Audi confident they can match Peugeot

The quickest lap by an R10 TDi was four seconds slower than the time set by the quickest Peugeot 908 HDi on the test day last Sunday, but head of Audi Sport Dr Wolfgang Ulrich believes they can still win the race.

"There are two teams that have the realistic aim to win this race and that's the greatest situation that can happen," he told autosport.com. "Both teams have their good and bad points.

"The bad they try keep to themselves and the good they try to use to the maximum. We've come to Le Mans so many times and our target is always to make the best possible result, which is victory in the race.

"We had a very reliable car last year, and through all the years at Le Mans. In most cases, if we needed a repair it was caused by accidents. Reliability is a key issue and I'm quite optimistic that we are really on a good level of reliability.

"One thing is sure, I'm quite convinced that a car that can constantly do a good speed and needs nothing but fuel, tyres and drivers changed, will be on the podium somewhere."

Ulrich doesn't expect that Peugeot's speed advantage will allow them to run at less than 100 per cent to preserve their cars.

"I don't think the situation makes a difference. Le Mans is a race where you always have to push from the beginning to the end because you never know what might happen. You need every second that you can get.

"There was never a race where we said 80% is enough. That could be the biggest error you can make, because five laps later you could have an exploded tyre and have to limp back to the pits. For this repair you would needed the 15 seconds you lost when you went slower.

"This is dangerous so we never did it, I always pushed my guys to go for 24 hours as fast as the car can go, and I think that's the only way to do it."