Peugeot retains pole for 24 Hours of LeMans

Sebastien Bourdais

With four Peugeot 908s HDi FAP on the entry list, the French car-manufacturer takes no chances in its quest of the Holy Grail! The official team has topped the time-sheets since the beginning. Changing track conditions made things tricky for competitors throughout the race second qualifying on Thursday evening. They didn’t seem to trouble Team Peugeot Total, however, who once again dominated the session, but couldn’t improve yesterday’s lap times.

As the track has remained dry for most of tonight’s qualifying session, many drivers had the opportunity to improve yesterday’s best times, but the LMP2 class’ pole was the only one to change hands from yesterday thanks to Danny Watts and Strakka Racing. After a short shower at the beginning of the second half of the session, drivers went back on track to put the finishing touches to the race set-ups.

Can anyone stop Team Peugeot Total? The French team could have the psychological advantage over Audi, but the German team might also be the tortoise to the Peugeot hare. It is probably going to be once again a race where the lesser lights will be praying for the stars to suffer technical gremlins, mistakes and minor incidents. In the LMP2 class both HPD prototypes from Strakka Racing and Highcroft Racing put their rivals in the shade during the whole session.

The qualifying times suggested that three GT1 cars are pretty evenly matched. Will there be a surprise winner? If Tomáš Enge ruled the class, Marc VDS Racing and Matech Competition Ford GTs are not far behind, which is promising for the race. This is also the case in the GT2, as it is set for one of the most open and hard fought races in years with four cars within about half a second. Ferrari and Risi Competizione may have won the first battle, but their rivals, and especially Corvette Racing, haven’t given up yet.

The warm-up is scheduled to start Saturday at 9:00 am.

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