WE’LL PLAY THE DECIDER NEXT YEAR

[Plex]

In 2009 Peugeot took the ‘double’ at the 24 Heures du Mans. In 2010 Peugeot was up against a redoubtable adversary. The decider will be played next year, promised Olivier Quesnel, Director of Peugeot Sport.

Buoyed up by their four consecutive ‘doubles’ and the work undertaken over the last year, Team Peugeot Total arrived serene, fit and determined to take up the challenge of the 2010 24 Heures du Mans. During qualifying the performance of the Peugeot 908 HDi FAP carried them to their fourth pole position in a row. In total Peugeot took the first four places on the starting grid (three works cars and an Oreca Peugeot).

Saturday at 3 o’clock the four cars, headed by the No 3, led for the first three hours. A broken monocoque suspension mounting point eliminated the car of Sébastien Bourdais, Pedro Lamy and Simon Pagenaud at 17h28.

The three remaining Peugeots took their place at the head of the race. But the No 1 car of Anthony Davidson, Marc Gené and Alexander Wurz was held up at nightfall with the replacement of a starter motor-alternator-management system, leaving the No 2 car of Nicolas Minassian, Franck Montagny and Stéphane Sarrazin to lead for the majority of this edition of the 24 Heures du Mans. Early in the morning a broken engine puts them out of the race.

Team Peugeot Total puts their hopes in car No 1, but two hours before the finish the last factory Peugeot, that had pulled back with panache on the leaders, also went out with a broken engine. Finally, the Peugeot Oreca retired for the same reason during the last hour, after having posted the fastest race lap time. “Since its debut, the 908 HDi FAP has never before had such engine problems,” declares Bruno Famin, Technical Director of Peugeot Sport.

For Olivier Quesnel, Director of Peugeot Sport: “We started at a quick pace in the face of a very strong adversary. We were faster than them, but we weren’t as reliable. What counts is the final victory, not the top speed. We have had four consecutive ‘doubles’, and you know that can’t go on forever. Unfortunately our luck turned here. But we did everything we had to, to win. Tomorrow we will analysis what went wrong. We have the right to be disappointed this evening, but tomorrow morning we will get to work, to come back even stronger in 2011. We did what we could, but we were beaten. Peugeot have human values, our continued presence doesn’t depend on sporting results. We have the support of all the major decision makers to push as hard as possible. We showed daring and we showed our values. It is a huge disappointment but we have an easy conscience. The sanction has fallen; it is hard, but certainly justified. Now we must make sure it doesn’t happen again. We lost the return match today, but we will play the decider next year. »

Peugeot-Media

[Red Dawg]

After watching the entire race I believe that the downfall of the Peugeots was the speed.

Audi reengineered the R15 and dubed it the R15 Plus, the main changes were the overheating ang headlight problems that plagued the R15 last year.

The Peugeots were pushed hard, riding the curbs through the chicanes, a tactic that lead to the failure of the first chassis just two and half hours into the race.

It is undeniable that the Peugeots were fastest down the Mulsanne straight but they paid the price with the three remaining cars suffering the same failure.
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[Plex]

Agreed with you 100%..Also the ACO mandated that the power levels were to be reduced by having restrictors placed..Peugeot modified their engines hoping to gain back the power lost...

I found Pedro lamy drove like he did not care in his first stint and you are correct he rode over the curbs really hard.....This is the first time i see Peugeot actually pushed so hard when they knew Audi was no match on the Mulsanne straight..


Talk about disappointment cause they were doing well..Every race they won..4 races with double wins and beating Audi 3 times in a row in 3 confrontations.

2011 new car coming out...