'This was a day on the dark side of a racing driver's life', Christian Klien commented after what had been a character building 24 hours. 'It wasn't to be obviously. We had the pace to win. But this strange incident in the first hour was a massive blow. It was like football when you step onto the pitch and you are already 0-5 behind. Halfway through the race we encountered a few technical issues. Altogether we lost 53 minutes or 14 laps more in the pitlane than the winning car. In the end we were 13 laps behind. So everyone can do the maths what we could have achieved today without those problems. But there are no ifs and whens in motorracing. We have not lost this race on the track but in the pitlane.'
The start
The 24 hours of Le Mans started in the worst possible fashion for Christian Klien and his Peugeot crew. The number 7 car with Pedro Lamy on zhe wheel who had started from third position got involved in an accident with Pescarolo driver Jean-Christoph Boullion at 3:41 pm at his first pit stop. The two cars collided and the Portuguese driver could make it out on the track. As a consequence his rear tyre blew up on his out lap and the pieces of rubber and remains of the carcasse damaged the bodywork of the car heavily. The safety car was deployed and Lamy came back into the pits where repair work began on the underbody, suspensions and the oil cooler. For 26 minutes the car was stationary. Without having driven the car yet, Christian Klien found himself and his car in 51st position of 55 cars.
'It was a very unfortunate misunderstanding', Klien explained. 'The pit lane was terribly crowded. Pedro was ready to go when Boullion came in. Our crew wanted to hold Pedro for one more second, but somehow the radio call did not get through. Then the Pescarolo hit him on the way out. It was bitter to watch the scene from the wall. Nicolas Minassian took over from Lamy 7 laps down from the leading sister car of Bourdais/Sarazzin/Montagny and started working his way through the backmakers. At 5:26 Christian got into the car in P29, still 7 laps down. On his first flying lap he was almost 2 seconds quicker than the leading pack.
Catching up quickly
The following hours showed the true potential of the Peugeot. While the sister cars were fighting head to head with the Audis, Klien and his team mates worked their way up, always doing the lap times of the leading cars or better.
After six hours the Austrian's car was lying in 17th position and even managed to get one lap back from the leaders. After nine hours, they had made in back into the top ten. Nicolas Minassian did a 3:24,628 in the late hours which was the fastest lap of the race at that point. After midnight, the crew chiefs decided to let Christian do quadruple stints. He stayed in the cockpit for a complete three hours without driver change. He put in one fast lap after another and brought the car back to the pits already in 7th position, still six laps behind the leaders.
More trouble at night
The race had just passed the halfway mark when bad luck struck again. First the #7 Peugeot lost a few minutes when the mechanics could not get the car's nose off when it had to be changed. Three further unscheduled pit stops followed in the next hour to change a few troublesome parts: underbody, right front suspension, pedal box and more. Consequently the Peugeot 908 was now 13 laps behind the leading car of Wurz/Brabham/Gene. Christian Klien commented while sitting in P12: 'When you are running three works cars it is more than likely that one of them is going to run into trouble. Today this car was us, as it seems. And when you are 13 laps behind, all you can do is hope for some trouble brewing at the front.'
Catching up - part 2
After this second blow to their ambitions the car seemed to be running pretty smoothly. Nicolas Minassian and Christian Klien were putting in record laps in their respective stints. At noon the Peugeot #7 was lying in sixth position again. 'We were going flat out. After the three hour stints during the nights we switched to 90 minute turns in the morning. The tyres were durable and the car felt really good. The only problem was my windscreen which was always very dirty. This was quite unpleasant, particulary as there were a few moments of light rain', Klien said. In the final hours of the race the #7 also served as a rolling test bed for the other two leading works cars.
Analysis
Christian Klien/Nicolas Minassian/Pedro Lamy finished in sixth position and rounded off a historic success for Peugeot, who managed to break Audi's dominance at Le Mans after years and years of trying. It was Peugeot's first victory after 16 years on the Sarthé. For Christian Klien it was bitter sweet experience: 'I feel proud and disappointed at the same time.', he stated. 'We had a massive chance to win this race today. But for a victory at Le Mans, there is no room for error. Everything needs to go right. The result also shows the great racing spirit of Peugeot. There was no French driver in the winning car, but three of them in the runner up car. This only about racing and nothing else, which is great. Hats off to Alex, David and Marc. They drove a superb race. To win at Le Mans is every racing driver's dream. For me personally, life goes on in my regular Formula one job pretty quickly. O only have a few hours to relax and get over the disappointment, as Silverstone is already right around the corner.