This evening’s thrilling qualifying session saw Team Peugeot Total’s Stéphane Sarrazin put the N°8 Peugeot 908 HDi FAP (Sarrazin/Montagny/Bourdais) at the sharp end of the grid for the Le Mans 24 Hours for the third year in a row. Saturday’s race will in fact start with four Peugeot’s sitting on the top five places, with the Pescarolo-run N°17 car joining the three factory machines at the top of tonight’s order.

For the first time in the history of the Le Mans 24 Hours, in its modern-day format at least, teams benefited from just one qualifying session this year in their respective bids to claim first place on Saturday afternoon’s grid. But while nobody would shun the honour of starting from pole position, the combined effects of the cancellation of the traditional preliminary test day and the wet conditions which marked the majority of Wednesday evening’s free practice meant that teams still had a certain amount of work to get through in dry conditions before being able to think in terms of topping tonight’s timesheets.

The principal mission facing the crews of the three Team Peugeot Total Peugeot 908 HDi FAPs during this evening’s four-hour run was to gather key information about the different compounds of slicks they have available for this weekend’s race, and also to put the finishing touches to the set-ups of their respective machines.

"Given the all the work we still had to get through this evening, it was only after 11.30pm that I gave Stéphane the green light to go for a time. I told him he had three laps to try, and he took five, but I have no intention of holding that against him!" said Peugeot Sport Director Olivier Quesnel after the session. "It’s obviously nice to see four Peugeot 908 HDi FAPs in the top-five places tonight, but we mustn’t forget that this was just qualifying. The only thing that counts for me is Sunday afternoon’s result. Even so, I would like to say a big bravo to Stéphane and to all the drivers, as well as to everyone in the team."

"It’s a great result for all the team, but Franck, Sébastien and I worked first and foremost on the race set-up this evening. It was only when we were fully satisfied on that front that we tried for a time at the end," observed Sarrazin. "Our objective now is to get away to a good start on Saturday afternoon and put in a good race."