Le Mans: Peugeot-Audi duel, D-day

Saturday June 12, 2010, here we are. After a year of waiting, the largest endurance race in the world returns to brighten up the second weekend of June. For the fourth consecutive year, this race will be marked by the Audi-Peugeot , which saw the German brand win twice, compared to a victory for Peugeot. This week, the French manufacturer took the advantage by dominating all the test sessions, achieving a hat-trick during qualifying, and even a quadruple thanks to Oreca's Peugeot 908, which is an integral part of the firm's strategy. to Leo.

However, Olivier Quesnel is not overflowing with confidence. “ The race is 24 hours, and it?s very long, affirms the director of Peugeot Sport to AUTOhebdo.fr. We do not decide victory, it is the 24 Hours of Le Mans who decide. The hardest part remains to be done. We have Everest in front of us and there we have just arrived at the base camp. If I have four cars and I don't win, it's no use to me. »

On the Audi side, on the contrary, we are trying to make the qualifying results positive. “ At the end of the qualifying session, at least on my car, we were able to drive in 3:22, even on worn tires and with gasoline. So it was very satisfying. Now we don't know if it's going to be enough », Explains Romain Dumas (Audi R15 TDI n°9) to AUTOhebdo.fr.

Dr Wolgang Ullrich, boss of Audi Motorsport, also wants to be reassuring. “ Certainly, Peugeot's times during qualifying are impressive but, for our part, we worked for the race. It?s always like that at Audi. On Wednesday we weren't very happy with our settings, but on Thursday it went much better. So we are ready. »

It is therefore at 15 p.m. that the seven cars will set off which will compete for victory. Peugeot has the advantage, with four cars in the first four places. But Le Mans is unpredictable and very clever who can guess the outcome of the race. The weather conditions, the reliability of the mechanics and, very importantly, traffic management will be the determining factors for the crew who wants to go to the end.