Peugeot hour ten notes

Both Peugeot 908 HDi FAPs in the top-five at Le Mans

Nicolas Minassian (N°7 Peugeot 908 HDi FAP) and Sébastien Bourdais (N°8 Peugeot 908 HDi FAP) both triple stinted as Saturday changed to Sunday before handing over to Marc Gene and Pedro Lamy respectively, shortly before the ten-hour mark. The efforts of Bourdais took the N°8 car back into the top five after the Franco-Portuguese crewed car had fallen to 13th earlier in the evening, while the Gene/Minassian/Villeneuve machine (3 ) continues to keep the pressure on the N°1 car which is currently 2 , still less than two laps ahead.

Observations

Sébastien Bourdais continues to fight his way back up the leaderboard with the N°8 Peugeot 908 HDi FAP, easing past car N°18 into 6th place in the ninth hour.

He is now looking at 5th place and has car N°15 in his sights as the clock strikes midnight. At 00.16, the Frenchman is on N°15's tail and finally moves back into the top-five on his 135th lap.

Sunday's first driver change in the Team Peugeot Total camp comes at 00.34 when Minassian hands over the commands of car N°7 to Marc Gene after its 143rd lap and after a triple stint for the Frenchman of 2½ hours . The Spaniard rejoins in 3rd place.

11 minutes later, it is the turn of Pedro Lamy to take Sébastien Bourdais' place in the N°8 Peugeot 908 HDi FAP after the Champ Car Champion has also triple stinted, also spending 2½ hours in the driving seat. Bourdais had taken the car's tally to 142 laps. The pit-stop sees the car fall back to 6th overall, but it regains 5th spot two laps later when the N°15 car pits. The team also profited from the pit-stop to change the engine cover, a quick way to change the rear aero settings.

Quotes...

Sébastien BOURDAIS (N°8 Peugeot 908 HDi FAP): "That was a pretty good run. Let's say OK 'plus'. I felt much happier with that stint with some lap times down into the three minutes thirty point somethings..." [best lap: 3m 30.631s]

Nicolas MINASSIAN (N°7 Peugeot 908 HDi FAP): "The engine seems to be responding better in sixth gear down the straight. Day or night isn't a problem for me, although it can be a bit lonely out there in the dark! I didn't have any problems and improved the car's best lap to 3m 31.046s during the stint."

-credit: peugeot