Guy Smith diary: Friday/Sat am

"Although I didn't have to drive the car on Friday, I certainly didn't have the day off. As the race gets closer the number of meetings and PR events I have to go to just increases. As the qualifying session's finish so late in the evening, we do the technical debrief first thing the following morning. I then had a number of meetings to discuss strategy and other things, just meeting after meeting.

Once all the technical stuff was out of the way I had several PR and publicity events. I went over to the Bentley pavilion for the 'garden party,' that was good because it enabled me to get out of the paddock for a while. It's nice to be able to see something outside of the four walls of the Bentley enclosure in the paddock!

Then it was time for the annual drivers parade, which was amazing.
We did the parade in the back of a gorgeous 1930s Bentley. Apparently, it had just come back from a tour of Russia, so it's certainly a well-travelled car.

It was great to see how many fans turned out to cheer us on - it was fantastic to see how many people were cheering for Bentley. And I can't believe how many Dane's turned out to support my team-mate Tom Kristensen - it seems like all of Denmark is down here!

I had to be up at 7.45sm this morning [Saturday] for the warm-up. That went fine - we're really happy with the pace we're running and our set-up. After that had finished we had a quick technical de-brief, by which time I had to go back over to the Bentley pavilion to meet our guests. Then I had to come straight back for the drivers' parade, and after that it's nearly time for the race.

It's just started raining here, and I have to say I'd rather the race be in dry conditions. Although we know the car is good in the wet, I've had more running in the dry, and that's what I'm most comfortable with. But whatever will be will be.

Dindo's [Capello, team-mate] going to start the race for in our car, and I'm due to run the third shift. We're going to run double-shifts at the start, and probably move to triple-stints overnight. I'll watch the first few hours of the race on TV, and it's just like being a fan at home watching the event. But then I realise that I'm going to be out there driving in a few hours and I have to get focussed and ready.

During the race, I try to sleep when I'm out of the car in a room in the motorhome. You don't really get to sleep much, you just close your eyes and try to shutdown your mind for a while. It's very difficult to sleep with the noise all around and the adrenaline still kicking in from the race."

Autosport.com will be keeping a close eye on Guy throughout the Le Mans 24 Hours. Keep checking back here to find out how he's doing and all the latest news from the Circuit de la Sarthe.