Pescarolo drivers elated with third

Emmanuel Collard, Jean-Christophe Boullion and Romain Dumas brought the No. 16 Pescarolo home as the lead petrol-powered car, and the trio admitted that they were not expecting to challenge Audi and Peugeot's diesel cars.

Boullion missed the race last year due to injury, and he admitted that he did not expect the team to get the result they did this year.

"The joy is fantastic, and it's a better result for the team than last year because of the level of opposition," said the Frenchman.

"We had five exceptional rivals this year with Audi and Peugeot and I didn't expect to be on the podium. It's a great achievement."

Collard agreed that the team could be happy with their result, and he was impressed with how smoothly the race went for the No. 16 car, while several front-runners hit trouble.

"For us it's a fantastic result," he said. "We had no real problems for the whole event."

Dumas added that the team were not trying to battle the diesel cars, which have had superior performance at Le Mans for the past two years.

"There were two battles on the course," he said. "We are all very even drivers, and we tried to be the best of the petrol engines."

The team's fastest lap was six seconds slower than those managed by the leading diesel cars this year.