Minassian: No team orders needed

The Frenchman, who finished second in this year's Le Mans 24 Hours, says that while he thinks Peugeot could intervene if they need help to win the championship from the sister car, the target is for the team to dominate the race in the same manner they did at the Nurburgring last month.

"It is a short championship so it is very difficult to play any kind of [team game]," he told Autosport's latest podcast. "I mean you can do team orders, if you want to, but they No.8 car could have let me by at the Nurburgring but if my machine had broken down at the next race then it wouldn't have been worth it.

"Peugeot like to play it that whoever is the fastest will win the race, and in the last race maybe if we need a push then we will get one, but at the moment we haven't talked about anything like that.

"The thing we have been talking about is to have a one-two with Peugeot and then we are sure to wrap up both championships anyway."

Minassian and Gene are just two points clear of Audi drivers Alexandre Premat and Mike Rockenfeller. But Minassian is confident that Peugeot will enjoy a similar performance advantage to that it had in Germany where both the French cars lapped the similarly diesel-powered R10 TDIs.

"Marc and I have no intention of playing second fiddle," he said. "Our objective is to leave Silverstone on Sunday evening with victory and the 2008 Le Mans Series title in our pocket.

"What a terrific way that would be of rounding off the season. I feel very relaxed and I go into this race intent on winning! And if we succeed, the title will automatically be ours. Last year, we scored a grand slam at Silverstone."