Following last weekend’s 8 Heures du Castellet, the teams have resumed their respective test programmes ahead of June’s Le Mans 24 Hours. Peugeot was in action at Paul Ricard HTTT this week, while Aston Martin will travel to Spain at the beginning of next month…

Peugeot Sport stayed on at Le Castellet for a 30-hour simulation run with two 908 HDi FAPs. The test was essentially aimed at working on the French car’s reliability, but the team also profited from its stay in the south of France to simulate a variety of mechanical and electrical problems… and fine-tune their emergency procedures.
There was little to report on the tyre front, however, since Le Castellet has very little in common with the full Le Mans circuit. The 908 prototypes ran on medium compound tyres throughout, even at night when the temperature dipped to as low as 3°C.
Peugeot is delighted with its work, and its next test is scheduled for late-April, again at Le Castellet. The programme will focus on testing and validating rain tyres for Le Mans before Peugeot Sport travels to Belgium for the Spa 1,000km.
The factory Aston Martin team has not entered the second round of the 2010 Le Mans Series. Instead, the Gulf-liveried Lola-Aston Martin will go to Motorland (Spain) on May 12-13 to prepare for Le Mans.

Meanwhile, the factory Aston Martin team was in California for last weekend’s Grand Prix of Long Beach, the second round of the American Le Mans Series. This narrow street circuit isn’t ideally suited to such bulky LMP1 prototypes, but the N°009 Lola-Aston Martin started from pole position and came close to claiming the race which was eventually won by the Patron Highcroft Racing car by a whisker.

Aston Martin, Peugeot