Q & A with Rinaldo Capello

Rinaldo Capello: I think this year it will be even faster than the year before's. I think Peugeot learned a lot from the debacle they had last year. I know we have a better car than last year, we have a faster car than last year. We will be much closer to them, I hope even better, than before.

"But I think they learned quite a lot about strategy and some of the mistakes they have done last year. That's why I am confident on our strengths but I know we will fight even harder than last year to beat them. This is what the spectators want, what the show needs, because the more fighting we will make on the race track the better it is for everybody.

Q. So having said that, it's a shame we might not know what the result is.

RC: That is a very bad side of the race. Especially in this moment when Formula 1 has a lot of political problems, this would be the right moment for sportscars to look better and increase its popularity. That is what we need because now we have nice, fast cars, very good drivers and it should be a great show for everybody. If we start having political problems in our own category, it allows F1 to look better than us. It would be the right moment to switch and look better than them.

Q. Allan [McNish] said he didn't put the car near the limit but he said it felt good, what do you think of it here so far?

RC: Tom and myself, we just drove in the wet. If the forecast stays as it is, there seems to be no more rain at all. What we have yesterday then actually means not too much.

Q. Does that mean that tonight's first qualifying session becomes a practice session?

RC: For us it is really a test session because we have to go through our programme, which is to know exactly how long we can go on the tyres, fuel consumption, and make the car fast, reliable and easy to drive. That was our programme from yesterday which we had to abort.

So tonight will really be a test session for us, even though if we find the right chance we will try to attack. To be honest we are not working for pole position, but if it comes then great.