“When it rained, we had seen in the pre-test that we were more competitive in the wet, and we were able to take some advantage there. I didn't quite expect to get the three-minute advantage that we finally had, but when the opportunity was presented to us we very gladly took it, I can tell you!

“That was really the turning-point, because they were really on the back foot after that. They had to take the risks; they were the ones who had to throw everything at it; they were the ones that had to make tyre choices that were maybe not quite ideal for what they wanted to do, certainly not on the safety side – and we were the ones that could counteract them.

“Okay, we still had to drive flat-out to make sure that they didn't catch us up, but certainly the ball was more in our court than in theirs' after that. It's definitely easier leading with a three-minute gap than being behind and having a car in front of you going away at four seconds a lap!

“We knew we had to push flat-out to win, and they knew we would be there; they knew very, very clearly that we wouldn't give up at all. That was the nice part about this battle – that it was two manufacturers with some excellent drivers and fantastic teams that were just going at it 100 per cent flat-out with no inch given or taken.

“I really enjoyed it, and I said to our mechanics two or three hours from the end – when the Peugeot was catching us at a rate of four or five seconds a lap and it looked unlikely that we were going to win the race – 'boys, even if we don't win it, we can be very proud of the work we've done, and we can be proud of the result that we will get'. To actually come away having won it just makes it even better.”

by Russell Atkins

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