Peugeot expects ultra-close Le Mans
Peugeot motorsport boss Olivier Quesnel believes the Le Mans test day proved there will be very little to choose between his squad and arch-rival Audi in this year's race
Although Audi's new R18 TDI set the top two times yesterday, lead Peugeot runner Stephane Sarrazin was only just over 0.2 seconds off Tom Kristensen's 3m27.687s benchmark in third place.
"We showed both endurance and performance today," said Quesnel. "We have all the data required to make sure we come back to Le Mans with optimised race cars. Spa-Francorchamps will give us another opportunity to prepare for Le Mans.
"We have seen today that this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans really is going to be very hotly contested."
Technical director Bruno Famin said that the day's only problem had been a precautionary engine change on the #9 car.
"We pretty much completed our full work programme," he said. "The #7 car completed the endurance programme started at Aragon. We have significantly exceeded the race distance for the 24 Hours of Le Mans with this car.
"We have worked well on the set-up for the two other cars, in spite of an engine alert on the #9. Until we know more, we preferred to change it.
"Overall, it was a highly productive day of work, the three cars are intact and the drivers stuck perfectly to the scheduled programme."
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