Peugeot encouraged by Sebring pace

Nicolas Minassian and Pedro Lamy dominated the early stages of the race, but a hydraulic leak during Stephane Sarrazin's stint lost the car nine laps.

Once back out, Sarrazin enjoyed a battle with Allan McNish's Audi R10 before another hydraulic problem forced the car into the pits for 45 minutes.

But the 908 matched, and even bettered, the pace of the Audis later in the race and set the fastest lap on the way to 12th place, giving Peugeot Sport director Michel Barge confidence ahead of Le Mans.

"The purpose of this race was to see how the car performed over such a long distance and to work on the reliability, and at the end of the 12 hours the result was positive.

"We still have a great deal of work to do, but we posted some excellent, consistent lap times and put pressure on our main rivals."

Sarrazin added: "Like all drivers, I like to win so I am obviously a little disappointed that we didn't, but the car was fantastic.

"I enjoyed the race, especially my scrap with Allan McNish, I really wanted to come out of that on top to show that we were the quickest.