Q & A with Allan McNish

Allan McNish: Obviously the pole car is very quick, we knew that from qualifying. We didn't quite have the balance we were hoping for at the start of the race, but you've got to remember that half a lap came with the safety car, so some of the difference is out of our control and some of it isn't.

I'd just pulled into the pitlane when the safety car boards came out. It was frustrating but there's very little you can do about it so there's no point complaining.

Q. The pace seems to have improved since some set-up changes were made to the #1 and #2 cars?

AM: The car is getting better now, the balance is getting better and Dindo [Capello] has been able to attack a bit more. We had to make one change on our car because there was damage from debris, then the second change was for the balance and it has been an improvement.

We're close to the other Peugeot, the Wurz car. Overall, we're certainly not where we'd like to be against the lead car, but we're only six hours into the race.

Q. Can you run Peugeot down on pace, or will you need something to happen to them?

AM: They've certainly got a strategic advantage over us. They've got a performance that we can get near but there is a very long way to go. We've just got to play our game and see how it comes out. There's a lot of strategy to play yet.

Q. Do you expect the weather to play a part in the race?

AM: The weather is coming, it's just whether it will come in time. But I think the rain is less of an issue for Peugeot than it was last year. They seem to have got their traction control sorted out, which apparently was one of the main factors. On the counter side of it, we're much closer in the dry. We've both improved in our areas of weakness.

Q. Are you stil confident that you can win the race from here?

AM: Certainly you never give up at this stage of the event. We were leading by three laps after 17 hours in 2007 and the wheel came off. From that point of view, do you think the sister car was confident after 16 and a half hours? You never know what's going to happen.

Q. How aware were you of the incidents in the hectic first hour?

AM: I was aware of people going off quite a lot. It was quite entertaining to hear afterwards that two of the Peugeots managed to crash into each in the pits.