McNish impressed by Audi long-run pace on Le Mans test day

Audi took the best time on Sunday, with Lucas di Grassi lapping the Circuit de la Sarthe in 3m21.375s in the #8 R18 e-tron quattro.

However, while McNish says Audi has cause for optimism, he thinks that a true feeling for where the three LMP1 protagonists stand will only come in qualifying and during the race.

"After the first runs, the drivers were reasonably happy with the balance and the simulations and expectations were in line," the Scotsman told Motorsport.com.

"This is always important because you can get to Le Mans and sometimes it is just not what you expected and it is a different ballpark completely.

"There are early positive signs," continued McNish, who won Le Mans for both Porsche and Audi. "The long run with the #8 car was a good one.

"It wasn't quite what it will be like in the race, in terms of being interspersed with red flags and so forth, but overall it was positive and I think the drivers are happy so far with their progress."

McNish was surprised Audi and Porsche were so close during the test day, which saw the two German giants separated by fractions of a second on their best sector times.

In sector one just 0.016s split the #2 Porsche and #7 Audi; sector two saw 0.020s between the #2 Porsche and #8 Audi, and in the final sector just 0.012s was all that parted the #1 Porsche and #8 Audi.

"I was surprised it was so close and positively surprised we were ahead over a full lap with the pace we had, but I don't think that is a completely true representation of the competition," said McNish.

"Principally, Porsche were fast throughout the day but I'm not sure their long run pace was a true representation.

"Toyota were a bit like they were in Spa, where they looked to be a step behind, but as we saw at Spa they can move forward very quickly."

Porsche beating Audi is painful

Last season, Porsche notched up its 17th win at La Sarthe after a faultless display by the #19 Porsche 919 Hybrid driven by Earl Bamber, Nico Hulkenberg and Nick Tandy.

But McNish said he expects Audi to channel the disappointment of last year's defeat to Porsche as extra motivation for regaining the Le Mans crown.

"You can actually look at it in two ways," described McNish. "The team knows what it is like to win Le Mans, but they also know what it is like to lose Le Mans.

"A defeat is never a bad thing once in a while, it just depends how you take it.

"You just have to look at the car Audi has produced this year to see how much it is up for the challenge of winning it again."

The Scot continued: "You have to remember that Porsche is within the group (VW Group), but that doesn't mean to say they are not competition.

"I remember racing Porsche in the ALMS, when they balanced the performance of P1 and P2 and we were up against the Penske Porsches.

"To have a hard fight with them was great and if you beat them it was more fun, but if you lost it was kind of more painful in a way."