Happy return for Herbert

Johnny Herbert says he's enjoying his return to Le Mans, a decade after his victory with Mazda. The former F1 star only drove the Champion Audi towards the end of Thursday's first practice, but earlier team mate Ralf Kelleners had set a time that left the car third, behind the two works Audis

Jun 14, 2001, 3:24 PM

"It's a good start," said Johnny. "Just at the end in the dark I got 15 laps in, Ralf is the guy that's always in the car in America, they stuck him in it, because Thursday was going to the push day. But it was good to get in the car in the dark and do a bit of a night run. I can't remember anything of it in the dark, and it looks completely different. And I can't remember them having all these floodlights on the track. They suddenly appear in your mirrors, so you think there's a car behind you!

"Everything's going OK. I'm very happy with the performance, and the balance of the car is quite good. I think our race pace will be very competitive. We went through a few qualifiers, trying to get the thing better and better and better, which we did. But the problem is trying to get a clear lap here, which is really difficult, and I think Ralf only got one in."

Team manager for the Champion car is none other than Thierry Boutsen, a fellow former Benetton driver.