Villeneuve's first time out at Le Mans

Former F1 Champion Jacques Villeneuve and Peugeot Sport left Le Mans pleased with the amount of work they were able to accomplish in the course of the preliminary test day for the forthcoming Le Mans 24 Hours.

The team managed to work through the complete programme planned for its maiden visit to the French venue without suffering the slightest mechanical problem. The N°8 car covered a total of 60 laps, while the N°7 sister car (which Jacques drives) completed 79 laps.

Jacques and Marc Gene, both ‘Le Mans rookies’, got in the mandatory minimum of ten laps demanded by the organisers for all first-time visitors to the circuit.

Villeneuve emerged as the fastest rookie after carefully stepping up his pace: "I started with a couple of laps aimed primarily at learning the track which has got quite a few interesting corners. I then went back out later in the day to do a series of long runs to see how the tyres evolved but my biggest concern was the amount of traffic about. That's something new to me, especially since certain cars were taking some pretty bizarre lines! Sharing a car with other drivers isn't a problem and we weren't looking for the absolute fastest time here so I didn't get involved in any setting up work. My team-mates are far more accustomed to the car than I am!"

Peugeot Sport's other rookie this weekend was Marc Gene: "It's been a very rewarding experience driving here today. The first thing that strikes you is how long the circuit is; it takes so long to cover just one lap! My initial objective was to learn the circuit and find my marks as I completed my ten mandatory laps. I followed the advice not only of my team-mates but also that of my brother Jordi who knows Le Mans well. I was impressed by certain turns, including Indianapolis, and the speeds involved are very reminiscent of Monza."

Fastest Lap Times:
1, Bourdais/Lamy/Sarrazin (Peugeot 908HDi FAP) 3m 26.707s
2, Pirro (Audi R10) 3m 28.277s
3, McNish (Audi R10) 3m 28.406s
4, Boullion (Pescarolo Judd) 3m 28.574s
5, Villeneuve/Gene/Minassian (Peugeot 908HDi FAP) 3m 30.314s