Kristensen: I hope Biela's right!

Alongside Emanuele Pirro, Biela and Kristensen shared victory in the last three Le Mans driving for the works Audi team. But with the marque not running this year, the trio have been split. Biela will drive Audi Sport UK's customer R8 in the race.

The German said that the speed of the Bentley's compared to the privateer Audi R8s meant there was no way one of the German car's could win the race unless reliability problems hit the EXP Speed 8s. The German's comments have been backed up by the first qualifying session, which saw the two Bentley's significantly faster than all its rivals.

When asked by autosport.com about Biela's comments, Kristensen said: "Oh, I know what Frank's like. Obviously, we have improved our speed, but qualifying is one thing and the race is another.

"For sure, we have to be faster than the Audi on the track, and it looks like we are, but we'll look at where we are once we've finished qualifying. But we do have to be faster on the track. We have higher fuel consumption and tyre wear than the Audis, and our pit stops are a little bit slower because we have to negotiate the doors of the car and because of the way the mechanics have to work on the car.

"But generally, things look good, so I would say that it's nice that he thinks that way and I hope things turn out like that and we can prove him right!"