Peugeot Spa qualifying report

PEUGEOT STOPPED IN ITS TRACKS

At Spa-Francorchamps, after three incident-packed free practice sessions, the unique 20-minute qualifying session was halted just as the official Peugeot cars were on their first flying laps. The 908s will therefore line up for the race tomorrow, Saturday 7 May, at 2.05pm from 13th, 18th and 50th on the start grid.

Red flag penalises the Peugeots

#7 Peugeot Sport Total Peugeot 908: Alexander Wurz, Marc Gene, Anthony Davidson

Photo by: xpb.cc

Marc Gené in the No.7 car, Stéphane Sarrazin in the No.8 car and Simon Pagenaud (No.9) were handed the task of qualifying the three Peugeot 908s on the technical, seven kilometre-long Spa-Francorchamps track.

A few minutes into the session, Marc Gené was the first of the Peugeot drivers to enter the fray, followed by his team-mates shortly afterwards. However, the session was red-flagged six minutes from the end, after one of the LMP1 competitors suffered a heavy crash.

With the safety barriers severely damaged, Race Control decided to abandon the qualifying session. The positions therefore remained unchanged.

Alexander Wurz will start from 13th place on the grid in the Peugeot 908 no.7. Sébastien Bourdais, will lead off in the no.9 car from 18th position. Franck Montagny, meanwhile, will start Saturday’s race in the no.8 from the back of the grid, in 50th position.

The Oreca Matmut team’s Peugeot 908 HDi FAP, driven by Nicolas Lapierre, qualified in 4th position. Loïc Duval will lead off at the start, before handing over to Olivier Panis.

Simon Pagenaud, Pedro Lamy and Stéphane Sarrazin

Photo by: DPPI

Bruno Famin, Technical Director: “As we are positioned at the start of the pit lane, we had to wait until all of rivals had gone out before we could head out onto the track, so as to avoid the traffic. So we had no choice but to wait for a clear window to head out onto the track and obviously, that left us vulnerable to this sort of incident. It’s just part and parcel of racing. The start looks like it will be difficult, we’ll have to steer clear of any collisions, but it is a long race and things will take shape as the race progresses. We are fighters. Above all, we’re here to prepare for the 24 Hours of Le Mans and we are determined to achieve our objective. If we can get through the first six hours of the race without any problems, we shouldn’t be too far away from the front runners!”

Watch the race live on Peugeot Sport’s Web TV

The entire 1,000 Kilometres of Spa-Francorchamps race can be followed live on Peugeot Sport’s web TV. Coverage starts on Saturday 7 May at 1pm (CET). The race itself, analyses, commentary, interviews and onboard camera footage, as well as footage from inside of the pits will be available in real-time. Just go to www.peugeot-sport.com.

-source: peugeot