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Today on the Monza circuit, the Peugeot
908 HDI FAP driven by Marc Gené and Nicolas Minassian scored its first
1000-km race victory in the LMS Championship. Peugeot set pole and put
both its cars on the front row and the winning team dominated the 173-lap
race. The second Peugeot Sport Michelin 908 driven by Pedro Lamy and
Stéphane Sarrazin made a fabulous comeback to finish third after having
dropped back to 12th place on lap 66. The Michelin-shod Pescarolo, the 2006
title winner, came home second in the hands of Collard-Bouillon.
In the LM P2 category Michelin shod the Horag and RML cars that filled the
first 2 places. Victory in the GT1 category went to the Luc Alphand
Adventures Michelin team.
Matthieu Bonardel - Circuit and rally competitions manager
"We're obviously very happy with today's
result. It's the fruit of anintense programme with Peugeot. As the
temperature was high we did not risk putting soft tyres on the Peugeots. So,
as with out other partners, we used medium rubber without sacrificing
performance. The Pescarolo team put soft
rubber on one car, and medium on the other. The fantastic comeback by the
Peugeot driven by Lamy-Sarrazin gave the
tyres a real hammering, and it was
a good real-live test for Michelin especially in view of the Le Mans 24
Hours.
Our tyres were competitive, and in terms of consistence we were able to
cover 70 laps (about two and half stints) with the Peugeot with the same set
of tyres without seeing any degradation, The Monza circuit is very demanding
and today's conditions allowed us to validate the behaviour and the safety
of our tyres at high speeds, as the drivers were hitting 300 km/h, as well
as the behaviour of the rear under heavy lateral acceleration.
The Peugeot team was delighted by its cars' balance and they were never
bothered by a lack of grip or degradation. So things are looking good for
the Le Mans 24 Hours and we're happy with the state of our development.
Peugeot's done a good job: and us too!"
Michel Barge - Peugeot Sport Director
"All the Peugeot teams throughout the world are happy with today's result.
It's the reward of intense work especially with our partner Michelin, which
has supplied us with excellent
tyres. It's the first stage and we've now
found more courage to continue. We're going to mobilise everybody to attack
the coming races with the same mindset and the same technical perfection. We
have fantastic drivers, a fantastic team and main partners like Michelin who
are simply outstanding. We've managed to combine our skills and create a
real state-of-the art winning team. It's just awesome!"
Nicolas Minassian Peugeot Sport Driver:
"I'm very happy with today's result. It's great for the whole team. We've
done a lot of work with Michelin and the tyre is a key factor in winning a
race. Today,
Michelin gave us consistent
tyres over two stints. It's
fantastic to get such rubber for the first race. We had no problems and were
able to set the same times at the start of the first stint and at the end of
the second with the same set of tyres!"
April 2007 |
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PEUGEOT AND
MICHELIN SET THE FIRST POLE OF THE SEASON
Today, on the famous Monza circuit in Italy Peugeot and
Michelin set
the first pole position in the opening round of the
2007 Le Mans
Series and put two cars on the front row.
After only six test sessions since the start of the season the two
companies have optimised their collaboration, and today's result is
the fruit of a long process of adaptation.
Michel Barge, the Peugeot Sport director, explains just how
important the work with
Michelin is in the overall performance of
the new Peugeot 908 HDI FAP.
Are you satisfied with the performance of the
Michelin tyres today ?
MB "Yes, I'm delighted as the car seems to have really taken to its
Michelin rubber! Today the Peugeot showed just how much at home it
is with its tyres by setting pole and putting two cars on the front
row. That's what we were hoping for. We're very happy with this
joint result."
Is it a big job adapting the tyres to your
car?
MB: "It's been a long-term job and above all permanent
collaboration. The
Michelin and Peugeot teams work together in a
very coherent way and they're very close to one another. This front
row is the fruit of their successful team work."
How is Michelin involved in your strategy
whether in qualifying or in the race ?
MB: ". By pooling our knowledge, and because we trust and respect
each other, we've managed to obtain very positive results. It's
really teamwork as each one brings his particular skills to the
whole in his speciality, and that gives us the result we've obtained
today. We still have the race to come but
things have got off to a pretty good start."
Why have you chosen to fit
Michelin tyres on
your car?
MB: "For their performance, because this manufacturer has an
enormous amount of racing experience and because we share the same
values in racing.
Michelin and Peugeot try to find the best package
possible. A car is a whole; it's a chassis, an engine, aerodynamics
and of course tyres. In battling with our rivals we can't be good in
some areas and not in others; we have to be excellent everywhere.
The whole has to be better than the sum of its parts, and I think
we've got it right!"
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