Peugeot announce plans

Anthony Davidson and Nicolas Minassian will drive the only car at Silverstone in September.

Davidson, Jordi Gene and Alex Wurz will man one of the cars at the Petit Le Mans in Atlanta at the end of September, with Pedro Lamy, Franck Montagny and Stephane Sarrazin taking charge of the other.

The two cars in Zhuhai, China will be driven by Montgny and Sarrazin, and Sebastien Bourdais and Simon Pagenaud, which means that all nine Peugeot drivers from the Le Mans series will be retained.

The team also revealed that the engine problems that sidelined three Peugeot 908 HDI FAPs during June's Le Mans 24 Hours race were conrod failures.

"With regard to the number three car, we found a quality-related problem concerning the production of the tub at the point where the lower front-right suspension wishbone is attached to the chassis," team director Bruno Famin said.

"It was an undetectable problem that even the sophisticated tools we use to detect ageing or damage to the carbon failed to pick up.

"As far as the engines are concerned, we have had confirmation that all three suffered the same problem: conrod failure, but on different cylinders.

"Further investigation has just revealed that the particularly severe conditions at Le Mans this year led to excessive overload of our V12s. Indeed, the track benefited from a high level of grip, so the engines spent longer at full throttle than we expected."