Kristensen: No regrets over inters call
Tom Kristensen says he has no regrets over making a late call for intermediate tyres in the Spa 1000km despite the stop costing him second place in the chaotic six hour race
The eight-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner stopped with 35 minutes to go when rain had thrown up an opportunity for his second placed Audi R15 TDI to chase down the slick-shod Peugeot of Simon Pagenaud - which was a minute ahead in the lead.
However the track dried out as the rain eased and Kristensen was instead caught and passed by Pagenaud's team-mate Stephane Sarrazin.
"There were no regrets about switching to the intermediates because it showed we have got nerve, we are aggressive and that we wanted to win," he told AUTOSPORT afterwards. "Staying on slicks in this weather, at the beginning of the race we lost more than one minute. So to win that was a good risk to do.
"But when you finish third you have got to be a bit disappointed. But there again we are not a team that aspires to finish second or third, we want to win.
"I guess not when you look at the situation, it was probably not the right call, but I didn't have an overview about exactly where we were - I was in the car. At one stage we were getting heavy rain again and on the straights you couldn't go flat because the car was moving around, so I told the team it was too wet for slicks."
Kristensen added that while he was disappointed, he was encouraged with the progress Audi made over the weekend with the R15 TDI Plus.
"Today you also have to say that the fastest car on this track won," he said "But we are here in Le Mans trim. In many ways the race was very good to us so maybe we are a little bit greedy to be disappointed. But we are!"
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