Alexandre Premat and Gary Paffett consolidated their status as the best ‘privateer' drivers in their respective Audi and Mercedes teams as they battled to a third and fourth place finish at Le Mans.
For Premat, it was a return to the podium for the first time since his second place finish at Zandvoort in 2007 after an exciting, if often bruising, race where consistency became just as important as speed.
After a tense tussle with Paul di Resta early on, Premat went on to edge Paffett in the closing stages to ensure that he would be standing on the podium for his home race.
"A fantastic weekend! Standing on the podium at my home race makes me very proud. My team and I gave everything in qualifying and the race and were rewarded by third place. My team did everything right in terms of strategy so that I was able to attack at any time during the race."
Paffett, meanwhile, was delighted to finish fourth after being knocked out the first segment of qualifying, the Brit showing his experience with a perfect strategy that saw him running as high as third at one point.
“To end up fourth after starting 16th is a nice result. I was even third in between and almost made it to the podium, but in the end Prémat was a little bit faster. I thank my team for the perfect strategy today.”
![Audi DTM star Alex Premat in pre-season testing action at Oschersleben in early 2008 [pic credit: DTM Media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/423776.jpg)
