PSA Denies Raikkonen, Loeb Presence in Le Mans

No, Kimi Raikkonen and Sebstien Loeb will not be making an appearance in the 24 Hours of Le Mans race, at least not as far as the 2011 edition of the famous endurance race is concerned. Amid speculation that the two rally men are fancying a Le Mans programme this year, PSA motorsport director Olivier Quesnel denied the news completely.

“How could this be?” asked rhetorically Quesnel, according to Autosport. “We already held a press conference to announce the drivers for our cars at the race.”

“No, they will not race at Le Mans this year, Sebastien already said this at our season launch last month,” added the Frenchman.

The first rumors surrounding such a prospect surfaced in the media late last week, during the season opening round in Sweden. According to the media speculation, a Red Bull-backed Peugeot 908 would have been the entry for the aforementioned duo, with a third driver to be announced at a later date.

If this would have been Loeb's third presence in the Le Mans race – he used to do two more outings in the event, highlighting a 2nd place overall with Pescarolo back in 2006 – Raikkonen would entered his first ever Le Mans 24 Hours race.

The rumors started in the first place because this year's Le Mans race doesn't interfere with the WRC calendar, which means both drivers would have had no problem entering the race with Peugeot (since they don't have any other commitments elsewhere).