Coverage from the French sporting newspaper L'Equipe of the race going on at the Paul Ricard track.
LE CAMP DU CASTELLET, Fr — The cat and mouse game between Audi and Peugeot is on at the Circuit Paul Ricard, where after Audi had topped its French rival in practice, the French Lion roared once again by nailing the pole position for the second race of the European Le Mans series with a 1:41.195 tour of the course. Audi set top time in practice with their R-15 Plus Friday for the eight hours of Paul Ricard, a part of the Le Mans Series in Europe and a major event leading up to the prestigous 24 Hours of Le Mans in June with a lap of 1:42.801. In qualifying they went 1:41.632 to further improve their time but still not be able to surpass the Peugoet.
Audi has pointed to the fact that this is the first time that they have actually been able to put the car into a race since it came out of the factory just over a month ago. The new car, dubbed the R-15 plus has been through aerodynamic tests at Homestead, Florida, a multi-day endurance test at Sebring (but did not participate in the race) and tire tests at Monza whereas the Peugeot and many of the other competitors were at the track for a test day earlier in the year.
Audi, having learned from last year’s Le Mans event, where the new car gave them fits until it was too late, has decided to try and get as much test time prior to 24 Hours of Le Mans and is treating this event as just another test session — and while there is some truth in that — anyone who knows drivers Allan McNish and Dindo Capello understand that they want to win above all else.
While the Peugeot HD 908 that is being run by Team Oreca is hardly the “B” team (compared to the multi winners piuloting the Audi), it features only one factory driver, Stephen Sarzin, who is on load from the Peugeot factory team. The re-designed Audi turned top time in two of three practive sessions but the rule of the day is to prepare of Le Mans — so in qualifying the 20 minute session was used as testing — with two different set-ups used. And the rule of the day is also that Peugeot sits on the pole.
One has to be wondering if either of these two top teams is showing all that they have to the other. Needless to say Audi is intent in wresting back the 24 Hours of Le Mans title that it has held for most of the last decade — until the Peugeot won last year — and won just about everything else after Le Mans too.
Warm-ups will kick-off a full day of racing on Sunday beginning at 8:20 French time.
Panis/Lapierre/Sarrazin (Peugeot) 1m 41.195s
2 Capello/McNish (Audi R15 TDI) 1m 41.632s
3 Primat/Mücke/Fernandez (Lola-Aston Martin) 1m 42.354s
4 Ayari/Andre/Duval (Oreca-AIM) 1m 42.685s
5 Belicchi/Boullion/Smith (Lola-Rebellion) 1m 43.435s
6 Andretti/Jani/Prost (Lola-Rebellion) 1m 44.032s
7 Mansell/Mansell/Mansell (Ginetta-Zytek) 1m 44.475s
8 Ragues/Mailleux/Ickx (Lola-Aston Martin) 1m 44.914s
9 Leventis/Watts/Kane (Acura/Honda) 1m 44.989s
10 Amaral/Pla/Hughes (Ginetta-Zytek) 1m 47.112s
