Audi: Peugeot taken headlines...and pressure.

Tom Kristensen insists he is pleased to not be entering the Le Mans 24 Hours as the favourite for once this year, suggesting that by stealing all of the headlines, Peugeot have also taken away from Audi all of the pressure.

The man nicknamed 'Mr Le Mans' for his record-breaking success in the legendary French round-the-clock classic - emerging victorious in seven of the last eleven years - was agonisingly robbed of victory in the 2007 edition, after a problem with the rear wheel sent team-mate Dindo Capello flying off the road at around 7am on the Sunday morning. After dominating proceedings for the best part of three-quarters of the race, Kristensen acknowledged the retirement had been something of a bitter pill to swallow.

"Last year was a very hard hit," he confirmed, speaking exclusively to Crash.net Radio. "We felt as both a team and drivers we had a perfect race. We were really dominating, and had an almost four-lap lead when we had a small issue - a small issue we had actually paid attention to. Suddenly we lost everything because of a lost left rear wheel for Dindo at high-speed. It was a big blow to us."

With his unrivalled tally of Le Mans triumphs, Kristensen knows better than anyone what it takes to succeed at La Sarthe, in the race frequently referred to as 'the hardest in the world'. He is also in little doubt that it is far more than just a race.

"It's a lot of things that makes Le Mans special," the regular DTM front-runner argued. "Everyone knows it when they have been here, and everyone notices different aspects, but obviously it's 24 hours, running through the night, on a long circuit which is comprised of long straights, very twisty bends, blind corners and fast ones like the Porsche Curves...

"This is a racing festival, and that it has been able to run since 1923 shows how legendary the tradition is. Everybody that goes knows the corner names, and everywhere you just feel the tension of this unique atmosphere which I, as a racing driver, have never felt anywhere else."

That being so, Kristensen would dearly love to add the 2008 laurels to his already burgeoning CV. Conventional wisdom suggests whilst Peugeot may have the faster car, Audi are likely to have the more reliable one - something that could be crucial in what is the world's ultimate test of endurance.

Though the 40-year-old does not dispute such claims, he does stop short of making any predictions, adding that the test day earlier this month was so wet it was purely academic trying to draw any conclusions at all.

"That does make it more of an unknown," he reflected. "There was an hour-and-a-half of dry weather, but after 20 minutes only a few cars had been out on slicks. We personally didn't go out on slicks for a full lap, but then there was the red flag [for Marc Gen?'s crash], which shows the speed of the Peugeot but it also shows that they are fragile in terms of mistakes and pressure.

"Then it rained for the rest of the day, and in the rain it looked like everyone was a bit closer in terms of lap times. Impressed by Peugeot's speed? Yes. Surprised? No.

"Always I try to keep in mind to motivate our own performance, and that means we have to do the best with what we've got, drive as fast as possible and make no mistakes with the tactics or in the pit-lane, where we know we have a really good crew who have been working really hard in the LMS races this year. They have really proved themselves in that any problems Allan [McNish] and Dindo had - which have sometimes been quite big in terms of accidents - they never spent more time than 15 minutes to more-or-less completely rebuild the car.

"Any predictions tend to be wrong, but for sure we have seen that Audi built a car three years ago which has never had any terminal problems in terms of the engine, reliability of the gearbox, differential or driveshaft - all things which keep the car going. We have had little issues, but they have mainly been with the TDi, the electronics or punctures, which can happen with stones or things like that.

"Audi's approach has been reliability first, and it looks like Peugeot have taken a more aggressive approach. In that sense yes, they have the one-lap speed, but if I run 100 metres flat-out, I can't run a marathon like that - I normally get a little bit tired towards the end, and that is where it all evens out. It could be a very interesting race."

That it certainly could, and the man from Hobro is clearly in confident spirits, even if he doesn't admit it. Though confidence can be a dangerous thing at Le Mans, with Audi having triumphed in seven of the last eight outings there and Kristensen owed some payback after what happened to him, McNish and Capello last year, the #2 machine from Ingolstadt would certainly have to make good odds, at the very least.

"I am from a very local area in Denmark where we keep our heads down and look forwards," he concluded. "We don't make any predictions which might be good or bad, but when you drive an Audi - and obviously being with two great team-mates in Allan and Dindo - there's always a great chance. What we are missing is that Allan needs a victory with Audi and Dindo has grey hair, so it would be nice to give him a victory soon!

"Le Mans always gives you a lot of motivation when you come here. It takes a year to build up to it every time, and the motivation to overcome the race itself is strong. This year we would like to do better than we did last year; we would like to fulfil our potential from last year.

"Peugeot have built a new car - they are really fast, and they have taken the headlines away from us, which is great because that also puts the pressure on them. McNish, Capello and myself haven't won the race as a team, and this is what we want to achieve. We gel very well together, we enjoy each other's company and we will go out and race really, really hard.

"Hopefully we can win one day in that way, because this is what we want to do - enjoy our racing, enjoy being surrounded by great mechanics and great engineers and then just be able to go hard in our race car, and the Audi always allows us to do that. Fingers crossed that we will be fast enough, not have any issues and be there at the end."

by Russell Atkins at Le Mans

TO LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW IN FULL: CLICK HERE