.2 of LMH Technical regulation) by non rejoining its pits after having used the electric dc of the MGUK,” read the statements.
"Due to this violation, and the choice of the competitor not to comply with this technical rule hoping to be classified, car 93 was able to cross the line before stopping definitively in the straight, unable to rejoin the parc fermé."
"However, a competitor cannot obtain the benefit of any violation he committed with regards to the relevant regulation."
"Therefore, the stewards determined that the fact of having car 93 crossing the line cannot be taken into account with regard to the relevant sporting regulations."
"Moreover, car 93 was not able to rejoin the parc fermé under the conditions stated in articles 15.1.1 and15.1.3 of 2024 FIA WEC Sporting regulations. Consequently, the stewards decided for these two motivations, joined and separatly to impose the disqualification of car 93."
"Unfortunately, what happened in the last lap was not scheduled,” Finot said before the exclusion. “We have to analyze, but I think we had an issue with the fueling of the car when we did the splash and dash. We didn’t have the expected rate of fuel. We have to analyze.”
Speaking to reporters including Motorsport.com, Stellantis Motorsports Director Jean Marc Finot revealed that the car had slowed due to what he described as an "issue with the fueling of the car when we did the splash and dash."
Vergne had been on course to secure Peugeot’s best-ever result in the Hypercar class of the WEC until the late drama, as he held second position ahead of the #12 Jota Porsche of Callum Ilott at the start of the penultimate tour.
The disqualification elevates the Proton Porsche of Julien Andlauer, Neel Jani and Harry Tincknell to final-points paying position in 10th.
