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Peugeot Le Mans Challenge: Qualifying Sessions

10th June 2011

DAY ONE
The six hours of track time scheduled for Wednesday provided confirmation that this, the 79th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans will be very hotly disputed.

In line with the scheduled programme, Team Peugeot Total concentrated on working on the set-up of the three Peugeot 908 during free practice. In the first qualifying session, Stéphane Sarrazin demonstrated part of the team's potential by placing the no.8 in provisional pole position, almost a second ahead of his nearest rival.

Free practice: Peugeot completes its programme

The three Peugeot 908s immediately headed out on track once the session got underway, each with a specific programme to complete. Work was focussed on one main area, the tyres. Building on the solid base defined during the test day in April of this year, the three Peugeot 908s adopted a good pace, despite the dirty track.

With a time of 3'28''536, recorded by Sébastien Bourdais, the Peugeot 908 no.9 ended free practice in third place in the standings, ahead of the no.7 car (Anthony Davidson). The no.8 car (Nicolas Minassian) was sixth, just in front of Team Oreca's Peugeot 908 HDi FAP. With six cars separated by 1.1 seconds, free practice set the tone for this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans, which looks set to be very close.

Qualifying 1: 908 no.8 on provisional pole

Whilst pursuing its technical programme with all three cars, Team Peugeot Total decided to try and set a fast time in the second part of the session with the no.8.

With around half an hour of the session remaining, Stéphane Sarrazin grabbed provisional pole position with a lap of 3'27''033. Nobody could get close the time of the French driver this evening. The three-time Polesitter at Le Mans is now in with a great chance of claiming a fifth consecutive pole position for Peugeot. With two two-hour sessions scheduled for tomorrow evening, however, the final positions are far from decided. At the end of this session, the Peugeot no.7 held fifth place and the no.8 finished in sixth.

Stéphane Sarrazin: "The team have faith in me and keep giving me the chance to fight it out for pole position. It is only provisional, of course, but I'm still pleased. It has been a good first day's work. Nicolas Minassian did some long runs, whilst Franck Montagny fine-tuned the set-up. We have a very sound base for the race."

Marc Gené: "I couldn't get a clear run; I was interrupted on my flying lap by an accident. We have another two sessions tomorrow to improve our position on the track. I just hope that the weather doesn't play up."

Simon Pagenaud: "Overall, it's a good performance. We aren't overly focussed on qualifying. We have a sound and consistent car for the race, and that's the main thing. Driving at night is always important, so it's good to be able to get used to driving at high speeds with limited lighting."

Results:

PEUGEOT 908 n°8 (Sarrazin) : 3'27''033
Audi R18 TDI n°2: 3'27''939
Audi R18 TDI n°1 : 3'27''949
Audi R18 TDI n°3 : 3'28''301
PEUGEOT 908 n°7 (Wurz) : 3'28''796
PEUGEOT 908 n°9 (Bourdais) : 3'29''466
PEUGEOT 908 HDi FAP Oreca n°10 : 3'30''084
Pescarolo Judd n°16 : 3'35''456
Lola Toyota n°12 : 3'37''404
Lola Toyota n°13 : 3'38''351

DAY TWO
With just five tenths separating the top six cars, the qualifying sessions have already ensured this 79th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans will take its place in the annals. The battle for pole position was exciting and closely contested in all three sessions, leaving the outcome of this weekend's race hard to predict.

On June 11th, the Peugeot 908 no.9 will line up in third position on the starting grid, just in front of the no.8 car, whilst the no.7 car will start from sixth position.

The second day of qualifying began in similar fashion to the first day. The Peugeot drivers calmly completed their race preparations by comparing the various mechanical and aerodynamic configurations. Stéphane Sarrazin and Marc Gené then picked up the pace, whilst the driver team of car no.9 (Bourdais, Lamy and Pagenaud) remained focussed on its development programme.

The no.8 (Sarrazin) and no.7 (Gené) cars took it in turns to hold provisional pole position at the end of the second qualifying session. The much sought-after pole was snatched at the death by Marcel Fassler.

The timesheets changed again in the final qualifying session until Simon Pagenaud, credited with fastest time of the Peugeots with 3'26''010, was stopped in his tracks by a puncture on his final attempt to grab pole. Franck Montagny, Nicolas Minassian and Stéphane Sarrazin's no.8 car will start from fourth and the no.7 car (Davidson, Gené and Wurz) will line up in sixth place. The leading private car, Oreca Matmut team's Peugeot 908 HDi FAP will line up in 7th position on the starting grid.

With just five tenths separating the top six cars, the 250,000 spectators expected at Le Mans and the hundreds of millions of TV viewers and web users who will be following the event should prepare for 24 hours of breathtakingly exciting and action-packed racing.

Olivier Quesnel, Peugeot Sport Director: "The number 7 and 8 cars both spent time at the top of the timesheets and the number 9 car came close to grabbing pole at the end of the session. So, all three of our cars has their chances during these incredibly closely contested qualifying sessions. Our drivers did a great job and are happy with the set-up of their cars. It's quite staggering that after six hours of qualifying, there are six cars separated by just five tenths on a track that is over 13 kilometres! With fifty six cars on the track, it's the traffic that has the biggest say in who claims pole position. We put on a fantastic show, whilst also completing our working programme, in terms of tyres and set-up. We had no problems at all. Everyone watching has been focussed on the performances of the cars during these exciting qualifying sessions but now we now have 24 Hours of racing to take part in! Le Mans is above all about reliability, good pit stops, and a question of fuel consumption and strategy. The race is going to be extremely testing."

Results: