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As one of the three jewels in the Triple Crown of motor sport, the Le Mans 24Hour is generally the one with the most stories to tell and where the most drama unfolds.
Ever since the first race in 1923, Le Mans has been a theatre of passion, joy, pain and disappointment and it's all about to unfold again this weekend at the 76th running of the event.
More than 55 cars and approximately 165 drivers will line up (at 1am NZ time tomorrow) in the hope they'll be able to see their names alongside such illustrious drivers as Jacky Ickx, Jochen Mass, Derek Bell, Tom Kristensen. Not forgetting Kiwis Chris Amon, Bruce McLaren and Denny Hulme in that great one-two finish in the Ford GT40s in 1966.
This weekend's event is shaping up to be the fastest on record when, at the time of going to press, the Peugeot 908 HD of Stephane Sarrazin, Pedro Lamy and Alex Wurz obliterated the old lap record by 7.8 seconds.
The French left the Audis trailing and were joined by their two sister cars of Franck Montagny, Ricardo Zonta and Christian Klien followed by Jacques Villeneuve, Marc Gene and Nicolas Minassian in going under the old record.
"Even if Audi is six seconds behind Peugeot, the race will be very different and we are expecting Audi to be a strong opponent," Sarrazin told the Le Mans 24Hour official website.
Seven-time Le Mans winner Kristensen, who first won in 1997 and six times in a row between 2000 and 2005, was the best of the Audi drivers in the number two R10, nearly six seconds a lap slower than Sarrazin.
Audi released a statement saying they were concentrating on race set up and not out-and-out pace.
"We cannot do a better lap time than Peugeot," said Kristensen. "That is the reason why we are focusing mostly on preparation for the race.
"We haven't used our best tyres and haven't yet found the best setting. We are sure that we can improve our time, even if Peugeot will probably be in pole position."
Audi have won at Le Mans for the past four years in a row and in seven of the last eight outings. However Peugeot have won all three LMS series races so far this season.
Frank Biela, Emanuele Pirro and Marco Werner, who have won the race for the past two years, set the sixth fastest time
Unfortunately, it was the fastest petrol-powered car that had the biggest accident. The Pescarolo driven by Romain Dumas was unlucky enough to crash after hitting oil dropped by the Aston Martin DBR9 driven by Terry Borcheller.
In LMP2, lap records were falling as well with four cars going under the old lap time. The fastest was the Porsche RS Spyder driven by Sascha Maassen, six seconds inside the outright lap record. The only class that didn't actually beat the outright lap record was LM GT1.
