Le Mans – Dumas: Porsche does not have such a big lead

With 14 participations in 24 Hours of Le Mans, Romain Dumas is well placed to know that nothing is certain before the checkered flag. But the Porsche still showed promising performances by monopolizing the first positions on the grid.

“We are not surprised by our level of performance, mainly in qualifying”, Romain Dumas told AUTOhebdo. “But we must not forget the pace in the race where our best results are between 3'21 and 3'23, a speed quite similar to Audi. They may be slightly behind us at the end of the Test Day. »

The teammate of Neel Jani, author of the provisional pole, estimate that Toyota also has every chance in Sarthe even if the TS040 Hybrids are a little behind the Porsches and Audis. “ Toyota must evolve to 2 or 3 seconds. The Japanese team is further behind, certainly, but this gap is not huge over a 24 hour race. They seem a little more efficient than on Test Day. I think they have the means to come within 3 seconds of our performance in qualifying and 1”7 or 1”8 in the race”, said the winner of the 2010 edition.

“Our objective for the next test sessions is to limit the work on the front axle. The aero support has nevertheless improved significantly, especially in fast corners. But Audi has caught up with Porsche in terms of top speed (336km/h). We are still in the unknown in terms of the number of stints with the tires due to the changeable weather, but I am sure that the R18 e-tron quattro will do more than us. Neel Jani will start, I never do it at Le Mans”, added Romain Dumas.