Peugeot to contest Petit Le Mans

The French manufacturer, who failed to win the Le Mans 24 Hours at their second attempt with a diesel-powered car, also went up against rivals Audi and Porsche in the Sebring 12 Hours at the start of the season.

And while the 908s have dominated proceedings in the European-based Le Mans Series (which continues this weekend at the Nurburgring), the team is determined to add a blue riband endurance race to their list of honours.

"Like any top sportsman who senses he or she has the ability, we are obviously disappointed to have so narrowly missed out on victory in June," said Peugeot's team director Michel Barge. "We now have every intention of keeping up our effort in order to be in a position to top the podium in 2009."

The two crews for the 908s will be similar to those that compete in the LMS, with the only change being Christian Klien replacing Jacques Villeneuve in the No7 car alongside Marc Gene and Nicolas Minassian.

The sister car will be driven, as usual, by Pedro Lamy, Stephane Sarrazin and Alexander Wurz.

Team manager Serge Saulnier commented on the driver choice: "We have called on our core driver line-up for this race but Marc, Christian, Pedro and Stéphane will be joined by Alexander and Christian. There are two reasons behind this decision: to begin with they are both available, while at the same time this race will give them a chance to gain extra experience of endurance racing," he added.

The team's technical director Bruno Famin added that Petit Le Mans would provide a vital reference point for Peugeot for their 2009 La Sarthe campaign.

"Nothing can replace actual competition," said Famin. "As last June's Le Mans showed, it takes experience to take on a competitor that has the benefit of 10 years of this race behind it and which stays match fit by contesting 12 more races during the season compared with Peugeot. Namely the ALMS in which it faces opponents like Porsche and Acura.

"Petit Le Mans is about traffic, safety car interventions and strategy, but it is above all 1,000 miles - or up to 10 hours - of fierce racing, which is sufficient to enable us to collect some very valuable data and information."