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Peugeot confident of keeping pole

Peugeot is confident that it is in good shape to seal pole position for the Le Mans 24 Hours for the fourth consecutive year

The French manufacturer's cars filled the first four places in Wednesday's first qualifying session and the drivers are confident that there is more speed to come from the 908 HDi.

But with rain forecast for Thursday evening, the team might already have done enough to secure the front two rows of the grid for Saturday's start.

"It is only provisional pole," said Sebastien Bourdais, who set the quickest time of all - 3m19.711s - in the #3 car he shares with Pedro Lamy and Simon Pagenaud. "However, we are expecting difficult conditions so it is good to have it in the bag.

"If it is dry we will have to have another go. It is a good feeling to finish the session in the lead and the result shows that the 908 is still competitive. Now we have to put it all together in the race."

Peugeot technical director Bruno Famin is not convinced that Peugeot's rivals, chiefly Audi, have unleashed their true pace yet.

"Obviously we're pleased to have our three cars in the first three places," he said. "Sebastien reckons he could have gone quicker, but not by very much. If it rains tomorrow we are in a good position, but we can't relax against the competition - I think they didn't show their full potential."

Stephane Sarrazin has set the pole time at Le Mans for the last three years and was disappointed not to top the chart again in Wednesday night's first session. He is hoping the weather remains dry to give him the opportunity to go for a fourth pole.

"I ran into a lot of traffic - that's how it is qualifying here," he said. "Normally it works out well for me, but not today. I did my fastest lap with my first set of new tyres and without a small mistake it could have been quicker. We will see what happens tomorrow, especially regarding the weather."

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