McNish: We handed Porsche pole 13 | 06 | 2015

    AUDI LOCKED OUT the top three places in this morning's warm-up ahead of the 83rd running of the Le Mans 24-Hours as Allan McNish (pictured) highlighted the Audi's had essentially 'handed' Porsche the first three places on the grid.

    "We always knew we weren't going to beat Porsche over a single flying lap — they have 8-Megajoules of hybrid power, while we have 4-Megajoules — and that was clear from the get-go," the three-time Le Mans winner explained less than an hour before the start of the race today.

    "It was clear from Silverstone: it was clear from Spa, that the Porsche is faster over a single lap.

    "The 8MJ category class Porsche is in, they can basically pre-charge the hybrid system, and they have a whacking great power boost for one lap. But they can't necessarily recuperate to that same level of power every lap, so therefore it does degrade their performance until they reach a plateau line which will level out over a stint, and the race.

    Related: Audi ready for Le Mans battle

    "Audi, on the other hand, is in a position to maximise our 4MJ every lap throughout the race, and that will clearly become a positive factor for us. Essentially we can run consistently much closer to our qualifying lap time, than Porsche can to theirs.

    "We've got a Porsche 1-2-3, as expected, but they were quicker than I expected in qualifying, to be honest. We didn't think they would have that thee-second buffer to us. I thought it would be about 2s.

    "But this is going to be one hell of a race. I'm actually glad I'll be able to watch it on the screens in the Audi garage than racing in one of the cars."

    Filipe Albuquerque set the pace in 45-min warm-up driving the No9 Audi R18 e-tron Quattro with a 3m19.423s lap, the fastest time set by an Audi so far this week.

    Cambridge's Oliver Jarvis in the No9 Audi was second, more than two seconds behind Albuquerque's effort, with the third Audi of Marcel Fassler third.

    Relate: Scot Ryan Dalziel bids for more Le Mans glory

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    Jim McGill

     

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