Bourdais ecstatic with the 908

Bourdais clocked a lap of 3:26.707, a new lap record and 1.5 seconds faster than Emanuele Pirro could manage in the lead Audi R10, which won the race last year.

The circuit has been shortened slightly for this year, and the fastest lap of the day was nearly four seconds faster than Dindo Capello's pole position lap for the 2006 race.

"We made a couple of changes and the car went from acceptable to probably the most amazing car that I have driven," he said.

"The balance was absolutely perfect, and it is pretty unusual to get the balance right at Le Mans so I am happy."

However, the Champ Car star is not getting too excited about the French team's chances for the race, as he believes that reliability will play a more important role than speed in two weeks' time.

"I think up to 12 hours we are pretty sure we can hold it, so the race will start at 4am," he added. "As far as I'm concerned I can drive like that all night.

"It is all going to be about reliability, and that is the one thing that we are not sure about so we will keep our fingers crossed.

"We have got a novel group of drivers behind the wheel and everyone can drive the way I did, so it's pretty encouraging."