Peugeot lead the way in Le Mans test

The No.8 HDi led the way with Stephane Sarrazin taking advantage of a rare dry spell to set a sensational 3:22.222 lap, four seconds quicker than last year's pole position.

Former grand prix driver Alex Wurz, who shares the No.8 car with Sarrazin and Pedro Lamy, was surprised by the difficulty of the conditions during the eight-hour test, most of which was run in wet or damp conditions.

"Today turned out to be super difficult and it was a bit of a wake-up call actually," he said. "After 12 years in Formula One where every little bump is taken care of by the FIA, I come here to a real man's circuit. It was more of a fight than enjoyment but I always love the challenge of Le Mans."

The No.9 Peugeot of Franck Montagny, Christian Klien, and Ricardo Zonta was second fastest, but set a best time just 0.037 seconds quicker than the lead Audi, which Marco Werner lifted to third place during the afternoon's brief dry patch.

It wasn't all good news for Peugeot, though, because the No.7 car, which ended up fourth quickest, was destroyed when Marc Gene crashed in the Porsche Curves.

The No.3 Audi of Lucas Luhr, Alexandre Premat and Mike Rockenfeller finished the day fifth, ahead of the two factory Pescarolo cars.

The No.1 Audi of Rinaldo Capello, Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish ended up 10th, with McNish frustrated by the difficult conditions.

"That was the most difficult test day I've ever had at Le Mans because the conditions were so inconsistent," he said. "I don't think I did two laps where the track was in the same condition.

"Hopefully the conditions are not going to be like this for the race because I think it will make it extremely treacherous for everybody."

But the Scot still believes Audi are capable of a competitive pace against Peugeot.

"In terms of performance, when we were out on the circuit, especially in the damp and the wet, we were pretty quick. We didn't get a run on new tyres and when it was dry, for about 10 minutes, Dindo unfortunately was in the pit garage.

"Peugeot had a very, very fast run. There's no question about it, they have definitely laid their cards down. But the big accident tells us that they are right on the edge and we've got to make sure that we keep pushing them to that edge."

The Van Merksteijn Porsche RS Spyder led the way in the LMP2 class, but the top five cars were covered by just 2.5 seconds.

The factory Aston Martin of David Brabham and Antonio Garcia led the GT1 class with a small advantage over the Larbre Saleen, while the lead Risi Competizione Ferrari F430 and the Flying Lizards Porsche 911 were serparated by just 0.029 seconds at the head of GT2.