After one-two success for the Peugeot 908 at Spa, it was the R18 TDi’s turn to take the spoils at Le Mans by a margin of just 13.854 seconds. The decider consequently promises to deliver a thrilling show at the Italian venue which hasn’t hosted an endurance race in 27 years.

Peugeot has entered two 908s for the Imola 6 Hours, one for Davidson/Bourdais (who will be sharing a car for the first time) and another for Montagny/Sarrazin, which means the French make will be represented by four ‘sprinters’. The Le Mans-winning Audi R18 has earned a peaceful retirement, so Audi has had to build two new cars for the weekend. A new aerodynamic package has been developed for the Italian race and Allan McNish has been given the green light to race in the N°2 car with Imola rookie Tom Kristensen. Last weekend’s Nüburgring 24 Hours winner Timo Bernhard (with Porsche) will team up with Marcel Fässler in the N°1 Audi.

Spurred on by its ‘win’ in the petrol prototype class at Le Mans, Rebellion Racing will have two Toyota-engined Lolas in Italy for Prost/Jani and Belicchi/Boullion who can look forward to further jousting with the Pescarolo Team N°16 Pescarolo-Judd (Collard/Tinseau/Jousse) and the N°15 OAK Racing car.

In the LM GTE Pro class, the Ferrari 458 Italia will be out to take the spoils on home ground. However, the factory BMW M3s – with Pedro Lamy now on board – and a raft of Porsches have no intention of making life easy for the Italian machines. The Le Mans 24 Hours LMP2-winning Zytek-Nissan stands out as the car to beat in its class, but Greaves Motorsport can expect stiff opposition from Level 5 Motorsport, Strakka Racing, Signatech-Nissan, RML and OAK Racing (with Alex Prémat confirmed in the N°49 car).

A field of 49 cars is down to start at Imola, although Oreca-Matmut, Hope Racing and Gulf Middle East have all decided to give the event a miss.

Audi, Ferrari, Imola 6 hours 2011, Peugeot