Peugeot Begin With Provisional Pole
Le Mans week on-track action kicked off yesterday with the first official practice session which saw Team Peugeot Total claim the fastest and third fastest times in the dying seconds.
The evening's run was interrupted by two red flag incidents, and was also upset by a brief but heavy thunderstorm that dumped rain over much over the French circuit. Stéphane Sarrazin (N°8 Peugeot 908 HDi FAP) and Nicolas Minassian (N°7) profited from drying conditions late in the session, however, to post their quickest times in a particularly thrilling finale.

Despite the day's successful conclusion, however, it seems that the drivers and the team as a whole are fully aware that Le Mans is a 24-hour race, and not just a question of posting one fast lap, and everything will be thrown wide open again when practice resumes this evening.

The two four-hour test sessions organised on the Wednesday and Thursday evenings prior to the weekend's celebrated 24-hour classic are, along with the preliminary test day organised earlier in the month, the only chance teams get to put the finishing touches to their race preparations round the full 13.629km track. The job list traditionally involves fine-tuning the set-ups of the cars in race-trim, completing final systems and fuel consumption checks, and ensuring all drivers cover the mandatory minimum
number of night-time laps (three). Plus, if conditions and time allow, attempting to secure the best possible position on the grid for the start of Saturday's race (3pm).

And that is exactly what Team Peugeot Total succeeded in doing this evening in an exciting final flurry of top times that saw Stéphane Sarrazin (N°8 Peugeot 908 HDi FAP) post the quickest lap of the day in the dying seconds of the session. In an all out attempt on his final lap, during which he admitted to being very close to the limit, the Frenchman succeeded in toppling his rivals from top spot with an emphatic 3m 26.344s, while team-mate Nicolas Minassian narrowly failed in his bid to join his team-mate
on the front row of the provisional grid.

Minassian and Sarrazin monopolised the driving of their respective cars during the first half of the session before the storm broke. After a short initial run, the two Frenchmen pitted (to fine-tune the set-up in the case of the N°7 car and to make a precautionary rear wheel-bearing change in the case of car N°8) before going back out on fresh rubber. However, despite laps of 3m 29.836s (N°7) and 3m 29.635s (N°8) . which put them 4th and 2nd respectively on the timesheets. Both drivers suggested they could have done better had they not been caught in traffic, while Minassian's second flying lap was thwarted when the red flag was shown for the first time.

With lingering damp conditions forcing the team to switch to wet weather tyres, much of the second half of the session was essentially given over to ensuring that Jacques Villeneuve, Marc Gene, Pedro Lamy and Sébastien Bourdais all completed their three obligatory night-time laps. Then, as the track began to dry, Sarrazin and Minassian threw all their strength into their bid to secure the best possible place on the grid.

First Qualifying Positions:
1. Lamy/Sarrazin/Bourdais (Peugeot 908 HDi FAP), 3min26s344
2. Capello/Kristensen/McNish (Audi R10) + 0,572s
3. Gene/Minassian/Villeneuve (Peugeot 908 HDi FAP), + 1,380s
4. Biela/Pirro/Werner (Audi R10), + 1,957s 5. Luhr/Rockenfeller/Premat (Audi R10), + 3,392s

(From JV-World.com)