Peugeot one-two at Spa

Bourdais's car, also driven by Simon Pagenaud and Pedro Lamy in the 1000km, and the other Peugeots were - like the Audis - in full race trim for the upcoming 24 Hours.

"Hats off to the team and the decisions that have been made," Pagenaud told Autosport. "I think it shows the growth of the team in the last few years.

"There was no panic and I was quite happy with the communication because I remained really quiet and calm in the car, and my engineer remained really quiet as well, and he was able to give me information and focus us on what Tom (Kristensen) was doing with the Audi, what Stephane (Sarrazin) was doing with the soft tyres, so we kept chatting and it helped me to remain calm and know that I was in control even though it was confusing on the track.

"I'm really happy, because I prepared myself really well and I was able to be really quiet and stay in control, and that's a big satisfaction for me even though we won."

There were a series of big crashes in the race, which was even red-flagged when a power cut hit the region.

Another Peugeot, that of Sarrazin, Franck Montagny and Nicolas Minassian, finished second a minute and eight seconds off the pace as rain fell in the latter stages.

The Audi of Kristensen, Allan McNish and Dindo Capello was third with Peugeot's Anthony Davidson, Marc Gene and Alex Wurz fourth.

McNish said: "It was extremely difficult on slicks because of the rain that started just before the start. The tires didn’t have grip or temperature.

"It took ages before you could develop any kind of feeling for the car. In principle my stints were good. The team had a good strategy which took us into the lead.

"The rain at the end didn’t help us because you need a lot of downforce in such conditions - which you don’t have with the Le Mans aero trim.

"The wrong tyres cost us second place at the end. However, the team should be confident as far as Le Mans is concerned."