Photo : Pascal SAIVET - www.visionsport-agency.com

13/24 - Thursday, 13th December: The honuor roll of former Peugeot drivers.
Released following the announcement of the unexpected withdrawal of Peugeot at the beginning of the year, former Peugeot drivers have excelled in the 2012 endurance racing season.

This calibre of driver suddenly made available was a benefit some teams, while other drivers had already made the choice to leave pior to the announcement of Peugeot's withdrawal. Alexander Wurz, twice winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Austrian had announced his intention to join Toyota in late 2011. Not forgetting the two other former Peugeot drivers in a Toyota TS030 Hybrid at the 24 Hours of Le Mans: Anthony Davidson and Stéphane Sarrazin.

Stéphane Sarrazin and Nicolas Minassian in LM P2: Besides Toyota and Le Mans, the first had success in LM P2 in 2012 with Starworks Motorsport (Honda HPD ARX-03b) and Sébastien Loeb Racing (Nissan Oreca). He took the first in class in the World Championship, and the second on the second step of the podium in his first European Le Mans Series race at Le Castellet. With Stéphane Sarrazin that day was another Peugeot refugee Nicolas Minassian, who in turn contributed to the victory in 2012 of Pecom Racing in LMP2 at the 6 Hours of Bahrain.

Marc Gené, Nicolas Lapierre and Loïc Duval, the other winners: First Spaniard to win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2009, Marc Gené was reserve driver for Audi in 2012. He replaced the unfortunate Timo Bernhard, injured at Sebring, and won the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps WEC with Romain Dumas and Loïc Duval. The latter won the 12 Hours of Sebring in 2011, driving the Peugeot 908 HDi FAP of Team Oreca Matmut, with Nicolas Lapierre, and with team-mate Alexander Wurz had three wins with the Toyota TS030 Hybrid (Sao Paulo, Fuji and Shanghai).

Jean-Philippe Doret

Photo: SHANGHAI (REPUBLIC OF CHINA) SHANGHAI INTERNATIONAL CIRCUIT, 6 HOURS OF SHANGHAI, Oct. 28, 2012. Winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans with TWR-Porsche (1996) and Peugeot (2009), Alexander Wurz will seek a third victory in 2013 in La Sarthe with a third different manufacturer, Toyota.