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They  finished  less  than  two laps behind the winning car, and were joined on the podium by the crew from one of the sister Peugeots which finished 2nd. “This was the best, most enjoyable race of my life in terms of the fun I had from driving and the atmosphere of the whole event,” said Christian. “It is really good to race at the front, to be overtaking between five and ten cars on each lap and to race flat out from beginning to end. Team Total Peugeot did a fantastic job, and our car was for sure the quickest in the dry, but the overnight rain meant that our main competition was able to do the same lap times as us and gain a tactical advantage.” Christian missed out on vital night-time driving experience on Thursday when team mate Zonta  suffered  a  serious  accident  as  the  result  of  being  hit  by  a  slower  car,  so  the Austrian driver’s first taste of this unique challenge came during the race itself. “Not having driven at Le Mans in the dark before was a challenge,” admitted Christian, ”and  on  my  second  stint  one  of  the  LMP2  cars  touched  me  at  the  last  chicane  –  he opened the door, and then closed it suddenly which put me in the gravel. We lost a lap, but we recovered well and then, in the morning, the team put me in the car for 3 hours 17 minutes – that’s 50 laps or 680kms, two grand prix distances. That was four stints in a  row,  with  four  scheduled  pit  stops  and  another  one  for  changing  tyres  due  to  the conditions, so it was pretty busy! The interesting thing is how fast time passes because you are so busy lapping slower cars. Physically I was completely fine, but mentally it was exhausting – you feel empty after that amount of time racing.” The experience of racing for Team Total Peugeot in the 76th running of the Le Mans 24 Hours left Christian very impressed with the event and dismissive of anyone who thinks it is anything less than an out and out race from beginning to end. “It  is  100%  wrong  for  anyone  to  say  that  Le  Mans  is  not  a  race,  that  it  is  just  about survival. That might have been true in the past but now the competition is very tough and I know that in my car we all raced completely flat out from beginning to end. There is no chance to rest, to back off or worry about fuel consumption or reliability. It is like a 24 hour sprint race now.”