Going public

Peugeot's WEC ace Paul di Resta has only ever driven Le Mans’ Circuit de la Sarthe under race conditions – until now. JAMES ATTWOOD buckles up

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Having contested the 24 Hours of Le Mans five times, Paul di Resta has completed numerous laps of the Circuit de la Sarthe - but none quite like this. That’s apparent when he steers his Peugeot onto the 8.47-mile track’s long Mulsanne Straight and is confronted by an intimidating line of traffic.

Not the sort of traffic di Resta is used to encountering in his 9X8 hypercar, though: instead of rumbling GT3 cars and privateer LMP2 racers, there are numerous SUVs and hatchbacks, a succession of vans and even a bloke on an e-scooter. Add in the fact di Resta is behind the wheel of a Peugeot e-3008 and it’s apparent this will be, by some margin, the slowest lap of Le Mans he has ever undertaken.

Much of the Circuit de la Sarthe still consists of public roads, so for most of the year the Mulsanne Straight serves as route départementale D338, while Indianapolis and Arnage corners are merely curves on the D140 and D139.

All of that means anyone can experience driving key parts of the circuit. But what is it like to race on these roads? To find out, we've roped in the Peugeot driver and former Formula 1 racer as a guide. The e-3008 isn’t quite as exciting a form of transport as the 9X8 would have been, but it’s perfectly amiable for this purpose. Plus it’s road-legal and has more than one seat.

Our lap doesn't start on the circuit’s main straight, since that’s part of the permanent Bugatti track. Instead we begin on the Boulevard des Italiens, which runs behind the huge main grandstands, and di Resta barely recognises the place. “I'm normally only here during race week, when it’s really hard to move for people,” he says. “It can take 30 minutes to get from here into the track.”