Leading drivers fear heavy rain

"The problem is that in the wet the LMP2 is a little bit better, because it has a smaller tyre," said Audi's Dindo Capello. "The LMP1 has such wide tyres. The wet is not really the best condition for an LMP1."

"Our car is not a difficult car to drive in the wet," fellow Audi pilot Emanuele Pirro agreed.

"But definitely, our car is amongst the bulkiest - it's not really a little ballerina. We do have a lot of downforce, and we have a nice driveability from the engine.

"But as I said, it is not a ballerina. So honestly, I don't know. It could be that some smaller, more agile cars can be quicker, especially in very tricky conditions.

Despite the bulkiness of the Audi, keeping tyre temperature up is still a problem for the R10 drivers: "Our car is quite gentle on tyres so it takes a while to get the temperature up, when you have little grip the tyres tend to lose temperature - and if you don't have the right tyre temperature it is really difficult.

"I think that if there are really extreme conditions, then sometimes a GT3 can be quicker than a Prototype, if it really rains a lot. But this won't be the case for the race... I hope."

Meanwhile, a minor debate is underway between Audi and Peugeot over whether the open-topped or closed-topped configuration of car holds the advantage in bad weather.

"It's better to be in an open car," Pirro declared. "In a closed car you always have some mist, or the wiper doesn't really touch the windscreen at high speed. So I think an open car is good.

"It's just cold. In 2001 at night it was very cold, especially when there was a pace car."

But Stephane Sarrazin, who qualified the number 8 Peugeot on pole, was not so sure.

"If it is raining the roof is good, because if it's an open car you get wet," he said. "And also for the electric parts, the rain can also be quite difficult. So from this point of view it is a good advantage.

"We don't have any fog on the windscreen because we have a heating system for it. We used it in the WRC, and Peugeot has a lot of experience with it. In the WRC if you don't have it then you have fog in the car all the time, because you have two people in the car, and it's very hot."