There’ll be more than a hint of this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans lingering in the air at Spa-Francorchamps! Although the Belgian track bears little resemblance to Le Mans, the second round of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup (ILMC) will serve as a dress rehearsal for the year’s most important race. For the first time this season, the Team Peugeot Total line-up will feature all three official Peugeot 908s and its nine works’ drivers.
The 2011 Le Mans 24 Hours is now the main focus in everyone’s mind. With just six weeks to go, the recent test day held on 24th April offered Team Peugeot Total the chance to acquire important data necessary to ensure it arrives at Le Mans with the best possible car set-up.
The second race on the ILMC calendar is traditionally seen as an opportunity to fine-tune the team’s preparations. The three Peugeot 908s and the nine drivers therefore have two targets: prepare for Le Mans without taking any risks and pick up ILMC points, as stressed by Olivier Quesnel, Peugeot Sport Director: “The ILMC season got underway with a podium spot at Sebring, after an intense 12-hour race. The conditions were perfect to prepare for our main target of the year, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Since then, the cars have had a lot of track time in private testing. The test day really got us into the mood at Le Mans; competing in this race at Spa-Francorchamps is the best way of checking that our racing reflexes are well and truly in place. The entire team will be at the event. We will be working in the same conditions that we’ll have in Le Mans. The ILMC is an important goal for us; however, we are not going to go after the race win at any cost, just a few weeks away from Le Mans. Above all, we need to make it to the end of the 1,000 kilometres of Spa-Francorchamps with all three cars intact and collect as much information as we can during the race. If we manage that, Peugeot will undoubtedly come away with a serious haul of points.”
Unbeaten here since 2007, Team Peugeot Total was especially successful in 2010, recording a one-two at the 1,000 kilometres of Spa-Francorchamps. The race was won by Sébastien Bourdais, Simon Pagenaud and Pedro Lamy, followed by Franck Montagny and Stéphane Sarrazin in second. This year, the official driver line-ups are identical to those of 2010:
Peugeot 908 No.7 (blue rear-view mirrors):Anthony Davidson, Marc Gené and Alexander Wurz
Peugeot 908 No.8 (white rear-view mirrors):Nicolas Minassian, Franck Montagny and Stéphane Sarrazin
Peugeot 908 No.9 (red rear-view mirrors):Sébastien Bourdais, Pedro Lamy and Simon Pagenaud
In addition to the three official factory cars, there is also a fourth Peugeot racing, run by Team Oreca. The fourth car is last year’s Peugeot 908 HDi FAP, but rebuilt to meet the new 2011 specification. This car is the current championship leader thanks to the race win at Sebring and will run with the driver team of Lapierre-Duval-Panis.
“The Spa-Francorchamps track is one that is very much appreciated by drivers, because it is unique and very demanding in terms of driving", explains Bruno Famin, Peugeot Sport’s Technical Director. “However, we know from experience that it is totally unlike Le Mans in terms of set-up. The track surface is different and the constraints are not the same. We are nonetheless going to adopt a configuration close to the one we’ll use at Le Mans. After the Le Mans test day, we were able to obtain a large amount of data necessary to prepare for Le Mans. We are, therefore, treating the Spa-Francorchamps round more like a dress rehearsal geared towards fine-tuning the team and getting into a racing mindset, where there is no room for error. The line-up will be more or less the same as at Le Mans. We are entering all our three cars. After its extended endurance runs of over 7,000 kilometres, the No.7 car has been rebuilt whereas the Nos. 8 and 9 cars are the same as used at the test day. After all the testing sessions that we have done so far, it’ll be nice for everyone to enjoy the racing atmosphere again, and arrive at the Le Mans 24 Hours prepared, ready to race.”
PEUGEOT SPORT WEB TV
On Saturday 7th May at 1.00pm (Belgian time) there will be a presentation of the race and drivers before the start of the Spa-Francorchamps 1000 km, which will be shown live at 2.00pm on the site www.peugeot-sport.com. The whole race, analysis, commentaries, interviews, the on-board cameras in the three Peugeot 908s as well as life in the pits will be accessible in real time. This Web TV will also be available at Imola (3rd July), Silverstone (11th September) and Zhuhai (13th November), as well as the highpoint of the 2011 season, the Le Mans 24 Hours on 11-12 June. It will be hosted by Alexandre Delpérier who will be accompanied by several guests during the live broadcasts.
In addition to the Web TV, the site www.peugeot-sport.com will be fed with live text during practice for each race. This live text will also be available on the Peugeot Sport iPhone APP. News and live broadcasts will also be available on Twitter:@peugeotsport. There will also be exclusive content on www.facebook.com/peugeot.sport
SCHEDULE FOR THE 1,000 KM OF SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS
Thursday 5 May 201112.20pm – 1.20pm: Free practice2.45pm – 3.10pm: Press briefing at the Peugeot Sport hospitality area4.55pm – 5.55pm: Free practice
Friday 6 May 201111.50am – 12.50pm: Free practice4.20pm – 4.40pm: LMP1/LMP2 qualifying
Saturday 7 May 20119.55am – 10.15am: Warm up2pm – 8pm: 1,000 kilometres of Spa-Francorchamps
ILMC STANDINGS BEFORE SPA:
Manufacturers:1. Peugeot, 27 points2. Audi, 17 points
Teams:1. Team Oreca Matmut, 15 points2. Team Peugeot Total, 12 points3. Audi Sport Team Joest, 9 points4. Rebellion Racing, 6 points
