Audi and Peugeot will go head to head for the third straight year for the prestigous Le Mans title.

Audi and Peugeot will go head to head for the third straight year for the prestigous Le Mans title.

LE MANS, Fr — The numbers are in and Peugeot has once again set the top time in qualifying and holds four of the top six positions on the grid for the start of the 77th 24 hours of Le Mans — but the question that has to be on everyone’s mind — and most specifically those of the Peugeot team is do the numbers tell the full story.

While it is true that the No. 8 Peugeot with Stephane Sarrazin at the wheel set the top time in qualifying (3:22.888), and while it is also true that his driving mates, Sebastian Bourdais and Franck Montagny were faster than all of the Audi team except for Allan McNish — Le Mans is a 24 hour race — and this just a small slice of time in the grand scheme of things.

Indeed, for the last two years, when the chips have been down, the Audi has come through with a victory, the most recent occurence at the 12 Hours of Sebring in March. The Peugeot led late in the event, but in a tactical race where strong pit stops were required the Audi was victorious again.

It is also interesting to note that while McNish laid down the best lap for the Aud team — .767 seconds behind the Peugeot —  his team mates were considerably off the pace; Dindo Capello was six plus seconds off Sarrazin’s pace and Tom Kristensen was nearly eigtht seconds off the pace set by the Peugeot.

It seems obvious that the Audi team is not showing it’s complete hand — but it also casts a bit of doubt as to the strength of the new car, its win at Sebring not withstanding. Last year the Peugeot team drove away from the vaunted Audis, runing times in the race that were faster than the Audi qualified.