Villeneuve: I'm ready for Le Mans

The former Formula One world champion, who co-drove the winning Peugeot 908 along with Nicolas Minassian and Marc Gene, told autosport.com that he felt he had learned all he needed to about the car, but drove within his limits to secure victory in Belgium.

"The long run I did on Friday was very good," he said. "The race was a little bit tougher. We kept the tyres through the first pitstop and they didn't like that.

"So from that point I decided not to take risks. We were in the lead and the key was to keep that, because the chance of safety cars was quite high and every time you made a gap you would lose it again anyway."

Villeneuve added that he had thoroughly enjoyed racing the diesel-powered 908 again, having made his Le Mans debut with it in the 2007 24 hour race.

"The car is a lot of fun to drive," he said. "You can push it hard and slide it and it is great. It's a proper race car.

"It reacts well. It doesn't do anything nasty, if it gets sideways you can feel it coming. You know you can catch it and it doesn't surprise you with weird sensations."