McNish counting on Peugeot's mistakes

The Scot and his teammates currently lie second overall, on the same lap as the leading Peugeot of Marc Gene, Nicolas Minassian and Jacques Villeneuve, and with a third of the race gone, McNish reckons Audi can keep taking the fight to the French squad.

"We are actually closer than I expected we would be at this stage," he told autosport.com. "But I am very happy with how it's going. The two Peugeots keep making mistakes, though, and that is helping to keep us in it.

"I am happy with our pace and everything we can do we are doing. I think the rain will be a bit later than they are predicting, maybe early morning and that will help us. We just have to keep putting them under pressure."

McNish says the No.2 Audi is performing well and trouble-free, and that is helping them to be consistent.

"We have some low-speed understeer with the car but otherwise I'm happy with the car," he said.

"We're fast, consistent, pretty good in traffic. Peugeot's ultimate pace is quicker, no question, but some of their drivers aren't up to the pace and they're making mistakes."