Peugeot smash Le Mans lap record

PARIS (Reuters) - Peugeot pulverised the Le Mans lap record and filled the top three places after first qualifying for the weekend’s 24 Hours sportscar race late on Wednesday.

French driver Stephane Sarrazin, partnered by Portugal’s Pedro Lamy and Austrian Alex Wurz in the diesel-engined 908, demolished the existing record by 7.8 seconds with a time of three minutes, 18.513 seconds in the first session.

The remaining two Peugeots were also comfortably inside the lap record, with the three works Audi diesel R10s filling the next three places.

"Even if Audi is six seconds behind Peugeot, the race will be very different and we are expecting Audi to be a strong opponent," Sarrazin told the official Le Mans Web site (www.lemans.org).

Final qualifying ends late on Thursday.

Another trio of former Formula One drivers filled the second slot with France’s Franck Montagny, partnered by Austrian Christian Klien and Brazilian Ricardo Zonta, lapping in 3:18.682.

Canada’s 1997 Formula One world champion Jacques Villeneuve, Spaniard Marc Gene and France’s Nicolas Minassian, were third fastest in 3:20.451.

Audi, with seven-times Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen in fourth place, said they were focusing more on set-up for the race, which starts on Saturday.

"We cannot do a better lap time than Peugeot," .....continued below

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"That is the reason why we focus mostly on the preparation of the race. We haven’t used our best tyres and haven’t got yet the best setting.

"We are sure that we can improve our time, even if Peugeot will probably be in pole position."

Audi have won at Le Mans for the past four years in a row and in seven of the last eight outings. However Peugeot have won all three LMS series races so far this season.

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin; Editing by Peter Rutherford)