A lot is happening this weekend. The World Cup kicks off, Formula 1 goes back to Montreal for the Canadian GP and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the world’s most famous endurance race is on. For the latter, it was always going to be Peugeot versus Audi with their diesel machines, and the French brand fired an early warning by bagging a 1-2 at the 1,000 km endurance race at Spa-Francorchamps last month, considered to be a “full dress rehearsal” for Le Mans.
More significantly, the four Peugeot 908 HDi FAP cars (three factory cars, one run by Oreca) have locked out the front two rows of the grid for the race, after beating Audi into submission throughout qualifying.
Bespectacled ex-F1 driver Sebastien Bourdais was the man to clinch pole, with his 3m19.711s effort on Wednesday proving good enough for top spot. Stephane Sarrazin, the man on pole in the last three consecutive 24 Hours, was denied a fourth time when the final stint in the #2 car was given to Nicolas Minassian. Their car finished third. Second spot went to Alex Wurz, Anthony Davidson and Marc Gene – all ex F1 drivers. The sole 908 run by a privateer team was in fourth, ahead of the three Audi R15 cars.
In the final qualifying session, Audi had closed the gap to the Peugeots, with Allan McNish moving into the 3m22s and then Mike Rockenfeller chalking up a 3m21s, which was only less than eight tenths slower than the Oreca Peugeot in fourth. But that was before the French marque sent its cars out for one last run to deflate their German rivals. None of the four 908s improved their best time set on Wednesday, but Bourdais, Minassian and Nicolas Lapierre widened the gap over the Audis to underline their dominance so far.
But of course, the unpredictable Le Mans is a 24-hour race, not a sprint, and anything can happen this weekend.
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PEUGEOT~!!!!
Many ppl here are skeptical about peugeot engine even the newer models.
I wonder why? If they shine at Le Mans..
che wah… ahead of Audi… hhmm… i think Peugeot should come out with a R8 beater like that… hopefully the RCZ will be as good as what the review is…
Paugeot sports car? Oh my… i wish i could live long enough to see one
too bad can’t watch this on HD, dang..
it’s gonna be PEUGEOT again, baby!!!
That is definitely a total domination by the factory Peugeots. But Le Mans is also about reliability & luck. We shall see.
too bad don’t really have time to sit down and enjoy watching this over the weekend…
what a busy week i have…
Peugeot terbaik… hehe.. x perlu takut untuk memiliki peugeot… saya dah xde masalah dengan peugeot ni.. enjin ok ja… handling pon bagus…. jgn takut xde alat ganti.. join kelab peugot.. ramai yg boleh bantu…. x pon add je face book peugeot malaysia.. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=311431747740
sebenarnya ramai oarng pakai peugeot kata Maalaysia ni… sekarang ni, sale peugeot no 2 dalam ranking jualan kereta conti kat malaysia ni….. no 1 merc, no 2 peugeot… lagi ramai guna peugeot dari BMW tau…
apa? peugeot tapau audi? tak menyesal booking peugeot…. hidup singa…..
Of course because it’s cheap!
Hidup singa..?
Sure or not? 15 hours in, out of the FOUR Pug 908, polesitter was first to retire from race, TWO suffered technical problems.
Leaving only ONE Pug to lead ahead of the 3 Audi R15. No major technical issues with the Audis. Chugging along reliably. Audi did have some on track bad luck, unlucky to be caught out by the multi saftey car style of Le mans and lost a lap while Tom Kristensen lost more time trying to avoid hitting the silly BMW M3 GT2 of Andy Priaulx.
The circus lion is very good at jumping through 1, 2 and 3 rings.. but ‘4 rings’?? no guarantees!
Haha well said ferrucio! What good is taking the pole position when they can’t even finish! Well fingers crossed that audi will cross the chequered flag in 1st & 2nd or even 3rd! Haha
All 3 factory Peugeots retired after 22 hrs. Only the customer Oreca’s Peugeot still running. The factory Audi R15+ cars currently 1st, 2nd and 3rd!
1 hr to go. All FOUR Peugeot 908 have retired. 3 had the same engine failure, 1 failed with a suspension failure.
TV interviewed Audi team boss. Asked how they prepared knowing Peugeot was faster.. Dr Wolfgang Ullrich said, Audi pushed for efficiency instead.
The 3 factory Audi R15+ are still running like clockwork, with no significant technical issues. Currently in 1-2-3.
So which brand do you feel more confident about?
Woohoo! Of course the lord of the rings rules! Well done indeed very well done… perhaps the pug was over confident after their win in 2009 and thought they could repeat the same? Well think again frenchie…
venven81 / Ferruccio.. haiyah.. shiok shiok also let Peugeot shout abit ma… damn dissapointed that Peugeot’s roar is loader then their bites.. oh well.. the 4 bulatan is german made and the lion comes from france… wonder if there is any real lion in france? French will always be french.. nice car.. nice looks.. nice to read about spec sheets.. “nice” servicing time… “nice” service center to sit in while waiting for car to be ready.. “nice” explaination on why so like that from cust service… haiyah.. if only got some reliable frenchie workshop in JB, would have taken by DS3 across the causeway to service…
tough fight. may the best driver win!