by Russell Atkins
TO LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW IN FULL: CLICK HERE
To read the interview in full, click here
Allan McNish has warned pre-race favourites Peugeot that Audi has ‘a bit of a job to finish' in this weekend's Le Mans 24 Hours, after he and team-mates Tom Kristensen and Dindo Capello were cruelly robbed of victory in last year's event.
The trio were well on-course for success in the French round-the-clock classic in 2007, having consummately seen off the dual Peugeot challenge to establish a comfortable advantage by the early morning. And then disaster struck…
“At seven o'clock in the morning last year, when we had a three-and-a-half lap lead, I think there were a lot of people writing headlines already at that point saying things like ‘Audi win', ‘McNish wins again',” the Scot said, speaking exclusively to
Crash.net Radio ahead of the 2008 edition of the race dubbed ‘the hardest in the world. “It didn't come around, which was just a very good demonstration of how hard Le Mans is.
“I didn't appreciate what Le Mans was all about until I went there, and the first time I went there I stood at the end of the pit-lane and watched all the cars going out for Wednesday night practice. I was really taken aback by the old grandstands in front, the power of all the cars going past, the history of it and, funnily enough, the
Le Mans film which came flooding back a little bit. Then I understood a bit.
“When I won a year later and stood on the top step of the podium, that's when I realised what it meant in motorsport, and now I think it's also one of the most competitive times for it. It's coming back into its heyday.
