Villeneuve not focusing on speed yet

The former Formula One world champion was the fastest rookie at the test, and his time was good enough to be fifth fastest overall at the French circuit.

Villeneuve's best lap of 3:30.314 was more than three seconds slower than Sebastien Bourdais managed in the other Peugeot 908, but the Canadian was happy with the test.

"We weren't looking for the absolute fastest time here so I didn't get involved in any setting up work," said the Canadian, who is sharing a car with Marc Gene and Nicolas Minassian.

"I started with a couple of laps aimed primarily at learning the track, and I then went back out later in the day to do a series of long runs to see how the tyres evolved."

Villeneuve is new to sportscar racing, and he added that one of the biggest surprises to him was the difference in the ability of the drivers throughout the 55-car field.

"My biggest concern was the amount of traffic about," he said. "That's something new to me, especially since certain cars were taking some pretty bizarre lines."