McNish not underestimating rivals

Pescarolo driver Franck Montagny put in a blisteringly quick lap in yesterday's official free practice session at the La Sarthe circuit to put to bed any thoughts that this year's race will simply be an Audi walkover.

Montagny posted a lap of 3:30.195 - nearly two seconds quicker than McNish's teammate Dindo Capello in the diesel-powered Audi R10.

The Frenchman later admitted to being on new tyres and in qualifying trim, however McNish believes that the consistent pace shown throughout the day means that this year's race will be a close-run thing.

"I was a little was surprised that Pescarolo did a 3:30.1," McNish told autosport.com. "At the time it was 5.20pm and Montagny came past us and overtook on the right-hand side, half a foot from the edge and he was definitely on a mission.

"It was like he was on the hard shoulder of the motorway. The lap was very impressive and the thing was also their actual race laptimes looked to be good too. There were points when we were ahead of them, there are points when they are quicker and they have a bit more experience with their car than we do."

McNish believes that the reliability and fuel economy of the both cars will be key to deciding overall victory in this year's race.

"We realised that fundamentally the car works and has a good balance and good feel to it," he added. "It allayed any fears and it is certainly nice to have that peace of mind before the race. But it is going to be a hard fight.

"I never thought it would be an Audi walkover but certainly members of the media did. A 24-hour race is difficult and we haven't underestimated Pescarolo. They had the speed last year but it was a gearbox glitch in one car and too many trips in the scenery that cost them victory.

"At the end of the day there is a few facts about Le Mans - you have to make sure you run reliably for as long as possibly but you have to expect there is going to be some incident on your car. I don't think it would be unexpected to have a problem - you've got to react to whatever comes.

"Thankfully we have a car that, because of the diesel engine, will have better fuel economy and that could help us win.

"I'd like to think that we will be faster and we've been pretty good. But what I saw of Pescarolo makes me think that on pure and simple pace it will be a hard fight, but we might have an advantage on the fuel economy.

"I was speaking to my wife earlier and she asked me how I thought it was going to go this year. I replied that I just didn't know - you never know. We have a great driving team and good engineering back up and we'll be the best prepared.

"But we can't affect Pescarolo, we have to run our race and see how things pan out the week of the race."