Story from l'equipe of Audi victory at Paul Ricard.

LE CAMP DU CASTELLET, Fr — Allan McNish and Dindo Capellini drove away from the field after a short battle early in the eight hour Le Mans Series race at Paul Ricard, winning by five laps over the the second place AstonMartin and eight laps over the fourth place Team Oreca Peugeot. After some early dicing the Peugeot spent some time in the pits with a problematic hydraulic jack and never was a factor in the event.

While this bodes well for the Audi team with respect to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, let’s not forget that last year they started the year out with a stunning win over the Peugeot in Sebring but were less than effective at the 24 Hour event in June. While the R15 was having teething problems at Le Mans the Peugeot ran a near perfect race with virtually no problems. At Paul Ricard it appears that Audi, in its typically Tuetonic fashion, also had a near perfect race with nary a problem during the eight hours.

It certainly seems as if the newly christened R-15 plus is an improvement over the car that they brought to Le Mans last year but without the true head-to-head competition of a race it is still difficult to know where the Audi stands with respect to the Peugeot; Certainly Audi has had an opportunity to measure itself against the Peugeot during the race — but that is not information that they, nor on the other side of the card, Peugeot is sharing with anyone external to the two teams.

However, after a year in which their only victory was Sebring, the win at Paul Ricard must at least  buoy their spirits — and as a test session both teams will head back to their respect factory drawing boards to further prepare for the 24 Hourss of Le Mans in June.