Cameron, Michael Christensen and Frederic Makowiecki completed Sunday’s 6 Hours of Monza in fourth in the best of the two Porsche Penske Motorsport cars, finishing a lap down on the race-winning #7 Toyota of Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez.
Although the #5 Porsche 963 ran as high as second due to the pitstop cycle after starting from eighth on the grid, it was never really in contention for a podium finish, with the LMH cars from Toyota, Ferrari and even Peugeot showing superior pace to the German manufacturer’s LMDh contender in the fifth round of the season.
Two-time IMSA SportsCar champion Cameron hailed Porsche for executing a clean race, but admitted that the team lacked the pace to fight at the sharp end of the pack.
“Fourth place for our number five Porsche here in Monza – in the end, it was a good day,” said the American driver.
“We made smart tactical decisions during the race and executed them well. We were pretty much at the limit of our current capabilities.
“It’s a pity that towards the end our chances of a podium finish slipped through our fingers like they did at Spa.
“Nevertheless, we made good progress with the Porsche 963 and with the development of the team.”
Porsche’s LMDh director Urs Kuratle echoed Cameron’s remarks, saying the result was in line with what is possible given the current pace of the 963 LMDh.
“Fourth and seventh places reflect what we can currently achieve with our performance,” said Kuratle.
“We delivered a flawless race, and we were also very good from a technical and strategic standpoint.
“However, the yellow phases had their snags for us. Our customer team Jota had to deal with some difficulties during the race.”
Source: Autosport