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Capello: Audi has closed on Peugeot

Last year's Petit Le Mans winner Rinaldo Capello is more confident that Audi can maintain its unbroken run of victories at Road Atlanta after he and team-mate Allan McNish made up some ground in this morning's final free practice session

The Italian admitted yesterday that the R15 TDI had proven to be inconsistent over the peaks and valleys of the Georgia track, losing grip on the crests and bottoming on the dips.

But while Peugeot still appears to have a performance advantage over Audi, Capello believes it has shrunk through practice.

"This morning the car was much better," Capello told AUTOSPORT. "Now finally we can ride the bumps like we should be able to. We are quite happy because with a car like this we can be consistently with a good pace, which was impossible until yesterday night.

"Yesterday night we were not so bad but anyway we were still one second behind the Peugeots. Now probably the gap is 50 per cent less than it was before, but it is still a lot.

"I think they still have a good advantage over us. Not so big but good enough to be safe in qualifying.

"I don't think to be honest that we have a chance to take the pole, our target is to be as close as possible to them."

Capello, who is on qualifying duty for Audi in the #2 car, added that he hoped to be able to fight the Peugeots in a race the German manufacturer has not lost since its debut in 2000 with the R8.

"If it will be like this morning I think we can get a very good pace in the race, but they [Peugeot] have shown in the long runs that they can be very fast and they have shown they can be consistent."

Audi is particularly keen to maintain its winning streak on the 20th anniversary of the company's TDI technology, with which it remains unbeaten at Petit Le Mans since 2006.

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