Peugeot will start the 75th running of the Le Mans 24 Hours from pole position after the second qualifying day was washed out.
Stephane Sarrazin’s provisional pole time from the first day was not beaten during the second period of qualifying on Thursday. The track never dried during the four hours of track time during the evening.
Sarrazin’s pole means that the Peugeot 908 HDi turbo-diesel prototype remains unbeaten going into the 24 Hours, which begins Saturday. Peugeot won the opening two rounds of the Le Mans Series in Europe and then went faster than the Audi R10s at the Le Mans Test Day at the beginning of this month.
Peugeot Sport boss Michel Barge said: “It is obviously very satisfying to have qualified on pole. Since the green light was given to the 908 program barely 18 months ago, we have taken the successive challenges we have faced one at a time, but we are acutely aware that the build-up is one thing and the race another.”
Peugeot is still playing down its chances in the race, pointing out that the car has not completed a 24-hour race simulation.
“We have never hidden the fact that our objective is 2008 and that anything we can learn—in all domains—between now and then will be welcome experience,” Barge said.
Peugeot still went fastest in the second qualifying period. Sebastien Bourdais, who shares the pole car with Sarrazin and Pedro Lamy, set a best time of 4m01.928s That was more than a second and a half better than the best Audi time.
LE MANS QUALIFYING -2nd ROUND
1 Stephane Sarrazin Peugeot 908 HDi 3m26.344s
2 Allan McNish Audi R10 TDI 3m26.916s
3 Nicolas Minassian Peugeot 908 HDi 3m27.724s
4 Emanuele Pirro Audi R10 TDI 3m28.301s
5 Mike Rockenfeller Audi R10 TDI 3m3m29.736s
6 Emmanuel Collard Pescarolo-Judd 01 3m33.590s
7 Jean-Marc Gounon Courage-AER LC75 3m35.171s
8 Joao Barbosa Pescarolo-Judd 01 3m35.559s
9 Jan Lammers Dome-Judd S101.5 3m35.660s
10 Jamie Campbell-Walter Creation-Judd CA07 3m36.279s
LMP2
1 Adrian Fernandez Zytek 07S/2 3m44.158s
GT1
Christophe Bouchut Aston Martin DBR9 3m50.761s
GT2
Andrew Kirkaldy Ferrari 430 GT 4m04.405s
