PEUGEOT SAYS: Last night’s thrilling qualifying session saw Team Peugeot Total's Stéphane Sarrazin put the N°8 Peugeot 908 HDi FAP Sarrazin/Montagny/Bourdais) at the sharp end of the grid for the Le Mans 24 Hours for the third year in a row. Saturday's race will in fact start with four Peugeot's sitting on the top five places, with the Pescarolo-run N°17 car joining the three factory machines at the top of tonight's order.
For the first time in the history of the Le Mans 24 Hours, in its modern-day format at least, teams benefited from just one qualifying session this year in their respective bids to claim first place on Saturday afternoon's grid. But while nobody would shun the honour of starting from pole position, the combined effects of the cancellation of the traditional preliminary test day and the wet conditions which marked the majority of Wednesday evening's free practice meant that teams still had a certain amount of work to get through in dry conditions before being able to think in terms of topping tonight's timesheets.
The principal mission facing the crews of the three Team Peugeot Total Peugeot 908 HDi FAPs during this evening's four-hour run was to gather key information about the different compounds of slicks they have available for this weekend's race, and also to put the finishing touches to the set-ups of their respective machines.